British lawmakers urge Foreign Office to recognize Palestine at French-Saudi conference
LONDON: Labour Party lawmakers in Britain are urging the Foreign Office to recognize a Palestinian state at a French-Saudi international conference scheduled for June.
France and Saudi Arabia will co-chair a meeting at the UN to gather support for recognizing Palestinian statehood, which French President Emmanuel Macron described as a critical moment.
Member of Parliament Emily Thornberry said the conference provided an opportunity for the UK, The Guardian reported.
'We need to do it with friends. We need to do it with the French. There are a lot of other countries sitting back and waiting,' the Labour lawmaker said.
There would be no Palestine left to recognize if Western countries did not act soon, she said.
Chris Doyle, the chair of the Council on Arab-British Understanding, said that recognizing a Palestinian state should have occurred long ago and acknowledgment now by France and the UK, two permanent members of the UN Security Council, would send a powerful message globally.
He also warned about Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the annexation drive and settlement expansion, which he said further hindered the establishment of a Palestinian state.
There was no immediate response from the Foreign Office but its position is that the UK will recognize Palestine at an 'appropriate moment of maximum impact.'
Some Labour MPs have criticized Israel's actions in Gaza, while Tel Aviv refused entry to the West Bank to two of them earlier this month.
During a France 5 interview last week, Macron said: We must move toward recognition (of the Palestinian state) and so, in the coming months, we will.
'I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must allow all those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in turn, which many of them do not do.'
France is organizing and chairing the conference along with Saudi Arabia, which is adamant in its support for establishing a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 war borders, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
During a speech at the Extraordinary Arab and Islamic Summit in Riyadh in November, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
A total of 147 of the 193 UN member countries have officially recognized Palestinian statehood, including Spain, Ireland and Norway. France, Canada, Italy and Germany are among those yet to do so.
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