The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia recognize the Palestinian state.

LondonA balancing act between a guilty conscience, the United Kingdom's eternal interests, more closely tied than ever to the United States, and an increasingly rebellious public opinion against the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally announced this Sunday, in a pre-recorded video, the recognition of the State of Palestine, an announcement made at the same time as his counterparts from Australia and Canada, members of the Commonwealth. The announcement is part of a wave of similar pronouncements from Israel's traditional allies, which seek to halt the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of wiping the Palestinians off the map, while seeking to isolate Hamas and force it into an unconditional surrender of Gaza. Currently, 147 UN member states, including Spain, recognize Palestine. Portugal has now joined the party, and France (the other former colonial power in the Middle East), Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and possibly New Zealand and Liechtenstein will also be added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted with a defiant statement: "It will not have been Palestinian. The response to this latest attempt to force us to accept a terrorist state in the heart of our land will be given after I return from the United States." Netanyahu, increasingly isolated internationally, accuses countries that urge recognition of the Palestinians of "rewarding terrorists" and says he is willing to withstand "international and domestic pressure."

For its part, Hamas said in a statement that "recognition is an important step towards maintaining the right of our Palestinian people to their land and holy sites and to the establishment of an independent state with its capital in Jerusalem," which it describes as the "deserved result of resilience, struggle, and sacrifice," a reference to the right of return for Palestinian refugees. It also urges that this symbolic gesture be accompanied by "practical measures that will lead to the immediate halt of the brutal genocide against our people of Gaza and to confront the plans for the Judaization and annexation of the West Bank and Jerusalem." They demand coordinated international action to bring the Israeli perpetrators to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in international courts.

The Anglo-Saxon recognitions precede those of the rest of the countries that will formalize their support for the Palestinian state, within the framework of the conference sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia on the two-state solution (a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel), convened in New York the day before New York. The global gathering will be marked by the absence of the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, whom the Donald Trump administration has denied a visa to travel to the United States. On Friday, in a vote at the General Assembly, 145 countries to five voted in favor of allowing Abbas to address the forum by videoconference. What will be interesting about Abbas's speech will be whether he offers any clues about reforming the Palestinian Authority, now marked by a lack of democratic guarantees, corruption, nepotism, and collaboration with Israeli employers. French President Emmanuel Macron's plan seeks to have the Authority replace Hamas in control of Gaza, on the path to the creation of this virtual Palestinian state, which Netanyahu has no intention of accepting.

Starmer has justified the decision—proposed a couple of months ago and contingent on a change in Israeli policy, which has not occurred—as a necessary step to "keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution." London also clarifies that it is "in no way a prize for Hamas." A statement with which he attempts to reject the accusation made against him by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since he announced that he would take the step shortly before the United Nations General Assembly, which begins this Monday in New York.

"Our goal is a secure Israel and a viable Palestinian state, because at the moment we have neither," he said, forgetting that, today, and after two years of continued massacre against the Gaza Strip, plus Tel Aviv's colonial policy in the occupied territories of the West Bank, that is everything. In any case, Starmer assured that Israelis and Palestinians "deserve to live in peace, to rebuild their lives, freed from violence and suffering," and stressed that this is also "the deep desire of the British people."

London reaches the decision - with which US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he disagreed.– dragging its feet, after having practically unconditionally supported Tel Aviv despite the atrocities of Netanyahu's military campaign, until only a few months ago it partially suspended the shipment of some types of weapons to Israel.

Britain's historical responsibility

But the current situation is catastrophic, and the United Kingdom's historical responsibility is paramount. Indeed, it was in 1917 that Her Majesty's government issued the Balfour Declaration and promised a "Jewish national home" in Palestine without consulting the Arab majority living there. In 1920, London received the British Mandate for Palestine from the League of Nations, which gave it colonial political and administrative control of the territory. As a metropolis, London favored Jewish immigration, harshly repressed Palestinian national aspirations, such as the so-called Great Arab Revolt (1936-1939), and, after World War II and the Holocaust, further limited Jewish settlement throughout the area. British repression weakened Palestinian society. In 1948, London abandoned an ethnically and religiously divided territory, and the Arab-Israeli War began.(1948-1949), immediately after the proclamation of the State of Israel. Something that coincided with Nakba, the forced exile of more than 700,000 Palestinians. Quite possibly, the partition of the territory of Palestine between a Jewish state and an Arab state (which never existed), imposed by the victorious powers of the Second World War at the UN, would not have been possible without the previous British colonial administration.

The words coming out of London, Ottawa, or Canberra do nothing to prevent the escalation of destruction and murder in Gaza, nor the acceleration of settlements in the West Bank. Recognition as an essential step to reopen the path to serious negotiations. Israel is further isolated, but no one is stopping it.