LONDON, Sept 21 \u2013 The UK, Canada and Australia have announced their formal recognition of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
In a video statement, released on social media, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move keeps \u201calive the possibility of peace\u201d and that\u00a0the UK will \u201ckeep fighting to bring\u201d home Israeli hostages.<\/p>\n
In his own video statement, Israel\u2019s PM Benjamin\u00a0Netanyahu accuses the nations of \u201cgiving a huge reward to terrorism\u201d\u00a0and says a Palestinian state \u201cwill not happen\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a clear message to those leaders who recognise a Palestinian state after the terrible massacre on October 7 \u2013 you are giving a huge reward to terrorism,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I have another message for you \u2013 it will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, families of those still being held in Gaza express concern \u2013 in an open letter to Starmer,\u00a0they say recognition \u201ccomplicates efforts to bring home our loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Deputy PM David Lammy defended the UK\u2019s position,\u00a0telling the BBC \u201cnow is the time to stand up for a two-state solution\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamas, which the UK and many other nations have designated as a terrorist organisation, has welcomed the news that the UK, Canada and Australia have all formally recognised a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the armed group and political movement in Gaza says: \u201cThis recognition is an important step in affirming the right of our Palestinian people to their land and holy sites, and to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two of the most hardline figures in Netanyahu\u2019s government,\u00a0National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir\u00a0and\u00a0Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have responded by calling for Israel to assert \u201csovereignty\u201d over the West Bank.<\/p>\n
The pair, who are both ultranationalists who live in West Bank settlements, have previously been sanctioned by the UK for inciting violence against Palestinians.<\/p>\n
On the other side of Israel\u2019s parliament,\u00a0opposition leader Yair Lapid\u00a0says the UK and others have made \u201ca bad step\u201d but lays the blame with Netanyahu, saying \u201ca functioning Israeli government could have prevented this\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, Sept 21 \u2013 The UK, Canada and Australia have announced their formal recognition of a Palestinian state. In a video statement, released on social media, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move keeps \u201calive the possibility of peace\u201d and that\u00a0the UK will \u201ckeep fighting to bring\u201d home Israeli hostages. In his own video statement, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}