‘Shame on you!’ – former UK hostage criticises Palestinian recognition announcement
Emily Damari: 'By legitimising a state entity while Hamas still controls Gaza...the Prime Minister is not promoting a solution; he is prolonging the conflict'
A British hostage kept captive by Hamas has strongly criticised the government’s move to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state, describing the decision as “a moral failure” which risks “rewarding terror”.
Emily Damari, a dual British-Israeli citizen who was taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October and survived 471 days in Hamas captivity, described Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “not standing on the right side of history.
“Had he been in power during World War II, would he have advocated recognition for Nazi control of occupied countries like Holland, France or Poland?”
Damari went on to state this “this move does not advance peace – it risks rewarding terror. It sends a dangerous message that violence earns legitimacy.
“By legitimising a state entity while Hamas still controls Gaza and continues its campaign of terror, the Prime Minister is not promoting a solution; he is prolonging the conflict. Recognition under these conditions emboldens extremists and undermines any hope for genuine peace. Shame on you!”
The former hostage’s comments have come after the British government announced yesterday that it intended to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel agreed to a series of demands, including signing a ceasefire agreement. The announcement from the government was unclear as to whether Hamas would also have to accede to longstanding demands from the UK in order for such a state to be recognised.
The Board of Deputies, which had scheduled an emergency meeting last night to discuss the situation in Gaza, released a statement last night confirming that it was “seeking clarification that the UK Government will not recognise a Palestinian State while Hamas fails to meet UK demands, including accepting a ceasefire and releasing the hostages.”
The Board reiterated that it has “long supported a negotiated two-state solution that ensures a secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian State, whilst maintaining that recognising a Palestinian State without a diplomatic agreement risks putting gestures ahead of substance.”
A statement from Adam Rose and Adam Wagner KC, the lawyers representing British hostage families, described the families as “deeply concerned that hostages have been made a bargaining chip by the UK in its Palestinian State declaration statement.”
The statement published by the lawyers continued by saying that “for almost two years, the British hostage families have encouraged the U.K. to use any leverage it has to help secure the release of their loved ones. They have sat in 10 Downing Street with successive Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries who have looked them in the eyes and promised the U.K. will do everything in its power to secure the immediate and unconditional release of their loved ones, whose detention is unambiguously a war crime.
We are concerned that the UK’s proposal risks delaying the release of the hostages. This is because the UK has said that it will recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel agrees a ceasefire. But the risk is that Hamas will continue to refuse to a ceasefire because if it agrees to one this would make U.K. recognition less likely. The families are therefore deeply concerned that the U.K.’s approach risks disincentivising Hamas from releasing the hostages. This risks doing exactly what the Prime Minister’s statement says the U.K. will not do: reward Hamas for its heinous and illegal acts.”
The government’s announcement that it would officially recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel fulfilled a number of conditions – including signing a ceasefire agreement with Hamas – came some 72 hours after the Prime Minister had stated that recognition of such a state needed to be part of a “wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis”.
As a result, the apparent change of heart on Tuesday afternoon was condemned by political opponents, with the leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, describing the move as an attempt by Keir Starmer “to try and sort out a political problem for the Labour Party.
“Recognising a Palestinian state won’t bring the hostages home, won’t end the war and won’t get aid into Gaza. This is political posturing at its very worst.”
The Jewish Leadership Council’s statement was emphatic, stating that “unilateral recognition will not bring into existence a Palestinian state or peace for the people of the region. This is a position that the government has stated itself in recent weeks. Today’s reversal, with a supposedly conditioned announcement, is a transparent attempt to sacrifice this fact in the hope of reducing domestic political pressure.
“The announcement has failed to make clear that the release of the hostages and end of Hamas rule is a condition of recognition. Unless this is made clear, recognition can only be seen as a reward from the UK for terrorism.”
Meanwhile, the Campaign Against Antisemitism described the government’s announcement as “morally indefensible”, with “hostages held in torturous conditions in Hamas dungeons in Gaza…Keir Starmer should be saying that he will take the issue of Palestinian statehood off the table if the hostages are not returned by September or sooner. Instead, he has decided to brandish recognition of a Palestinian state as a threat against the world’s only Jewish state as it seeks to retrieve the hostages still held nearly two years after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
Yachad UK said: “We support the recognition of a Palestinian state – supporting a two-state solution means recognising the right to self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians. Recognising of Palestine isn’t a ‘reward for Hamas’, nor should it be framed as a punishment to Israel’s government.
“It is more urgent than ever that that the UK government, with international allies, focuses all efforts on ending the war and freeing the hostages. The release of hostages & aid to Gaza mustn’t be depicted as a bargaining chip.”
Progressive Judaism said: “We affirm the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland. We also recognise the parallel right of the Palestinian people to live in dignity, freedom and security in a state of their own.
“This must not be a reward for violence. Hamas – a terrorist organisation that rejects Israel’s right to exist – continues to hold hostages and exerts control over parts of the Palestinian population. We welcome the Prime Minister’s demands on Hamas – that they must release all the hostages, disarm, and play no role in the future government of Gaza.
“Recognition must not embolden those who reject peace or undermine those working for a negotiated future, but encourage leadership on both sides invested in peace. It must be part of a commitment to the hard, necessary work of building a just and lasting peace, for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
The government even received muted criticism from within Labour, with the Labour Friends of Israel stating that while it shared the government’s desire to end the devastating conflict in Gaza and continued to totally oppose any Israeli annexation of the West Bank, “recognition of a Palestinian state outside of a meaningful peace process will change nothing on the ground and will damage our reputation as an impartial broker, reducing our ability to bring about a sustainable long-term peace.
“It is important to remember that Israel is not the only party to this conflict with agency. Israel accepted a ceasefire deal earlier this month, but – as in the past – Hamas rejected this offer.”
The We Believe In Israel group called on the UK government to “rethink its flawed course” stating that “the UK’s approach wrongly frames Israel as the sole party responsible, ignoring the decades-long failure of Arab nations to address the conflict or integrate Palestinians into a regional peace strategy.”
The response from within Israel itself to the UK’s decision has been scathing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu description of it was that “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims. A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
The Hostage Families Forum also condemned the move, stating that “recognizing a Palestinian state while 50 hostages remain trapped in Hamas tunnels amounts to rewarding terrorism…The abduction of men, women, and children, who are being held against their will in tunnels while subjected to starvation and physical and psychological abuse, cannot and should not serve as the foundation for establishing a state.
If the international community truly desires peace, it must join U.S. efforts by demanding first the release of all hostages, followed by an end to the fighting.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state before the hostages are returned will be remembered throughout history as validating terrorism as a legitimate pathway to political goals.”
The government has also been condemned by British Palestinians for its announcement, with the British Palestinian Committee describing it as “absurd and performative.”
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