Starmer to announce UK recognition of Palestinian state on Sunday

2025-09-21 08:34:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Keir Starmer is expected to announce the UK's recognition of the Palestinian state in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

The Prime Minister said in July that the UK's position would change in September if Israel did not meet certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and committing to a long-term peace process that would lead to a two-state solution.

The UK has long sought a deal that would see a Palestinian state coexist with Israel - something the Israeli leadership has shied away from since the start of its war with the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

The prime minister's move has drawn sharp criticism from the Israeli government, the families of hostages held in Gaza and some conservatives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said this "rewards terror."

The decision to recognise a Palestinian state represents a major shift in UK foreign policy, as successive governments have said recognition should come as part of a peace process and at a time of maximum impact.

However, ministers argue that there was a moral responsibility to act to keep hopes for a long-term peace alive.

Efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza - let alone a long-term solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict - have failed. Israel recently sparked international outrage when it carried out an airstrike on a Hamas negotiating team in Qatar.

Government sources said the situation on the ground had deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. They cited images showing hunger and violence in Gaza, which Sir Keir had previously described as "intolerable".

Israel's latest ground operation in Gaza City, described by a UN official as "catastrophic", has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

It is the latest Israeli offensive in the nearly two-year war that began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel - in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken back to Gaza - and has seen most of the Palestinian territory's population displaced, its infrastructure destroyed and at least 65,208 people killed, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry.

Earlier this week, a United Nations investigative commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel denounced as "distorted and false."

The ministers also highlighted the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, as a key factor in the decision to recognize Palestinian statehood.

Justice Secretary David Lammy, who was foreign secretary when the recognition was proposed, cited the controversial E1 settlement project - which critics warn would end hopes for a viable and independent Palestinian state - as well as violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank./ CNA, translated by BBC