Pressure mounts on Starmer to recognize Palestinian state

Parliamentary pressure is mounting on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to follow in the footsteps of French President Emmanuel Macron and recognize a Palestinian state. A majority of lawmakers on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee declared Friday that Britain should immediately do so.

Starmer faces fresh calls from Labour Party ranks to take the step amid claims of mass starvation in Gaza and after France indicated it would do so in September.

In a new report, Labour and Liberal Democrat members of Parliament on the select committee argue that statehood is an “inviolable right” that should not be conditional. However, their two Conservative Party colleagues said that “Palestine” should only be recognized as part of a long-term political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, echoing the Labour government’s position.

Starmer has previously expressed opposition to Britain’s unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. However, a majority in his party, which won decisively in the July 2024 elections, supports this step and other measures against Israel following the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot defended Macron’s decision, arguing it would thwart Hamas’s aspirations.

“Hamas has always ruled out a two-state solution. By recognizing Palestine, France goes against that terrorist organization. It’s backing the side of peace against the side of war,” Barrot claimed in a post on X on July 25.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “strongly” condemned Macron’s decision “to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre.”

“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became,” Netanyahu stated. “A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel—not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel. They seek a state instead of Israel.”

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday that recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.

“A Palestinian state that does not recognize Israel means that the problem will not be resolved,” Tajani told a meeting of his conservative Forza Italia party in Rome.

Germany is not planning to do the same in the short term and said its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” towards a two-state solution, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.

“Israel’s security is of paramount importance to the German government,” said the spokesperson. “The German government therefore has no plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the short term.”

Originally published by Israel Hayom.