Israel and hostages’ families condemn UK plan to recognise Palestinian state

Israel and the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza have condemned the UK’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state, saying it is “rewarding terrorism”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused his counterpart, Sir Keir Starmer, of appeasing Hamas with the announcement that the UK would act in September unless Israel met conditions including agreeing a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said abducting people “should not serve as the foundation for establishing a state”, while a British-Israeli former hostage accused Starmer of “moral failure”.

The UK’s transport minister denied it was rewarding Hamas and said the move was “about the Palestinian people”.

Heidi Alexander said the UK expected Hamas to “act in the same way as we expect Israel to act”, when asked if releasing the hostages was a condition of Starmer’s pledge.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said the UK had taken a vital step to preserve the two-state solution – the internationally approved formula for peace that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza.

In a major change in foreign policy, Starmer announced on Tuesday that the UK would recognise the State of Palestine in September unless the Israeli government took “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution”.

He also said Israel must allow the UN to restart the supply of aid in Gaza and make clear that there would be no annexations in the occupied West Bank.

Starmer added: “Meanwhile, our message to the terrorists of Hamas is unchanged and unequivocal. They must immediately release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza.”

The prime minister said that this was “the movement to act” because the prospect of a two-state solution was “now under threat”.

His decision came a week after France said it would recognise a Palestinian state in September. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said they were “putting an end to the endless cycle of violence and reopening the prospect of peace in the region”.

Israel’s foreign ministry swiftly rejected the British statement.

Later, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on X: “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.”

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

Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, Danny Danon, said it had “already agreed many times to a ceasefire” in Gaza and that it would “do whatever is necessary to bring home the hostages and defeat Hamas”.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas-led gunmen carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response, during which more than 60,000 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million population has also been displaced multiple times; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed global food security experts have warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” due to food shortages.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum – which represents many hostages’ relatives – also criticised the British and French initiatives.

“Recognising a Palestinian state while 50 hostages remain trapped in Hamas tunnels amounts to rewarding terrorism,” a statement warned.

“If the international community truly desires peace, it must join US efforts by demanding first the release of all hostages, followed by an end to the fighting,” it added.

British-Israeli former hostage Emily Damari, who was released in January after 471 days in captivity during the last ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, said Starmer was “not standing on the right side of history”.

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

However, the father of Nimrod Cohen, one of the hostages still in Gaza, disagreed with the Hostages Families Forum’s statement.

“In my opinion, recognition of a Palestinian state creates pressure on those truly responsible for delaying and ensuring the return of the hostages – Hamas’s financier, Benjamin Netanyahu,” Yehuda Cohen said, referring to the prime minister’s decision to allow Qatar to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of aid for Gaza during Hamas’s rule.

In response to the criticism of Starmer’s announcement, UK transport minister Heidi Alexander said: “This is not a reward for Hamas.

“Hamas is a vile terrorist organisation that has committed appalling atrocities. This is about the Palestinian people. It’s about those children that we see in Gaza who are starving to death,” she told LBC radio. “We’ve got to ratchet up pressure on the Israeli government to lift the restrictions to get aid back into Gaza.”

The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control, called it a “courageous step that places the UK on the right side of history”.

A statement from the PA’s foreign ministry said it valued the UK’s position on the situation of the Palestinians people, especially those in Gaza, and its support for “enabling the State of Palestine to exercise its political and legal authority over all the Palestinian territories occupied [during the Middle East war] in 1967 – as a path toward achieving peace”.

The ministry also called on other countries to recognise a Palestinian state “as a means of safeguarding the two-state solution and confronting the crimes” against Palestinians.

Nasser al-Kidwa, a former Palestinian foreign minister who is also nephew of the late leader Yasser Arafat, told the BBC that the UK announcement was important.

“It puts some kind of parameters for the country that is recognising the State of Palestine. First, to oppose any attempts of Israeli annexation of any parts of the West Bank and maybe Gaza. Second, to oppose any attempts for settler colonialism in general,” he said.

“And most importantly, it also opposes Israeli attempts to present the situation as if Israel has the right to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for Palestinian statehood, which is totally false.”