‘I want to hug my father': Daughter of Palestinian prisoner awaits father's release
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Glasgow Times
4 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Mike Dailly: UK must recognise Palestine as a state
60,000 are dead in Gaza, with 144,500 Palestinians injured since October 2023. According to DWB, Gazans risk being shot as they look for food. It's against this humanitarian crisis that France will become the first G7 country to recognise Palestine as a state. Last week, President Emmanuel Macron advised the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas that he would announce formal recognition at the United Nation's (UN) General Assembly in September. Such recognition may be largely symbolic but it adds diplomatic pressure for UN membership and statehood. Palestine has been seeking full UN membership since 2011 but has been blocked by the United States (US). Last April, a resolution for UN membership for Palestine was vetoed by the US. The 15-member Security Council had 12 votes in favour, two abstentions and one vote against. A state has certain defining features under international law, including a permanent population, a determinate territory, "effective" government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz described the move by France as "a disgrace and a surrender to terrorism". He said Israel would not permit the establishment of a "Palestinian entity that would harm our security, endanger our existence". US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US "strongly rejects" Macron's plan because it was a "reckless decision" that "only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace." At the same time as Macron's announcement, ceasefire talks were halted as the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams from Qatar. In contrast, France and Saudi Arabia are hosting an international conference at the UN in New York - today and tomorrow - seeking peaceful solutions and renewed efforts for a 'two-state solution'. The US has opted out of attendance. A two-state solution would see an independent Palestinian state established alongside the state of Israel, giving both peoples their own territory. Palestinians want an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, land that have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood and says it would reward militants after the 7 October attacks by Hamas in 2023. President Macron said, "France will seek to make a decisive contribution to peace in the Middle East and will mobilise all of its international partners who wish to take part". While the US continues to insist it supports a two-state solution and peace in the Middle East, in reality, it appears to be a key driver of stalemate in the region. The need for food, water and medicine in Gaza is now beyond an emergency. Jordan and the UAE have a proposal, supported by the UK, to drop aid into Gaza, but aid agencies say this will do little to mitigate the hunger of Gazans as the crisis is now beyond critical. Pressure is on Prime Minister Starmer to follow President Macron and for the UK to recognise Palestine as a state. Around 221 MPs have signed a motion urging him to do so. Let's hope he does so this week.
Scotsman
34 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Why Keir Starmer's government needs to urgently recognise Palestine
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It seems that with every day the situation we see depicted in news footage from Gaza becomes more hopeless. More horrific. Every report to the UK Parliament becomes more difficult to listen to, more frustrating as we know that whatever calls we make to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are unlikely to be heeded. What we're seeing is difficult to believe because we want to hold onto the hope that it isn't possible. We hear journalists describing the crisis are facing the same deprivations. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Increasingly there is agreement across Parliament that it is time we recognised Palestine as a state. We cannot wait for a peace process, one which has consistently failed to deliver its only aim, to come to an agreed path to statehood for the Palestinians. For too many people, it's already too late. Palestinian and Israeli alike. A boy, clearly in distress, queues for food in a charity kitchen in Gaza City earlier this month (Picture: Bashar Taleb) | AFP via Getty Images Students trapped in Gaza This week I received a letter of thanks from a Palestinian academic. A writer and scholar, she wanted me to know how grateful she was that I had written asking the UK Government to ensure safe passage of students and researchers to the University of Edinburgh. She has an unconditional offer to study for a PhD in English literature there, but the closure of the UK visa office in Gaza is denying her and others the opportunity to escape, leaving her stranded amidst the devastation of war. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The week before, I sat in Parliament with an Israeli mother who pleaded for MPs' support to press for the release of her son's body. He was one of the 251 hostages taken on October 7. The world they both knew, and we recognised, changed forever that day. A world shocked by the brutality of the Hamas attack and murder of almost 1,200 people, the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, stood in solidarity and mourning with Israel. Since then, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry claims almost 58,000 people have died and 90 per cent of homes have been destroyed. Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas after October 7 was in no doubt. But the scale of the destruction and acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza which ensued has brought widespread condemnation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'A concentration camp' Many of us who have long regarded ourselves as friends of Israel are distraught at Netanyahu's failure to heed international opinion. One of his predecessors, Ehud Olmert, has criticised the government's plans for a so-called 'humanitarian city' for the Palestinians in Gaza saying: 'It is a concentration camp. I'm sorry.' It has to stop. Myself and my fellow Liberal Democrat MPs have already written to the government calling for recognition of Palestine. And pressure has been mounting this weekend on Keir Starmer to follow French President Emmanuel Macron's lead and announce immediate recognition as others have done. We know that has not been the preferred timescale of this government. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said recently: '…I wish I could say that if we were to recognise tomorrow, it would bring this war to an end, but I am afraid I am not sure that is the case. What is required now is painstaking diplomacy to get to a ceasefire…' For those whose lives have been destroyed, or whose loved ones have been lost, that may not be enough.
New Statesman
34 minutes ago
- New Statesman
Will Keir Starmer recognise Palestine?
Photo byThe image stays with you: this week it has covered the front pages of the world's newspapers. A mother, herself worn down and bruised by 21 months of conflict, cradles her child, who is swaddled in a bin bag. The child has lost a third of its body weight, it now weighs 6kg. Such images are not unique in Gaza, where starvation is general to a community after the blockade of humanitarian aid. The international community is looking on in horror, pleading with Israel to reconsider. On Sunday, the Israeli government issued a temporary reprieve allowing deliveries of aid into parts of Gaza. In the UK, there is pressure on the government to officially recognise the state of Palestine. This pressure originally mounted from the backbenches, but now, even members of the cabinet (Shabana Mahmood, Wes Streeting and Hilary Benn) are ramping up their private calls for Starmer to recognise Palestinian statehood. Over the weekend, 220 MPs from nine political parties – including 131 Labour MPs – signed a letter calling for the immediate recognition of Palestine. In the run up to the 2024 general election, the party's manifesto included a pledge to recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution towards a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution, but a year on, and both Starmer and his Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, are yet to make good on this promise. The government's current position is that the UK will acknowledge Palestinian statehood as part of a peace process, but only at the point of 'maximum impact'. On Saturday, Starmer doubled down, rejecting renewed calls for the UK to reconsider and immediately recognise a Palestinian state, reasserting the UK's alignment with the US on this issue (a move which one cabinet minister told The Times was 'deeply inadequate'). The opportunity for Starmer to recognise the Palestinian state has presented itself more than once. Most recently, it was thought that Starmer might wait to go ahead with recognition alongside the French President, Emmanuel Macron. The UK and France argue a historical responsibility for the continuation of a Palestinian community in the Middle East, and so plenty suspected the countries would make a dual statement. But the opportunity for joint Franco-UK recognition has now passed. On Thursday 24 July, Macron announced France's intention to recognise Palestine at the upcoming UN general assembly. (Starmer, on the other hand, almost simultaneously released a statement sticking to the government line). Backbench MPs are losing their patience. Rachael Maskell, who lost the Labour whip last week following her involvement in the welfare rebellion, believes 'time is running out' for any governmental recognition of Palestine to have its desired effect. 'We should have recognised Palestine many, many years ago,' she said, 'it's been Labour party policy since 2014'. Maskell was one of 60 MPs to sign a letter to the Foreign Secretary in July calling for Palestine's immediate recognition. Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby agreed: 'We had a vote over a decade ago about Palestine. [Recognition] was in the manifesto. What we're seeing now with the genocide, there's the political will now from all sides of the house to do something.' Byrne said now is the time for the UK to step up and take international responsibility. 'The UK has the opportunity to do the right thing. We are one of the world leaders and sometimes you need a leader to take the lead.' He criticised the government for acting 'extremely slowly' on Gaza. Even more moderate back-bench Labour MPs are ramping up the pressure on the government. One member of the 2024 intake told me, 'It's beyond horrific, we have to seriously consider our relationship with Israel.' Israel has now offered a brief cessation of its full scale aid blockade, and Lammy has said the channelling of aid into the Gaza strip must be 'urgently accelerated'. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe No country is likely to get involved in this conflict militarily (unless a UN peacekeeping force is assembled), instead, more substantial diplomatic levers could be pulled such as suspending the UK-Israel trade agreement and imposing sanctions not only on the most outspoken ministers (as the UK has already done with Smotrich and Ben Gvir) but all Israeli political and military leaders involved in the conflict. Many Labour MPs would agree with this. Byrne called for an 'arms embargo, military cooperation to be ended, and comprehensive sanctions'. And it is not just Labour. Kit Malthouse, the Conservative MP for North West Hertfordshire said Lammy could end up in the Hague over his inaction on Gaza as he called on the government to press for an immediate ceasefire. This week the Daily Express carried a front page bearing the face of an emaciated Palestinian child crying 'enough is enough': concern over the plight of Palestinians now transcends party politics. This is unlikely to be an electoral downfall for Keir Starmer. But, with the pro-Gaza independent MPs taking seats last summer otherwise ordained for Labour, it is obvious that this is damaging to the party on its left flank. The Prime Minister may continue to prevaricate. But were we at the polls tomorrow, votes would be shed because of it. [See more: The abomination of Obama's nation] Related
