UK government to hostage families: we’ll still recognise Palestinian state if Hamas keeps your relatives

The British Government has made it clear to the UK family members of those who remain hostage in Gaza that the country’s recognition of a Palestinian state will not depend on the release of their loved ones.

At a meeting held at the Foreign Office last night, four British families of those taken hostage by  Hamas on 7 October, met with senior officials who informed them that the government’s policy had changed, Jewish News understands.

In a statement released on Friday by Adam Rose and Adam Wagner KC, the lawyers representing the hostage families said that “Successive governments have made clear to the families that the UK will not become directly involved in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, for various reasons which have frustrated the families, but they have accepted.

“This all changed this week, when the Prime Minister announced that the UK would recognise a state of Palestine contingent (amongst other things) on there not being a ceasefire deal by the end of September. The families have been encouraged by knowing that the UK has until now sought to apply pressure on all parties – Israel and Hamas – to get the hostages out. The intention of this policy appears to be to put pressure on the Israelis only to reach a deal.”

This week’s announcement by Keir Starmer that the British government would unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel took a series of steps – including signing a ceasefire deal – has been widely criticised for what appeared to be significant ambiguity regarding whether Hamas would also need to fulfil certain requirements for such recognition to be enacted.

The lawyers said that concerns had already been raised in the aftermath of Keir Starmer’s statement this week “that that the structure of the British ‘offer’ would disincentivise Hamas from agreeing a deal. Why would Hamas agree to a ceasefire if it knew that to do so would make British recognition of Palestine less likely?

“But the families held out some hope that the policy could not be as they feared, and that since the UK had chosen to impose conditions on recognition, those conditions would also be on Hamas, as otherwise they would essentially be rewarded for continuing to commit war crimes, including hostage taking, and encouraged to continue that path. It was on this point that we hoped to obtain clarification.

“However, it was clear from the meeting last night that the British government’s policy will not help the hostages, and could even hurt them. We do not say this lightly, but it was made obvious to us at the meeting that although the conditions for recognising a Palestinian state would be assessed ‘in the round’ in late-September, in deciding whether to go ahead with recognition, the release or otherwise of the hostages would play no part in those considerations.

“In other words, the ‘vision for peace’ which the UK is pursuing, and which the families heard much about last night, may well involve our clients’ family members continuing to rot in Hamas dungeons, just as British and British-linked hostages Emily Damari and Eli Sharabi did before them.”

Ayelet Stavitsky was one of the family members present at last night’s meeting. Her two brothers, British citizens Nadav and Roi Popplewell, were both murdered by Hamas (one on 7 October and one in captivity), and her mother, Chana Peri, was released from captivity in November 2023. The lawyers said that she told Foreign Office officials that the government’s new stance “is a prize to Hamas for the murder of my two brothers”.

The lawyer’s statement went on to say that “on behalf of all of the families: the UK’s “vision for peace” will fail if, at its heart, there is no place for the 50 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive including Avinatan Or, whose mother is British…The British hostage families implore the Prime Minister to change course before it is too late.

“At a minimum, the British hostage families request that the Government confirm that without the hostages being released, there can be no peace, and that this will be an important part of its decision as to whether to proceed with recognition and its current plan.”