UK rejects rewarding Hamas after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would recognise Palestinian state

West Australian

3 days ago

Britain rejects Israeli criticism that it is rewarding militant group Hamas by setting out plans to recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel takes steps to improve the situation in Gaza and bring about peace.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's ultimatum, setting a September deadline, prompted an immediate rebuke from Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, who said it rewarded Hamas and punished the victims of the fighters' 2023 attack that triggered the war.
US President Donald Trump also said he did not think Hamas 'should be rewarded' with recognition of Palestinian independence.
But British Transport Minister Heidi Alexander - designated by the government to respond to media questions on Wednesday - 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.
'We've got to ratchet up pressure on the Israeli government to lift the restrictions to get aid back into Gaza.'
Mr Starmer's decision follows that of French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced last week that Paris would recognise Palestinian statehood in September, becoming the first major Western power to do so, because of the dire humanitarian conditions in the enclave.
Previously, Britain and France, like other Western powers, had been committed to Palestinian independence, but as a goal that would best be achieved only at the conclusion of negotiations with Israel.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Mr Starmer said it had become necessary to act because the prospect of such a two-state solution was under threat.
Britain would make the move at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel took substantive steps to allow more aid into Gaza, made clear it would not annex the West Bank and committed itself to a long-term peace process that delivered a two-state solution, Mr Starmer said.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, Britain's biggest Jewish advocacy group, raised concerns that similarly clear conditions had not been set out for Hamas, which is still holding 50 hostages it seized in its October 2023 attack.
The Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Muslim umbrella organisation, said making recognition conditional contradicted the government's stated position that statehood was the inalienable right of the Palestinian people.