British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that the UK would recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, and meets several other conditions, including recommitting to a viable peace process.
The decision, which was relayed by Starmer to his cabinet and then to the public by way of a government statement, was swiftly condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared the move “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism.”
The announcement marked a major diplomatic predicament for Israel, coming days after France said it would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
Starmer said that Israel could forestall the measure by reaching a ceasefire in Gaza and end the “appalling situation” there, making clear that it will not annex the West Bank, and committing to a peace process that results in a two-state solution.
“The Palestinian people have endured terrible suffering,” Starmer told reporters. “Now, in Gaza, because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand, images that will stay with us for a lifetime. The suffering must end.”
An unnamed source told Reuters that Starmer spoke with Netanyahu before the announcement. Starmer also spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before going public, the PA’s official Wafa news agency reported.
Abbas praised Starmer and called on the UK to “officially recognize the State of Palestine immediately.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who did not offer Israel a way to avoid the unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, had been pushing Starmer to follow his lead, as were a growing number of lawmakers in Britain’s ruling Labour Party, seeing it as a way to pressure Israel amid growing concern of starvation in Gaza.
Britain, if it acts, would be the second Western power on the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state after France, and would be the closest of Israel’s allies to do so. The decision may lead more Western countries to make the move as well, with Malta declaring later Tuesday that it too will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
“Our position reflects our commitment to efforts for a lasting peace in the Middle East,” Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela said in a Facebook post.
Starmer’s decision marked a striking reversal in policy after he disappointed many last week by rejecting calls to recognize a Palestinian state and saying that the timing must be right as part of a wider peace process.
But he has been increasingly vocal about the crisis in Gaza, saying that the people there faced an “absolute catastrophe” and that the British public were “revolted” by scenes of hunger and desperation.
He said that before taking a final decision, his government would assess in September on “how far the parties have met these steps,” but that no one would have a veto over the decision.
In his announcement, the British leader stressed that the recognition of a Palestinian state did not amount to recognizing the Hamas terror group as a legitimate state actor.
“Hamas are a terrorist organization responsible for the October 7th atrocities. They must never be rewarded. We have been unequivocal in our condemnation of those evil attacks, and our support for the right of the State of Israel to self-defense,” the government statement read.
“Hamas must immediately release all the hostages, sign up to an immediate ceasefire, accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza, and commit to disarmament,” it added.
The UK government statement also acknowledged that “recognition by itself will not change the situation on the ground.”
As such, it said that the move would come alongside “additional immediate steps to alleviate the humanitarian situation,” including airdropping supplies into Gaza in coordination with Jordan, as well as evacuating injured children from the Strip to receive medical treatment in the UK.
The announcement came a day after Starmer met with US President Donald Trump, who told him that he did “not mind” if Britain recognized a Palestinian state, though Washington has long declined to do so.
Trump appeared to distance himself from those remarks after Starmer’s announcement, however, insisting they did not discuss the issue during his four-day visit to Scotland.
“We never did discuss it,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling back to the US.
“You’re rewarding Hamas if you do that,” he added. “I don’t think they should be rewarded.”
His comments echoed criticism from Israel, which, in a statement from the Foreign Ministry, declared that it “rejects” the UK’s decision.
The recognition of a Palestinian state “constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” it said.
In an English-language post on the official Prime Minister of Israel account on X, Netanyahu railed at his British counterpart, saying, “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims.”
“A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW,” declared the statement. “Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
Criticism also poured in from the Israeli opposition, although this was directed at the coalition, which it blamed for allowing the UK to reach this decision.
“This government led us from the most justified war in the world to a diplomatic disaster,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wrote in a Hebrew-language post on X. “One failure after another. A prime minister who has vanished from the diplomatic arena, a useless foreign minister, and ministers who endanger IDF soldiers every time they open their mouths.”
Yisrael Betyenu chairman Avigdor Liberman similarly declared that “the person responsible for the October 7 disaster is also responsible for the diplomatic collapse that keeps growing,” apparently referencing Netanyahu.
“More and more countries are considering recognizing the catastrophe known as a Palestinian state — including the UK, one of the key members of the United Nations Security Council,” Liberman added.
The decision was more warmly welcomed elsewhere, including at a United Nations conference on the two-state solution, where British Foreign Secretary David Lammy expounded on the decision.
Addressing the conference, Lammy said potential UK recognition of Palestinian statehood was intended to put pressure on Jerusalem to end fighting in Gaza.
“What we have attempted to do is affect the situation on the ground, and I sincerely hope that we see a dramatic improvement to the suffering that we see and a commitment to a ceasefire,” he told reporters at the United Nations.
Asked if Trump was given a heads-up, Lammy avoided giving a direct answer, saying instead that while the US and UK have the “most special” relationship, “we have always been clear that no country has veto on solemn decisions that we make in the United Kingdom.”
Lammy won loud and sustained applause for the UK’s announcement at the ministerial meeting he was speaking at.
He told the meeting that the rejection of a two-state solution by Netanyahu’s government “is wrong morally and it’s wrong strategically,” and stressed that it harmed the Israeli people by closing off what he said was the only path to peace.