THE SNP has demanded that the UK Government immediately recognise a Palestinian state after Israel announced a plan to thwart a two-state solution.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced today that he will approve illegal settlement plans to build more than 3000 homes in the West Bank in order to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
The so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim, which has been frozen amid fierce opposition internationally and within Israel, would effectively cut off the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem.
"The plan will bury the idea of a Palestinian state,” he told Israeli media – adding that this would be the case "because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise".
Keir Starmer announced last month that the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
But given this new development, the SNP have said that the conditions need to be dropped and that a Palestinian state needs to be recognised now.
“There should be no conditions on recognising Palestinian Statehood and this should be all the evidence Keir Starmer needs to drop the strings he’s needlessly attached to that process,” the party’s Middle East spokesperson Brendan O'Hara (below) said.
“It is patently obvious that Israel is doing all it can to ensure there is nothing left of Palestine to recognise and it is time the UK Government stopped the delays which they’ve been guilty of throughout the appalling destruction and slaughter in Gaza.”
The Prime Minister previously said that he would make an "assessment" before the United Nations General Assembly beginning on September 9 "before making a final decision" to ensure that "no one side will have a veto".
The statement from No 10 added: "He reiterated that he had taken this action to protect the viability of the two-state solution, and that the immediate focus must be to get more aid urgently into Gaza, and that work would continue to bring allies on board with the plan that delivers a long-term settlement to the conflict."
