UK plans to recognise Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes action

LONDON (Reuters): Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday Britain was prepared to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly unless Israel takes a number of steps to improve life for Palestinians.

Britain, if it acts, would become the second Western power on the U.N. Security Council to do so after France last week, reflecting Israel’s deepening isolation over its conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza, where a humanitarian disaster has set in and the Palestinian death toll has risen above 60,000.

Starmer said Britain would make the move unless Israel took substantive steps to allow more aid to enter Gaza, made clear there will be no annexation of the West Bank and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a “two-state solution” - a Palestinian state co-existing in peace alongside Israel.

“The Palestinian people have endured terrible suffering,” Starmer told reporters. “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.”

Starmer said his government would make an assessment in September on “how far the parties have met these steps”, but that no one would have a veto over the decision.

He took the decision after recalling his cabinet during the summer holidays on Tuesday to discuss a new proposed peace plan being worked on with other European leaders and how to deliver more humanitarian aid for Gaza’s 2.2 million people.

Successive British governments have said they will formally recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions.

With warnings from international aid agencies that people in Gaza are facing starvation, a growing number of lawmakers in Starmer’s Labour Party have been asking him to recognise a Palestinian state to raise pressure on Israel.

The issue came to the fore after President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognise Palestine as a state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

At the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, when Starmer was the opposition leader, he fully backed Israel’s right to defend itself. But his stance has shifted over the years to a tougher approach to Israel, especially since his election as prime minister just over a year ago.

His government dropped the previous government’s challenge over arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has suspended some weapon sales to Israel.

Last month, Britain sanctioned two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians.