Will the UK follow in France’s footsteps and recognise a Palestinian state?published at 14:02 British Summer Time
Jeremy Bowen
International editor
The destruction Israel has wreaked on Gaza
will take years for the Palestinians to get over – but it will also take years
for Israel to get over the damage it has caused
to its moral standing.
The perceptions and the way that people look at Israel – about its moral standing – have changed, and there’s increasing realisation of that within Israel itself.
Two Israeli human rights organisations came out and said that Israel was committing genocide yesterday and today there’s a Cabinet meeting in the UK where they will be talking about Britain potentially recognising a Palestinian state.
Keir Starmer appears to be moving towards that idea as he’s facing a great deal of pressure within the Labour Party.
Of course, there is no Palestinian state; it is an aspiration.
But it is also something that has been the policy of the UK and many other countries – including the US – for many years.
The realities on the ground mean the two-state solution has effectively become meaningless – because of the expansion of Jewish settlements, the opposition of the Israeli government, and the way that the territory where a Palestinian state would physically exist has been eroded and taken by the Israelis for themselves.
Even this morning, there’s been talk in the Israeli papers of Israel annexing – in tandem with pressure from the extreme right – the West Bank, which is also territory the Palestinians want for their state.
However, there is now the question of how you take a concrete step to try to make the two-state solution real.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has decided that the way to do that is through recognition. The French and British have been discussing this for months at the diplomatic level.
So the question is whether Britain – perhaps at the UN General Assembly in September – will join with the French to do it.