In Historic Shift, U.K., Australia and Canada Recognize a Palestinian State
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“ Decision comes as several more countries prepare to follow suit in an effort to pressure Israel to stop its war in Gaza”
“ The U.K., Australia and Canada said Sunday they would formally recognize a Palestinian state, a significant shift in longstanding foreign policy among Western governments and a reflection of growing global dissatisfaction with Israel after nearly two years of war in Gaza.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the various countries were making the move to recognize the long-held aspirations of the Palestinians for a state of their own and to try to breathe new life into the two-state solution to the long-running conflict. The U.K. government echoed the sentiment.
“We are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace,” U.K.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. Starmer’s government months ago laid out an ultimatum, saying it would recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel stopped the fighting in Gaza and halted the creeping annexation of land in the West Bank through the building of new settlements. Starmer said those conditions had not been met.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply criticized the moves, saying they rewarded Hamas, who still hold dozens of Israelis hostage, for its Oct. 7 attacks. He also struck a defiant tone, vowing to block the establishment of a Palestinian state in what he called “the heart of our land” that could be used to launch fresh terrorist attacks against Israel.
“I have a clear message for you. It won’t happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said, adding that he was proud that Israel had doubled Jewish settlements in the West Bank. “We will continue on this path,” he said.
The move by the British government especially is a symbolic win for the Palestinians, given that it is a longstanding ally of Israel and was instrumental in the country’s modern creation.
The triple announcement also fires the starting gun on a week that will bring a watershed moment in international relations between Israel and major international powers.
France, Belgium and several others are also expected to use a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly this week to declare their recognition of Palestine as a state. More than 140 countries already recognize a Palestinian state.
The wave of Western countries recognizing Palestine underscores the depth of frustration in many Western capitals at Israel’s Gaza campaign and the continuing settlement of the West Bank.
“This a diplomatic and political defeat for Israel, at least the way the current government is articulating Israeli policy,” said Yuval Shany, a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Shany added that the growing isolation of Israel would make life for Israelis more difficult in the long run.
The announcements mark the fracturing of a united strategy among Western allies that recognition of a Palestinian state should be dangled as a reward to Palestinians for abandoning violent confrontation with Israel as part of an eventual two-state solution. But what was being used as a carrot for Palestinians could now be seen as a stick against an Israeli government that has grown increasingly hard-line and shows little interest in a two-state deal or in restarting negotiations to that end.
Israel is advancing its ground offensive in Gaza City, where it has intensified airstrikes and other military activity in recent days and has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Israel already holds at least 75% of the Gaza Strip, leaving Palestinians sheltering in a shrinking piece of territory. Many people in Gaza City say they have nowhere left to go. Over 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many were combatants, and large swathes of the enclave have been reduced to ruins.
“The current Israeli government is working methodically to prevent the prospect of a Palestinian state from ever being established,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a statement on Sunday. “It is in this context that Canada recognizes the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel.”
He added that the recognition is meant to empower those seeking “the end of Hamas,” and doesn’t compromise Canada’s support for Israel.
The shift leaves the U.S. among a handful of countries, including Germany and Austria, that don’t recognize a Palestinian state. In July, when Carney first floated the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state, President Trump criticized him and said it could affect trade talks between both sides.
Many Israelis are concerned that the country is developing a pariah status but are also frustrated by the move to recognize Palestine, which they feel rewards Hamas. France and others have said they want to sideline Hamas, which rejects the two-state solution.
Some members of Netanyahu’s coalition are urging the prime minister to retaliate by annexing parts of the West Bank. But such a move could risk upending the normalization deals with Arab countries known as the Abraham Accords, which were a key achievement of Trump’s first term.
“Israel must apply Israeli sovereignty as a preventive measure against the reckless attempt to establish a terror state in the heart of our land,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said earlier this month, referring to annexation of the West Bank.
Other options include retaliating against France, which, along with Saudi Arabia, has led the effort. That could include closing the French consulate in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu is set to speak at the U.N. on Friday and is expected to meet with Trump the following Monday in Washington, the fourth time the two leaders have met since the president was elected. The response will also depend on what the U.S. is willing to stomach, analysts said.
In the U.K., Starmer has also been criticized for not placing conditions on Hamas for recognition of Palestine, including that they first release the remaining hostages they hold. “It is obvious, and the U.S. has been clear on this, that recognition of a Palestinian state at this time and without the release of the hostages, would be a reward for terrorism,” Kemi Badenoch, the head of the opposition Conservative Party, wrote this weekend.
Polls show popular support in Britain for the idea of a Palestinian state, though that support falls substantially if it comes without any conditions.
Starmer on Sunday said that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that it should have no role in the future governance of a Palestinian state. The U.K. government also said it would set out a series of further economic sanctions targeting Hamas. He added that the hostages must be released immediately. “We are clear this solution is not a reward for Hamas,” Starmer said.
The U.N. General Assembly recognized Palestine as a nonmember state in 2012 and upgraded it to become a permanent observer state in 2024, with only a U.S. veto at the Security Council preventing its full-fledged membership.
Palestine lacks sovereign control over internationally recognized borders and has no army. But while the recognition has limited practical effects—Starmer has acknowledged previously it is unlikely to change the situation on the ground for Gazans—it confers added legitimacy on Palestinian claims to statehood. It would, for instance, allow Palestine to open a fully fledged embassy in the U.K., Canada and Australia. It also could eventually allow a Palestinian state to take Israel to international court for its occupation.
Two years of conflict that began with Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, have led to widespread destruction in Gaza and the deaths of tens of thousands, civilians and combatants. Public opinion around the world has become increasingly critical of Israel’s response as disproportionate to the initial attack, which led to the death of around 1,200 Israelis, the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
Starmer, who has been under pressure from his Labour Party to recognize a Palestinian state, said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, were a key factor in the U.K.’s decision.
The decision could potentially drive a wedge between the U.K. and the Trump administration. Trump during a visit to the U.K. last week said he rejected such a move. “I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score, one of our few disagreements, actually,” Trump said.“
“ Decision comes as several more countries prepare to follow suit in an effort to pressure Israel to stop its war in Gaza”
“ The U.K., Australia and Canada said Sunday they would formally recognize a Palestinian state, a significant shift in longstanding foreign policy among Western governments and a reflection of growing global dissatisfaction with Israel after nearly two years of war in Gaza.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the various countries were making the move to recognize the long-held aspirations of the Palestinians for a state of their own and to try to breathe new life into the two-state solution to the long-running conflict. The U.K. government echoed the sentiment.
“We are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace,” U.K.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. Starmer’s government months ago laid out an ultimatum, saying it would recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel stopped the fighting in Gaza and halted the creeping annexation of land in the West Bank through the building of new settlements. Starmer said those conditions had not been met.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply criticized the moves, saying they rewarded Hamas, who still hold dozens of Israelis hostage, for its Oct. 7 attacks. He also struck a defiant tone, vowing to block the establishment of a Palestinian state in what he called “the heart of our land” that could be used to launch fresh terrorist attacks against Israel.
“I have a clear message for you. It won’t happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said, adding that he was proud that Israel had doubled Jewish settlements in the West Bank. “We will continue on this path,” he said.
The move by the British government especially is a symbolic win for the Palestinians, given that it is a longstanding ally of Israel and was instrumental in the country’s modern creation.
The triple announcement also fires the starting gun on a week that will bring a watershed moment in international relations between Israel and major international powers.
France, Belgium and several others are also expected to use a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly this week to declare their recognition of Palestine as a state. More than 140 countries already recognize a Palestinian state.
The wave of Western countries recognizing Palestine underscores the depth of frustration in many Western capitals at Israel’s Gaza campaign and the continuing settlement of the West Bank.
“This a diplomatic and political defeat for Israel, at least the way the current government is articulating Israeli policy,” said Yuval Shany, a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Shany added that the growing isolation of Israel would make life for Israelis more difficult in the long run.
The announcements mark the fracturing of a united strategy among Western allies that recognition of a Palestinian state should be dangled as a reward to Palestinians for abandoning violent confrontation with Israel as part of an eventual two-state solution. But what was being used as a carrot for Palestinians could now be seen as a stick against an Israeli government that has grown increasingly hard-line and shows little interest in a two-state deal or in restarting negotiations to that end.
Israel is advancing its ground offensive in Gaza City, where it has intensified airstrikes and other military activity in recent days and has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Israel already holds at least 75% of the Gaza Strip, leaving Palestinians sheltering in a shrinking piece of territory. Many people in Gaza City say they have nowhere left to go. Over 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who don’t say how many were combatants, and large swathes of the enclave have been reduced to ruins.
“The current Israeli government is working methodically to prevent the prospect of a Palestinian state from ever being established,” said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a statement on Sunday. “It is in this context that Canada recognizes the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel.”
He added that the recognition is meant to empower those seeking “the end of Hamas,” and doesn’t compromise Canada’s support for Israel.
The shift leaves the U.S. among a handful of countries, including Germany and Austria, that don’t recognize a Palestinian state. In July, when Carney first floated the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state, President Trump criticized him and said it could affect trade talks between both sides.
Many Israelis are concerned that the country is developing a pariah status but are also frustrated by the move to recognize Palestine, which they feel rewards Hamas. France and others have said they want to sideline Hamas, which rejects the two-state solution.
Some members of Netanyahu’s coalition are urging the prime minister to retaliate by annexing parts of the West Bank. But such a move could risk upending the normalization deals with Arab countries known as the Abraham Accords, which were a key achievement of Trump’s first term.
“Israel must apply Israeli sovereignty as a preventive measure against the reckless attempt to establish a terror state in the heart of our land,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said earlier this month, referring to annexation of the West Bank.
Other options include retaliating against France, which, along with Saudi Arabia, has led the effort. That could include closing the French consulate in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu is set to speak at the U.N. on Friday and is expected to meet with Trump the following Monday in Washington, the fourth time the two leaders have met since the president was elected. The response will also depend on what the U.S. is willing to stomach, analysts said.
In the U.K., Starmer has also been criticized for not placing conditions on Hamas for recognition of Palestine, including that they first release the remaining hostages they hold. “It is obvious, and the U.S. has been clear on this, that recognition of a Palestinian state at this time and without the release of the hostages, would be a reward for terrorism,” Kemi Badenoch, the head of the opposition Conservative Party, wrote this weekend.
Polls show popular support in Britain for the idea of a Palestinian state, though that support falls substantially if it comes without any conditions.
Starmer on Sunday said that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that it should have no role in the future governance of a Palestinian state. The U.K. government also said it would set out a series of further economic sanctions targeting Hamas. He added that the hostages must be released immediately. “We are clear this solution is not a reward for Hamas,” Starmer said.
The U.N. General Assembly recognized Palestine as a nonmember state in 2012 and upgraded it to become a permanent observer state in 2024, with only a U.S. veto at the Security Council preventing its full-fledged membership.
Palestine lacks sovereign control over internationally recognized borders and has no army. But while the recognition has limited practical effects—Starmer has acknowledged previously it is unlikely to change the situation on the ground for Gazans—it confers added legitimacy on Palestinian claims to statehood. It would, for instance, allow Palestine to open a fully fledged embassy in the U.K., Canada and Australia. It also could eventually allow a Palestinian state to take Israel to international court for its occupation.
Two years of conflict that began with Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, have led to widespread destruction in Gaza and the deaths of tens of thousands, civilians and combatants. Public opinion around the world has become increasingly critical of Israel’s response as disproportionate to the initial attack, which led to the death of around 1,200 Israelis, the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
Starmer, who has been under pressure from his Labour Party to recognize a Palestinian state, said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, were a key factor in the U.K.’s decision.
The decision could potentially drive a wedge between the U.K. and the Trump administration. Trump during a visit to the U.K. last week said he rejected such a move. “I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score, one of our few disagreements, actually,” Trump said.“
