OPINION: Recognising a Palestinian state now will diminish Britain’s relevance
Mike Tapp MP argues that the Government's intended course is 'an easy, symbolic act which suggests there is some way to short circuit the hard graft of direct negotiations'
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is desperate and must remain the immediate priority alongside freeing the hostages. As the prime minister reiterated last Tuesday when he announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September, we urgently need more aid delivered more quickly.
This action must be coupled with a concerted effort to force Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal which Israel has accepted and to ensure the unconditional release of the Israeli hostages who have now been held by their captors for over 660 days. The release of the hostages must be among the conditions for any UK recognition.
There are also wider factors the government needs to consider when it assesses the situation in September.
The Oslo accords – which established the Palestinian Authority – state that any dispute must be resolved through direct negotiations.
If Britain now abandons our commitment to this core principle underpinning the accords by proceeding with recognition in September absent a wider process, this will be a gift to those in Israel and the Palestinian Territories who have always opposed them, leading to further polarisation and radicalisation.
Hamas has already thanked Britain and France for our announcements. After the pain, anguish and suffering it has inflicted on the people of Gaza, it is desperate to claim that its three-decade campaign of terror – which culminated in the atrocities of 7 October – has achieved the greatest prize of Palestinian statehood, while the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to the principle of non-violence has failed.
For a two-state solution to achieve the ends we all desire – self-determination for the Palestinian people and security for the Israeli people – it is crucial that Britain also conditions recognition on Hamas committing to disarmament and having no further role in the governance of a Palestinian state .
This is the common-sense view of the British people. As polling conducted last weekend by More in Common shows, less than quarter of voters want to see the UK immediately recognise a Palestinian state; most believe recognition should only come about when Hamas is no longer in control of the Gaza strip.
They are absolutely right to see Hamas – which wants to establish an authoritarian Islamist state across the entirety of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza – as the principal impediment to a lasting peace and a two-state solution. It was, after all, Hamas which initiated a savage suicide bombing campaign to derail the Oslo accords and launched the 7 October atrocities to stop the fast-advancing talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalise their relations.
Parliamentary support for immediate recognition has, in part, been driven by a sense that settlement-building is making a Palestinian state unviable.
Labour Friends of Israel, of which I am a vice-chair, has long called for Israel to remove illegal settlement outposts and cease settlement expansion. The settlements are wrong and are clearly a barrier to peace. Outrageous extremist settler violence is also increasing and must be tackled.
But, again, there is no evidence that the recognition of a Palestinian state will impact the situation on the ground.
Moreover, it simply isn’t the case that settlements represent an insurmountable obstacle to peace and a two-state solution.
First, Israel has attempted to trade land for peace on several occasions – withdrawing from Sinai in the early 1980s and Gaza in 2005, for instance – and has ripped up settlements and forcibly evacuated its citizens in the process. Settlers living in far-flung communities in the West Bank could be similarly evacuated as part of a future two-state solution.
Second, some 85 percent of Israeli settlers live in the “settlement blocs” located within the security barrier, such as Maale Adumim and Modiin Ilit, which abut the 1967 “Green Line”.
All peace negotiations since 2000 have proceeded under the assumption that most of these settlement blocs, which would not obstruct the contiguity or viability of a Palestinian state, will become part of Israel in any future agreement. In return, land near the 1967 border that is currently part of Israel would become part of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have agreed to this principle of “land swaps” and so have previous Israeli governments.
Indeed, this was the basis on which we have come painfully close to a deal twice in the past 25 years – at Camp David in 2000 and Annapolis in 2008 – but, tragically, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas walked away from the chance to establish a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the West Bank and Gaza.
Unilateral recognition in September risks handing Hamas a PR victory and, by playing the card before the conditions for lasting peace are met, diminishing Britain’s relevance in any future peace process. It remains a mirage: an easy, symbolic act which suggests there is some way to short circuit the hard graft of direct negotiations – wrestling with tough compromises and minute details – which ultimately remains the only credible, serious path to a two-state solution.
Mike Tapp MP is Vice Chair of Labour Friends of Israel
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