‘Shame on you,’ ex-hostage tells Starmer over Palestinian state bid

Former Hamas hostage Emily Damari said on Wednesday that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s intention to recognize a Palestinian state “does not advance peace—it risks rewarding terror.”

“As a dual British-Israeli citizen who survived 471 days in Hamas captivity, I am deeply saddened by your decision,” wrote Damari on X.

“It sends a dangerous message: that violence earns legitimacy,” continued the former abductee, who was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre, losing two of her fingers in the process.

“By legitimizing a state entity while Hamas still controls Gaza and continues its campaign of terror, you are not promoting a solution; you are prolonging the conflict,” tweeted Damari. “Recognition under these conditions emboldens extremists and undermines any hope for genuine peace. Shame on you.”

In an Instagram post earlier on Wednesday, Damari stressed that Starmer “is not standing on the right side of history.”

Had the prime minister “been in power during World War II, would he have advocated recognition for Nazi control of occupied countries like Holland, France, or Poland? This is not diplomacy—it is a moral failure. Shame on you, Prime Minister,” she wrote.

Also Wednesday, lawyers representing British families of hostages who were or are still in captivity in Gaza said they were “deeply concerned” that London has made the captives a “bargaining chip” with its statement on recognizing a Palestinian state.

The lawyers, Adam Rose and Adam Wagner, said that Starmer’s proposal “risks delaying the release of the hostages.”

Starmer told reporters on Tuesday that he intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September, before the U.N. General Assembly, “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza” and agrees to a ceasefire.

“This risks doing exactly what the Prime Minister’s statement says the U.K. will not do: reward Hamas for its heinous and illegal acts,” the lawyers argued in a statement.

Rose and Wagner have represented the seven families of the 10 hostages held by Hamas who are either British or have very close British ties, among them British citizen Damari and Nadav Popplewell, who was murdered in captivity in June 2024.

They currently represent several families, including those of hostages Avinatan Or, who is presumed to be alive and whose mother is British, and Yossi Sharabi, whose body is held by Hamas.

Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum criticized Britain as well on Wednesday, saying that recognizing a Palestinian state while 50 hostages remain in Gaza “amounts to rewarding terrorism.”

“The abduction of men, women, and children, who are being held against their will in tunnels while subjected to starvation and physical and psychological abuse, cannot and should not serve as the foundation for establishing a state,” the forum asserted.

If the international community “truly desires peace,” the Israeli group continued, “it must join U.S. efforts by demanding first the release of all hostages, followed by an end to the fighting.”

On Tuesday, Starmer’s office stated that London is “taking additional immediate steps to alleviate the humanitarian situation, including air drops of humanitarian supplies along with Jordan, and getting injured children out of Gaza and into British hospitals alongside pressing strongly for U.N. deliveries of humanitarian assistance to resume.”

Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, noted that Paris had recently said it would recognize a Palestinian state in September.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly criticized the British move, saying that “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims.”

“A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen,” added Netanyahu.