Sir Keir Starmer has today announced that the United Kingdom will recognise a Palestinian state.
The first act of any Palestinian “state” recognised by Britain will be to hold Jewish hostages in the dungeons of Gaza, nearly two years after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The UK has decided to recognise statehood without demanding the release of the hostages as a condition. It has not required that Palestinian leaders stop radicalising schoolchildren to murder. It has not required that they cease their “pay-for-slay” stipends paid to terrorists and their families depending on how many Jews they kill. Britain has not even demanded that a Palestinian state recognise Israel as the Jewish state.
Instead, the only conditions have been placed on Israel — the victim of Hamas’ pogrom — not on the perpetrators. Recognition is thus being used as a punishment for Israel and a reward for Hamas terrorism.
This decision also makes a mockery of the standard set by the Montevideo Convention, which requires that to be recognised as a state, an entity must have a permanent population, defined territory, effective government and the capacity to engage in relations with other states. The current Palestinian leadership meets none of these requirements.
What Britain intends to recognise, therefore, is not a state, but a terror enclave.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is Sir Keir Starmer’s Neville Chamberlain moment. Apparently the promises to do ‘everything possible’ to bring the hostages home meant nothing. The Government could make recognition conditional on the return of the hostages — at the absolute very least — but Sir Keir refuses even to do that, so urgent is the need to delight terrorists and their supporters, while betraying the families of the hostages whom he has looked in the eye and earnestly pledged to help.
“The message could not be clearer: murder, rape, kidnapping and indoctrination are legitimate paths to diplomatic gain — Hamas leaders have called this moment ‘the fruit of 7th October’. Additional sanctions against Hamas will have zero impact and do nothing to blunt the delight amongst Hamas’ leaders. This is not statesmanship or peacemaking; it is the deliberate betrayal of those taken hostage and slain on 7th October 2023 and a reward that has delighted Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and their supporters.
“This morally reprehensible decision will surely prolong war by encouraging those terrorists to continue to hold hostages and to perpetrate further terrorism because this act of recognition is a declaration that the UK rewards violence against Jews. Polling shows that all but a small minority of British people recognise that and do not support this shameful betrayal of this country’s values.
“We fear that our Government’s virtue signalling will have an impact here at home too, as Islamist terrorists around the world digest the lessons from this betrayal. History shows that appeasement eventually brings the aggressor to your door.”
