RECOGNISING Palestine as a state would “mean next to nothing” if it is not accompanied by concrete actions such as halting arms sales to Israel, an expert has told The National.
The UK Government has been coming under increasing pressure to recognise the state of [[Palestine]] after France announced it would be doing so in September.
More than 250 MPs have called on Keir Starmer to follow French president Emmanuel Macron, with Labour minister Jonathan Reynolds saying the Government will recognise Palestine in this parliament “if it delivers the breakthrough we need”.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed following an emergency Cabinet meeting that the UK would recognise the state of Palestine in September unless Israel agreed to a "long-term peace process" that delivered a two-state solution.
However, Richard McNeil-Willson, who lectures in the Islamic and Middle Eastern studies department at Edinburgh University, told The National that while a discussion about recognising [[Palestine]] is needed, it won’t mean anything without concrete action against Israel.
“The recognition of [[Palestine]] as a state is so farcically below the bare minimum of what is required right now in the midst of a genocide and man-made famine in Gaza,” he said.
“This is not to say the recognition of a state is nothing, it is something that is needed and has been pushed for for a long time by Palestinians and there is a difference between being recognised as someone from a state and being recognised as a stateless individual.
“So this is a conversation that’s needed [but] the way that’s been gone about is appalling. Historically, the UK is hugely culpable for the present day occupation of Palestine, for the genocide, and the displacement of Palestinian people, all the way from the Balfour Declaration all the way through to today, and it’s taken two years of genocide, indiscriminate bombings and famine for Western states to even consider accepting Palestinian people as equal enough to be allowed a state.
“If we look at the UK context, it’s taken France to push for this recognition for this conversation to be had in the UK governmental level.”
McNeil-Willson added that recognition of a Palestinian state by the UK could also be “an attempt to pivot away from complicity in war crimes”, suggesting that it was “cynical” the way in which the discussion was gathering pace.
“It’s now at the point where you’ve got 250 MPs demanding this,” he said.
“There seems to be no moral drive by the Starmer government in order to make this decision. This is the case of it being dragged into recognising a Palestinian state which will mean next to nothing if there are no concrete steps made alongside.”
In September last year, the UK Government suspended 30 out of around 350 arms exports licences to Israel.
But the UK continues to license exports of F-35 fighter jet parts, which have been documented being used by Israel in Gaza.
The move by Macron has seen him place emphasis on a “demilitarised Palestinian state” living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security.
McNeil-Willson said he fears this would be a way of entrenching the status quo, where Palestinians' core rights – such as a right to self-defence – continue to be denied.
In a piece for The Converstion, law lecturer Malak Benslama-Dabdoub – based at Royal Holloway University of London – outlined how analysts have warned that recognition of this kind risks formalising a state in name only – a fragmented, non-sovereign entity without control over its borders, resources or defence.
McNeil-Willson added there also needs to be a warning around the idea of a two-state solution.
“The two-state solution has been continuously used in order to create this idea of a Palestinian state that wouldn’t have autonomy,” he said.
“I still don’t think the two-state solution is a viable solution. So, in recognising a Palestinian state, it mustn’t push us towards imagining that a two-state solution is viable.”
If the UK was ever to recognise Palestinian statehood, McNeil-Willson said there needs to be a serious discussion too about what that state would look like.
He said: “Currently, what Palestine is there? There is a ruinous Gaza in the grips of famine, there’s an occupied West Bank that’s continually being sliced up by ever-expanding settlements, those Palestinians that can are leaving.
“This is not the basis for a state in any form. If there is going to be recognition of a Palestinian state, it needs to be clear what that state would look like and it needs to conform to the international understanding of what a state is.”
