Israel bristles as UK leads Western recognition of Palestine

A tiny cornerside cafe, oddly unnamed and half-hidden, buzzed with mid-morning chatter two blocks from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in West Jerusalem, where Balfour and Gaza Streets meet behind layers of steel barricades and weekly pro-hostage rallies.

As phones lit up with news that United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer had announced formal recognition of a Palestinian state, a few patrons looked up, while others shrugged.

“Of course I’m angry”, said Shira Hazan, 55, a shop owner and longtime supporter of Netanyahu’s Likud party. What changes, though? Our soldiers are not buried in Britain. It’s just politics while Iran is shooting at us”.

The headline was waved off with a flick of the hand, treating it as merely background noise, as did the majority of the patrons at the cafe who were seated next to her.

He remarked, “It’s colonial arrogance, nothing less,” while scrolling through his phone while wearing a knitted kippah.

But the UK’s recognition of Palestine, while not a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) vote like Israel’s in 1948, could still set off a wave. The League of Nations, a major Western power that once held the Mandate for Palestine, was the first to officially recognize Palestinian statehood following the end of World War I to administer what is now the region that includes Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel.

In what appeared to be a coordinated move, Australia and Canada have also signed agreements, adding pressure to Israel and putting the three nations at odds with the US.

The announcement comes shortly before a special summit on the war in Gaza, to be held by the UNGA on Monday. The two-state solution is the only viable option to put an end to the region’s decades-long conflict, according to France and Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic initiative.

Numerous nations have pledged to support the more than 145 UN members who have already approved a Palestinian state, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Malta.

Political push back

Although the statehood declaration was anticipated for some time, a swift and extensive retaliation was sparked by leaders from Israel’s divided political elite and key demographics.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli national security minister, announced within hours that he would push for the occupied West Bank’s recognition as “a prize for the murderous Nukhba terrorists,” in reference to the Hamas unit that led the southern Israeli assault on October 7, 2023.

He pledged “the complete dismantling of the ‘ Palestinian ‘ Authority” and added that he intended to “submit a proposal for the application of sovereignty at the upcoming cabinet meeting”.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that advocates for the safe return of prisoners taken to Gaza during the 2023 Israeli attack, condemned what it called “the unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state while turning the blind eye to the fact that 48 hostages are still being held by Hamas in captivity.”

The opposition was also in the spotlight. Benny Gantz, the centrist former defence minister and a leading Netanyahu rival, warned that the move would only harden Hamas’s grip and complicate efforts to free the captives held in Gaza.

After October 7, acknowledging a Palestinian state only serves to bolster Hamas, prolongs the conflict, distances Iran’s and its proxies’ chances of a hostage deal, and sends a loud message of support, according to Gantz. He continued, “If advancing peace & stability in the Middle East is what you seek, dear Western Leaders, and not buckling to domestic political pressure, then Hamas must be put under the most pressure to relinquish power and return the hostages before anything else,” in an English-language post on X directed at Western capitals.

One of the lone voices calling Starmer’s recognition “a step in the right direction” is left-wing Israeli parliamentarian Ofer Cassif. He claimed that recognition is a “win-lose game” when, in reality, it could be a victory for both sides.

In response to pressure to remove him from the Knesset on the grounds that he supported armed struggle, Cassif signed a petition in January 2024 to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. He was eventually suspended for six months.

All other nations that haven’t yet done so should follow suit, Cassif said to Al Jazeera, “Recognition is a crucial first step toward a just peace.” It shouldn’t, however, develop into an end goal on its own. A complete arms embargo on Israel must follow, until the government of death and destruction ends the genocide in Gaza and dismantles the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories”.

When asked about additional UN actions, he responded that, among other things, he would “absolutely” support a peacekeeping force and the reactivation of anti-apartheid mechanisms used in South Africa, including weapons and oil embargoes.

The worst moment, in my opinion.

Noam Achimeir, 29, a PhD candidate at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University who described himself as left-leaning, took issue with the timing of the Palestinian statehood announcements.

“Look, I believe in two states, I’ve marched for peace, and I’ve argued for years with my parents about the occupation.” But “this” Achimeir said. The worst moment ever occurred in this situation. People are still being held hostage in the form of missiles, families are hiding in shelters, and there are still survivors. When countries make a grand gesture right now, it feels like rewarding the people doing that to us”.

He added, however, that Israel is unable to “control millions of Palestinians forever.”

It might be symbolic, perhaps. But symbols matter”, he told Al Jazeera. “Maybe it forces us to accept that this conflict won’t just vanish” if Britain acknowledges Palestine.

Eliyahu Korenman, 42, a religious Zionist from Shilo, a Zionist who claimed to have supported Ben-Gvir in the previous election, said London’s decision “tells Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran to keep firing rockets, holding hostages, killing Jews – and the world will reward you.”

“Every Israeli knows Palestine is just another word for surrender”, Korenman said. The timing, in essence, demonstrates that we were correct from the beginning. The only way forward is to keep going and expand, and to demonstrate to the world that we don’t require their approval. The world doesn’t understand that”.

Yael Ben Eshel, 27, a West Jerusalem resident who supported Netanyahu’s Likud, also made a mockery of the candidate.

“Truly,” Who cares? Britain hasn’t been a significant factor in this country for a long time. They can recognize Palestine, the moon, and nothing about the ground, she claimed, according to Al Jazeera. “We don’t wake up tomorrow and give up land because of what they say.

Ben Eshel continued, echoing Netanyahu’s comments last week about Israel’s growing international isolation, which the prime minister attributed in part to Muslim minorities in the West, rather than Israel’s killing of more than 65, 000 Palestinians in Gaza. “It’s for their politics, for the immigrants and the refugees, so forgive me if I don’t get upset about a British speech.

Britain can’t wash its hands of history, claim some.

The announcement lands amid a tense military escalation, where the Israeli army recently deployed a third division into Gaza City as part of an operation dubbed” Gideon’s Chariots B”, expanding a months-long offensive in the enclave that has killed hundreds in an area where famine has also been declared.

It also came after Israel’s hard-right government made a string of threats to prevent Palestinian statehood. Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance, unveiled a proposal to annex 82 percent of the occupied West Bank last week as a permanent defense for a two-state solution.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu signed a controversial settlement expansion agreement this month, reiterating his long-held rejection of a Palestinian state and declaring that” there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us”.

Britain “set the tone” First, it promised the Arabs’ freedom if they opposed the Ottomans, and then secretly carved up the area in Sykes-Picot’s [treaty]. It told Jews one thing in the Balfour Declaration and told Arabs another, “Achimeir said, in criticism of the UK’s policy in the aftermath of World War I.

According to Daniel Darby, a 51-year-old anti-Zionist from Pardes Hanna, north of Tel Aviv, London’s recognition of a Palestinian state is “an empty, symbolic gesture that will not change anything for the people in the occupied West Bank and for the people who are currently suffering horrific genocide in Gaza.”

By providing reconnaissance, intelligence, and all kinds of military support to Israel, Darby claimed that the UK, along with other European imperialistic forces, is now even more fully responsible for the horrific acts taking place in occupied Palestine.

He added that recognition alone is meaningless without real consequences.

The UK must take immediate action, including a complete weapons embargo and full sanctions against the state of Israel, to clear its past and fulfill its obligations.

Source: Aljazeera