The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia yesterday formally recognised the State of Palestine, a move that has triggered fierce backlash from Israel and sharpened divisions among Western leaders over the path to Middle East peace.
The recognition, which Portugal is expected to follow, comes amid mounting international outrage over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where the United Nations has declared a famine and described the situation as “utterly intolerable.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, announcing the decision in a post on X, said: “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.”
Starmer stressed that the recognition was not “a reward for Hamas” but rather a commitment to a peaceful future in which both Israelis and Palestinians can coexist. “Our call for a genuine two-state solution is the exact opposite of Hamas’s hateful vision,” he said.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly dismissed the move, declaring that a Palestinian state would never be allowed. “You are granting a huge reward to terror,” Netanyahu told the leaders of the UK, Canada, and Australia. “No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River. Recognition endangers our existence and rewards terrorism.”
The recognition has also sparked heated political debate in Britain. Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch blasted Starmer’s decision as “absolutely disastrous,” accusing him of rewarding terrorism while neglecting the plight of Israeli hostages in Gaza and the suffering of civilians on both sides of the conflict.
“Everything we are seeing is a consequence of a Prime Minister who has no plan for the country and no judgement,” Badenoch said in a statement, adding that Starmer was merely pandering to “the hobby horses of the Labour left” to hold on to power.
With this latest recognition, about 75 per cent of the United Nations’ 193 member states now formally acknowledge Palestinian statehood — significantly boosting the global push for a two-state solution.
Meanwhile, the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. Hamas-run health authorities said 71 people were killed and 304 injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, while a UN official described Israel’s latest ground operation in Gaza City as “cataclysmic.”
Despite the rising toll, efforts to secure a ceasefire remain stalled, leaving both the recognition move and Netanyahu’s defiance as fresh flashpoints in a decades-long conflict.
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