Lammy: recognising Palestine will keep two-state Middle East peace hopes alive

The UK recognising a Palestinian state will have little immediate impact but will sustain hopes for an eventual peace settlement, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said.

Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce the move on Sunday after concluding the international community has a moral responsibility to act in order to keep the hope of long-term peace alive.

Mr Lammy acknowledged it would not ease the humanitarian crisis or secure the release of hostages, but would keep open the prospect of an eventual two-state solution with a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel.

“Any decision to recognise a Palestinian state, if that were to take place later on today, does not make a Palestinian state happen overnight,” Mr Lammy said.

He suggested a peace process would have to be based on the 1967 borders, with a shared capital in Jerusalem, issues that could take some time to resolve.

But he suggested recognition would help keep the prospect of a two-state solution alive.

“It is to keep that process alive, a process that the United Kingdom has committed to over successive governments,” he told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.

“So that is the decision. It’s not to say as night follows day, you recognise one day and a Palestinian state appears the next.”

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “Will this feed children? No it won’t, that’s down to humanitarian aid. Will this free hostages? That must be down to a ceasefire.”

But, he added: “What do we say to the children of a future Palestinian state?

“Do we say we have to wait for the perfect conditions before we can recognise a Palestinian state?

“Or do we say, when we see the E1 development, the expansion plans the Israeli government now have in the West Bank, when we see the decision not to move towards a ceasefire, but instead to attack Qatar and set back that ceasefire. Do we say to them: No, you cannot have that Palestinian state that is your dream?

“And I think that’s the assessment not just the UK, but France, Australia, Canada, Belgium are making at this time.”

The Palestinian head of mission in the UK Husam Zomlot told the BBC that recognition would right a colonial-era wrong.

“The issue today is ending the denial of our existence that started 108 years ago, in 1917,” he said.

“And I think today, the British people should celebrate a day when history is being corrected, when wrongs are being righted, when recognition of the wrongs of the past are beginning to be corrected, and when taking responsibility of that colonial era, because that era has led us directly to the genocide in Gaza today, and that era has led to the ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian people during the Nakba and during the British mandate.”

Nakba is the term used to describe the mass displacement of Palestinians during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 after the end of the British Mandate.

Mr Zomlot said “the hands of British history” were on the whole conflict.

He added that recognition was a “foundational step” towards establishing a sovereign state of Palestine “and anybody who argues against that is somebody who wants to see us moving backward rather than forward”.

But the families of some of the hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 atrocities have urged Sir Keir not to go ahead with recognition.

In an open letter to Sir Keir, they said: “Your regrettable announcement of the UK’s intention to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly has dramatically complicated efforts to bring home our loved ones.

“Hamas has already celebrated the UK’s decision as a victory and reneged on a ceasefire deal.

“We write to you with a simple plea – do not take this step until our loved ones are home and in our arms.”

Ilay David, brother of hostage Evyatar David, who was seen emaciated in a Hamas video last month, said: “Giving this recognition is like saying to Hamas: ‘It is OK, you can keep starving the hostages, you can keep using them as human shields’.

“This kind of recognition gives Hamas power to be stubborn in negotiations.

“That is the last thing we need right now.”

Sir Keir and his ministers have sought to stress that recognition of a Palestinian state is not a reward for Hamas, saying it can have no role in the future governance of Gaza and have stepped up demands for the release of hostages.

It is expected the Government will ratchet up sanctions on Hamas in due course.

But shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel accusing Sir Keir of “capitulating” to Labour backbenchers on the issue to shore up his leadership.

“With the terrorist organisation Hamas still holding hostages in barbaric conditions and glorifying acts of terror, Starmer is sending a dangerous message, where violence and extremism are tolerated and rewarded,” she said.

Dame Priti also described the preparation of fresh sanctions on Hamas as a “feeble last-minute attempt” to placate Donald Trump.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Hamas and a Palestinian state are inseparable for now.

“This is typical of Starmer, he can’t really decide where he stands.

“Whatever the caveats in his statement, this announcement is a surrender to terrorism and a betrayal of Israel.”