UK RECOGNISING THE STATE OF PALESTINE – IS IT ENOUGH ?

Palestine is recognised as a state by 147 of the 193 UN member states across the world, with Norway, Spain, and Ireland being some of the most recent states to do so in 2024. This leaves around half of the G20 members, a group of countries who meet for international economic cooperation, recognising the state, as well as two out of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

 

With the recent news of both the UK and France planning to recognise Palestine as a state, this would leave the USA as the only remaining permanent member of the UN Security Council to not recognise Palestine’s statehood.

 

The USA recognising Palestine is itself another topic. With the US sending over $300bn between 1948 - 2024, Israel is by far the largest recipient of US aid. In current US politics, the refusal to recognise the Palestinian state seems to be a bipartisan issue, with Democrats and Republicans alike equally being the pocket of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), supporting 361 Democratic and Republican candidates in 2024.

Lobbying in both the US and UK is a separate issue in itself, but for more on this I’d highly recommend Ilan Pappé’s, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, for in-depth history on lobbying in both the US and the UK.

 

I digress… it is incredibly unlikely the USA will ever recognise a Palestinian state.

It is important to note that in terms of international law, Palestine is already a state within

the pre-1967 borders, but statehood within international law depends more on the state’s

legal entitlement to exercise sovereignty within that territory. With sovereignty being the

‘exclusive right to exercise supreme political authority over a defined territory and the

people within that territory’ - this is where Palestine as a ‘state’ (whether it is recognised as

one or not by the likes of the UK and France) will have some issues.

 

Due to the long history of debate and claims over the region there is no internationally

agreed boundaries, but with the presence of Israeli settlers and armed forces in the

occupied Palestine land, this completely negates the internationally agreed law on

sovereignty that every recognised state is owed. However, Israel breaching international law

is nothing new, with the state currently in breach of, or has been the subject of, over 30 UN

Security Council resolutions directed at it with no action taken to remedy it.

 

So, will this actually do anything?

 

In short, no. The situation in Gaza risks escalating to a point of no return. Famine has been

confirmed in Gaza; the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO),

the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations World Food Programme

(WFP), and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have all highlighted and called for an

extreme and urgent full-scale humanitarian response due to the increasing number of

hunger-related deaths. Despite all of these calls to action, despite hundreds of thousands

protesting in the UK, and despite the total number of hunger-related deaths now reaching

361, (130 of these children according to the Gaza’s Health Ministry records), the most Keir

Starmer’s government can bring itself to do is provide the limp gesture of

potentially recognising Palestine as a state.

 

According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) pressure group, since 2015 the UK

has approved arms export licences to Israel worth over £500 million, with the UK supplying

13-15% of the components for the F-35 fighter jet, a ‘state-of-the-art’ fighter that has been

used extensively by Israel in Gaza.

 

Although the Labour party suspended 30 arms export licences last year, affecting equipment

such as parts for fighter jets, helicopters, and drones, they have seemed to ignore the

further 320 arms export licenses that have remained untouched, including the parts for the

F-35s. This further discredits the already weak gestures the government knows will prove futile.

 

The government’s recognition of a Palestinian state seems to fall further apart when cast in the context of a two state-solution. Even if the Israeli government were to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and ‘revive the prospect of a two-state solution’, Palestine’s lack of sovereignty as a state would result in only one state being recognised in such a ‘two state solution’. This is completely absurd and the government’s superficial proposition is laid bare, again.

 

Recognising Palestine as a state is not enough, it’s never been enough, and it will never be

enough.

 

Recognising Palestine as a state does nothing if further action doesn’t follow.