The new direction for the UK’s foreign policy regarding the Middle East came shortly after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with US President Donald Trump in Scotland.
Just a day later, on July 29, Starmer interrupted his cabinet ministers’ summer break for an emergency meeting, after which the policy turnaround was presented in London.
In a statement, Starmer, the leader of the center-left Labour Party, said the UK could recognize Palestine as a state as soon as September unless Israel’s government moved toward meeting certain conditions, including a ceasefire, not annexing the occupied West Bank and committing to a long-term peace process.
Britain believes “statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people,” Starmer said. His government is using the recognition of a Palestinian state as a means of political pressure to push forward the so-called two-state solution.
Until now, the UK has delayed its recognition of a Palestinian state in part because of the country’s own historical responsibility. Between 1920 and 1948, Britain was the administrative power in Palestine, which had previously been part of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1917, the British government issued a statement — the Balfour Declaration, named after then-British Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour — that said it supported the idea of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. The declaration was made without considering the rights of the Arab majority population there and the move went on to spark violence between local Arabs, immigrant Jews and the British administration.
Two years after David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, announced the establishment of the State of Israel, Britain recognized the country. But when it came to recognizing Palestine as a state, the UK regularly said that this had to be part of a peace deal. This was also strategic: Britain didn’t want to jeopardize its relationships with the US or Israel.
But this historical position has come under ever more pressure. The ongoing conflict in Gaza — fighting there began in October 2023 after an attack on Israel by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 — has sowed serious internal divisions in the UK.
In cities like London, Manchester and Glasgow, protesters regularly take to the streets in huge demonstrations calling for an end to the current conflict and Israeli occupation.
Labour Party supporters favor Palestinian state
These popular protests are supported by many local trade unions as well as left-leaning political organizations, such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War group (the latter also opposes Europeans fighting in Ukraine).
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has also called for an end to weapons deliveries to Israel. In late July, Corbyn announced he was starting his own political party “to take on the rich and powerful.” Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party in 2020 after he said a report into antisemitism inside the party under his leadership had been exaggerated for “political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”
According to a YouGov survey undertaken on 24-25 July, around two-thirds of Labour supporters agree with the UK government’s decision to recognize Palestine. Of the general public, the YouGov poll found that 45% think it’s a good idea.
In the British Parliament, 221 members have signed a letter calling for recognition of Palestine. Among the signatories were many Labour Party members. Ministers in Starmer’s cabinet have also pushed in this direction.
Starmer appears to have given in to the pressure, at least partially. But he reiterated the UK’s support for Israel and demands on Hamas in the government statement on Tuesday. “We have been unequivocal in our condemnation of those evil attacks, and our support for the right of the State of Israel to self-defence. Hamas must immediately release all the hostages, sign up to an immediate ceasefire […] and commit to disarmament.”
At the same time though, he was critical of the Israeli government’s military offensive and its policies in Gaza. “Now, in Gaza, because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand, images that will stay with us for a lifetime. The suffering must end,” he told journalists.
Agencies warn of starvation in Gaza
While the United Nations and leading aid agencies have repeatedly warned of the increasing risk of starvation in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted there is no hunger in the enclave.
The most recent figures from the health authorities in Gaza indicate that more than 60,000 people have died in Gaza as a result of the Israeli military offensive. Almost half of the dead were women and children.
The Gaza health authorities are controlled by Hamas, which administers the enclave. However, the death toll is considered broadly reliable, including by the Israeli military, which has used the numbers in its own briefings. Israel has denied international journalists entry into Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s siege, meaning DW has not been able to independently verify the death toll. A number of recent studies however, suggest it may actually be an undercount.
Starmer’s decision to recognize Palestine may also be a reaction to the fact that France plans to do the same during the UN General Assembly in early September. As French President Emmanuel Macron explained in Paris late last week, France wants to revitalize a peace process there and put international weight behind a two-state solution.
Trump says Starmer ‘rewarding Hamas’
Unlike Macron, though, Starmer is only holding out the threat of recognition if Israel fails to move toward a ceasefire. Observers have argued that it’s more of a balancing act for the UK, something between taking a moral stand and taking careful account of foreign relations with the US.
Trump said he and Starmer had not, in fact, discussed a Palestinian state while in Scotland. Reacting to Starmer’s announcement on Tuesday, Trump said, “I’m not going to take a position, I don’t mind him taking a position.” But later on, during his flight back to the US, Trump told reporters that Starmer was “rewarding Hamas.”
Israel’s Netanyahu has described Starmer’s plan as “appeasement towards jihadist terrorists.”
Currently, 147 out of 193 UN member states recognize Palestine as a state. However, what counts as a state is still disputed with different methods and prerequisites used to identify countries. Even so, several of the conditions usually accepted as necessary for a functioning state are presently not in place for Palestine. That includes a unified government, control over borders and security and clearly defined territory.
In the statement announcing his government’s change of course, Starmer emphasized that the Hamas group must “accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza” in the future.
This article was originally written in German.
