'Recognising Palestine is not about Hamas – it's a response to actions of Israel'

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• The UK has formally recognised the State of Palestine, drawing fierce criticism from Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government and its supporters, of rewarding the actions of Hamas’s terror attack of October 7 2023.
• The News Agents say Netanyahu is “missing the point” of the recognition – that it’s not about October 7, but is instead about Israel’s actions in the two years since.
• They add that Israel, which says it has no intention of allowing a State of Palestine to exist, wants the freedom to do whatever it likes, and anyone who does not support its actions is a supporter of Hamas.

What’s the story?

A total of 156 members (of 193) of the United Nations now recognise the State of Palestine – including the UK.

France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco have also recognised Palestine, but it's the UK which has drawn the fiercest criticism from Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He claims the UK is offering a "reward for Hamas jihadists", in a message directed at Starmer and shared on social media. The UK has supported the state of Israel since 1917, when it issued The Balfour Declaration, declaring its support for establishing a "national home" for Jewish communities in Palestine.

Netanyahu has said there will be "no Palestinian State", and extended his criticism to all countries who are now recognising the State of Palestine, and rewarding the Hamas attack of October 7, in which almost 1,200 people were killed in attacks on Israel.

"It is quite astonishing how angry the response has been from Israel," Emily Maitlis says.

"The point the Israeli government is missing is everything that's happened in the last two years."

Israel's retaliation in the two years since, has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel's own military data shows that 83% of the people killed in its ongoing military assault on Gaza have been civilians.

"If you'd asked Britain in the weeks – or even months – after October 7, whether there would be any recognition of a state of Palestine, it would have been a categoric 'no'," Emily adds.

"Two years on, this is not a response to the actions of Hamas. It is, unfortunately, a response to the actions of Israel.”

Why has the UK recognised the State of Palestine now?

In the days following the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7 2023, Keir Starmer said he supported Israel's right to defend itself.

Two years later, the UK continues to sell some arms to Israel, but the rhetoric has changed.

"What we have seen since then is the enormous number of Palestinian civilian deaths," says Lewis Goodall.

"We've seen the UN talking about the prospects of Israel allowing a genocide. We've seen the destruction of Palestinian cities.

"We've seen a famine, and a camp that half of the Palestinian population would be forced to live in and wouldn't be allowed to leave."

In the days since the UK’s recognition of Palestine, Israel has continued its ground-offensive on Gaza City.

"The UK has said enough, and this is the only way they have, they believe, of bringing Israel to heel," says Emily.

Lewis says the actions of Israel over the past two years has resulted in an almost total loss of trust in Israel.

"Its government has been seized by such extremist instincts and are conducting such extremist policies in Gaza, and increasingly the West Bank, that the UK feels that there is no alternative but to press this political equivalent of the nuclear button," he says.

What has the UK achieved in recognition of the State of Palestine?

There has been criticism of the UK's recognition, after two years of war, as little more than an empty political act – but The News Agents say that greatest achievement has been provoking Netanyahu into saying what his true intentions towards Palestine are.

"What Starmer has dragged out of them is this idea now that there was never going to be a Palestinian state, and that the West Bank was never really going to have its independence or legitimacy," says Emily.

"What you're looking at now is almost like the pulling-out of what was really in the Netanyahu government's mind.

"I don't think this is representative of all Israeli people, and I don't think it's representative of all hostage families – many of whom have actually said that the actions of Netanyahu and his government have made things much, much harder for the hostages over the last two years."

Netanyahu’s government has claimed that recognising the Palestinian state will put the remaining Israeli hostages at risk, but after two years and the near total destruction of Gaza, Emily says this sentiment “rings hollow”.

Lewis says the UK has been "backed into a corner" due to Israel's actions during the current conflict.

"Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It conducted atrocities. It is deeply antisemitic. They want to kill Israel," he says.

"But there has been zero reflection from Israel's government as to how we've got to this point.

"The British government doesn't want to be in a position where, on any level, they could be accused of wanting to reward Hamas, or isolating Israel, or isolating ourselves from Trump."

Israel, he adds, has "nearly exhausted" the goodwill that was shown towards it in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks.

"Israel’s basic position is it should be allowed to do whatever it likes, under its own terms and own rules, in Gaza and elsewhere, because of what happened on October 7," Lewis says.

"If you don't support it in that endeavour, then you're supporting Hamas."

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