The UK has formally recognised the state of Palestine. So now what?

The UK has officially recognised the state of Palestine – but campaigners warn the move is “empty symbolism” if Britain continues to arm Israel.

Britain joins a wave of countries – including Canada, Australia, Portugal and France – that have recently granted formal recognition of the Palestinian state.

The announcement comes amid a deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where Israel’s brutal military offensive, triggered by Hamas attacks in 2023, has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians.

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If also follows months of mounting public pressure, mass protests and growing unease within Labour over the UK’s continued support for Israel.

“In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution,” prime minister Keir Starmer said in a video statement on X on Monday (21 September).

For many, the recognition is too little, too late. “This ought to be a day of celebration,” says Kieran Andrieu, a British-Palestinian journalist with Novara Media. But it “comes in the midst of a genocide”.

“This is a day that we’ve all dreamed about for a very long time, fought for for a very long time, and it’s very dispiriting that it comes in such fraught times that it’s impossible to greet it with the fanfare it deserves,” Andrieu continues.

“And the reason that it’s impossible to feel that it warrants celebration is that it comes in the midst, obviously, of a genocide – a genocide that many of, if not all of, the nation states that are formally recognising Palestine have actively colluded in and participated in by refusing to suspend arms licenses and so on, by giving diplomatic cover to Israel.”

The International Court of Justice has yet to issue a final ruling in the genocide case brought by South Africa, but other bodies have already drawn conclusions. Last week, a United Nations commission of inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli rights group B’Tselem have issued similar findings.

In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared a famine in Gaza’s Governorate area, where all 2.1 million residents face extreme hunger.

Andrieu spoke to the Big Issue from aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian aid mission attempting to break Israel’s sea blockade of Gaza. “In material terms, there won’t be a Palestinian state to recognise, because de facto and on the ground, Palestine has been or is being actively destroyed by those very nation states, by Israel and its allies,” he said.

What does recognising Palestine actually mean?

Palestine is already recognised as a state by three-quarters of the United Nations’ 193 members. But it has no internationally agreed borders, capital or army, and remains under Israeli military occupation.

In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority – created by 1990s peace accords – has only limited control over land and governance. Gaza, where Hamas took power in 2007, remains blockaded and repeatedly bombed by Israel.

The UK’s recognition does not create a state on the ground, nor does it end Israel’s occupation. Instead, it signals support for a two-state solution: the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital, roughly along the pre-1967 war borders.

But more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in defiance of international law, making a two-state solution increasingly unlikely. In this context, campaigners say, symbolism without action means little.

“It is a welcome and necessary, but highly belated recognition of the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. It should have come decades ago,” says Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

“Recognition acknowledges that this right exists regardless of Israel’s permission. However, this action must not be purely a symbolic one, but must be accompanied by meaningful, practical steps to make it a reality – to end the Israeli occupation and genocide in Palestine.”

Despite the recognition, the UK continues to supply arms to Israel – especially components for Israel’s F-35 combat aircraft, used extensively to bomb Gaza. The estimated value of UK F-35 component exports to Israel stands at £572 million, nearly half of all British arms sales to Israel since 2016, according to CAAT.

“The UK must impose an immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel, in particular cutting off the supply of components for Israel’s 45 F-35 combat aircraft, which they are using intensively to bomb Gaza with 2,000lb bombs,” says Perlo-Freeman

“Without a constant supply of spare parts, including the 15% made in the UK, Israel could not keep these genocidal jets flying.”

Starmer is trying to “play both sides”, Andrieu argues – keeping arms manufacturers and Washington onside while stemming the loss of disillusioned voters to pro-Palestine parties. “I see this recognition of a Palestinian state as part and parcel of that strategy to pacify people at home while fundamentally continuing without any kind of course correction on the along the pro-Israel, pro Trump pathway.”

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