New British PM To Recognize Palestine

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

LONDON/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Newly elected British Prime Minister Kier Starmer suggested Sunday that Britain could soon recognize Palestinian statehood despite calls from Israel’s government to wait.

Starmer made the comments in talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In phone calls with the two leaders, Starmer discussed “a two-state solution” and noted that Britain “could recognize Palestinian statehood during the process for a two-state solution rather than at the end of one,” said sources familiar with the talks.

Starmer’s plans reflected the opinion of David Cameron, the former foreign secretary of the Conservative Party. However, Cameron stressed that the time to do so “was not now.”

Yet Starmer seemed to want to push the recognition of Palestine forward, according to a readout of his call with Abbas from the prime minister’s 10 Downing Street office: “Discussing the importance of reform, and ensuring international legitimacy for Palestine, the Prime Minister said that his longstanding policy on recognition to contribute to a peace process had not changed, and it was the undeniable right of Palestinians,” it said.

The planned recognition comes despite repeated protests from Israel after several countries made similar moves in recent months.

“A REWARD”

Israel’s government views recognizing Palestinian statehood now as “a reward” for terrorism as Israeli forces still fight in Gaza against Hamas after the group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped some 250 persons in Israel on October 7.

It was unclear how British Jewish voters would react to the recognition of Palestine. Pollsters suggested that a third to nearly a half of Jewish voters cast ballots for Starmer’s leftist Labour Party in Thursday’s election.

Their return to Labour came after the party acknowledged that antisemitism had soared under Jeremy Corbyn, who the party suspended.

Corbyn denied wrongdoing, saying the issue of hatred towards Jews had been “dramatically overstated” by his critics and claimed there was “no place” for antisemitism in Labour.

Yet the Labour Party adopted a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020 saying there had been “a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it.”

It found Labour had broken equality law over its handling of antisemitism complaints, charges Corbyn rejected.

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