The British government officially recognized the State of Palestine on Sunday, September 21, t two days before the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly opened in New York. Canada and Australia did likewise, with almost simultaneous announcements, followed by Portugal later in the day. While these four countries were far from the first to recognize the Palestinian territories as a sovereign state, as over 145 countries worldwide have done so since the late 1980s, Ottawa and London became the first G7 capitals to do so. France is expected to follow suit on Monday, in a speech by President Emmanuel Macron at the UN headquarters.
Although these decisions were, above all, symbolic, as the West Bank and Gaza Strip remain under Israeli military occupation, the United Kingdom's move carried undeniable historic weight. As a long-standing ally of Israel, London was behind the famous Balfour Declaration, on November 2, 1917, which provided crucial support to the Zionist movement. In that document, signed by the eponymous Arthur Balfour, who served as Britain's foreign secretary at the time, the UK expressed its support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
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