Quaker statement on the UK government’s move to recognise Palestine
The future recognition of Palestine is one step, but the UK must act now to end this inhumanity.
Keir Starmer said last week that statehood is "the inalienable right of the Palestinian people". Yesterday he said he would recognise the state of Palestine in September if Israel failed to commit to a ceasefire and a two-state solution. But threats to act later do not end a genocide now.
For over a decade Quakers in Britain have called for the British government to immediately recognise Palestine as a legally, politically and morally vital step on the road to justice and peace. We welcome any shift in the British government's understanding of the power of recognition. But we remain concerned about its overall approach to ending the occupation and genocide we believe Israel is committing.
The threat of future action on its own has consistently proved an ineffective means of applying pressure on the Israeli government. We are further concerned by an approach that conditions the statehood of a people on the actions and goodwill of their occupier.
Hours before Keir Starmer's announcement yesterday the United Nations and the IPC, the international famine monitoring organisation, said they are no longer warning of famine in Gaza but that famine is now underway. Only an immediate end to the violence and a flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza will avert an even larger horror from playing out. Air drops – limited by their nature and often dangerous – and periods of access will not be enough.
Recognition must therefore happen alongside an urgent set of policies to bring an end to the deaths and killing in Gaza. This includes ending all arms sales to and military cooperation with Israel, suspending the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, and banning all trade and investment in companies profiting from the occupation and genocide.
Keir Starmer and his Cabinet must not wait a second longer to end this inhumanity. The time to take concrete action to save the lives of Palestinians being starved and killed today is now. Humanity demands nothing less.