The United Kingdom will recognize the State of Palestine in September if Israel fails to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas and does not meet a series of conditions that, according to the New York Times, are unlikely to be fulfilled.
These conditions include commitments not to annex the occupied West Bank, where Israel has recently stepped up settlement activity and both the military and settlers have increased violence, as well as concrete steps toward a peace process aimed at establishing a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer made the announcement following an emergency cabinet meeting, during which he reiterated that Hamas must release the remaining hostages, agree to a ceasefire, and accept that it will have no role in Gaza’s governance.
France is also set to recognize the State of Palestine in September, a move with both political and legal implications for the acceptance of a two-state solution.
The announcement comes just days after French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his country’s intention to recognize Palestinian statehood in September, increasing pressure on Israel and lending symbolic and diplomatic weight to the two-state framework.
With these decisions, the UK and France will become the 148th and 149th UN member states (out of 193) to recognize Palestine. Their recognition will leave the United States as the only permanent member of the UN Security Council that does not recognize the Palestinian state. The Council’s permanent members (France, the UK, the US, China, and Russia) hold veto power over its resolutions.
Starmer’s decision comes amid growing political pressure from the public and within his own party over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which he called “intolerable.” According to the UN, Israel’s deliberate restriction of humanitarian aid has led to the “worst-case famine scenario,” with over 63 deaths from starvation in July, including 25 children, according to the WHO.
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