Britain, Australia, and Canada on Sunday recognised a Palestinian State in a seismic shift in decades of Western foreign policy, triggering swift Israeli anger.
Portugal was also to recognise Palestinian statehood later Sunday, as Israel came under huge international pressure over the war in Gaza triggered almost two years ago by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a message on X.
Britain and Canada became the first G7 countries to take the step, with France and other nations expected to follow at the annual UN General Assembly, which opens Monday in New York.
“Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.
It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their decades-long ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful Western nations having long argued it should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.
But the move puts those countries at odds with the United States and Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacting angrily and vowing to oppose it at the UN talks.
Calls for a Palestinian state “would endanger our existence and serve as an absurd reward for terrorism,” Netanyahu said Sunday.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) shakes hands with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (L) at the beginning of their meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on September 8, 2025.
A growing number of longtime allies have shifted positions, as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, vowing to eliminate the Hamas Palestinian militants.
The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, a spiralling death toll, and a lack of food that has sparked a major humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict, which has drawn an international outcry.
Special Burden
The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands rallying every month on the streets. A poll released by YouGov on Friday showed two-thirds of young Britons aged 18 to 25 supported Palestinian statehood.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy acknowledged at the UN in July that “Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-state solution”.
Over a century ago, the UK was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the creation of the state of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Three-quarters of UN members already recognise Palestinian statehood, with over 140 of the 193 having taken the step.
Starmer said in July that his Labour government intended to recognise a Palestinian State unless Israel took “substantive” steps, including reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, getting more aid into the territory, and confirming it would not annex the West Bank.
Starmer has also repeatedly called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages they captured in the 2023 attack, and is expected to set out new sanctions on the Palestinian militants.
Lammy told the BBC on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority — the civilian body that governs in areas of the West Bank — had been calling for the move for some time, “and I think a lot of that is wrapped up in hope”.
“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,” he said.
But Lammy said it was an attempt to “hold out for” a two-state solution.
Palestinian foreign minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin told AFP last week: “Recognition is not symbolic.”
“It sends a very clear message to the Israelis on their illusions about continuing their occupation forever,” she added.
Worrying Evolution
Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,208 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Portugal said that it would also formally declare its recognition in New York on Sunday.
“By acting now, as the Portuguese government has decided, we’re keeping alive the possibility of having two states,” Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.
Netanyahu accuses Western leaders of recognition
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sharply criticised Sir Keir Starmer following the UK government’s decision to recognise Palestine as a state, accusing the British leader of “rewarding terrorism.”
Netanyahu, addressing the move on Sunday, September 21, from the United States where he is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump, said the recognition would not lead to peace and vowed to issue a full response on his return.
“I have a clear message to those leaders who recognize a Palestinian state after the terrible massacre of October 7: You are giving a huge reward to terrorism,” he said. “And I have another message for you: It will not happen. There will not be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan.”
The UK announcement came ahead of the UN General Assembly, with Starmer framing the decision as an effort to restore hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. “To revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution, I state clear as Prime Minister of this great country that the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine,” he declared in a televised address.
“We recognised the State of Israel more than 75 years ago as a homeland for the Jewish people. Today we join over 150 countries who recognise a Palestinian state also. A pledge to the Palestinian and Israeli people that there can be a better future.”
Starmer described Hamas as a “brutal terror organisation” and promised stronger sanctions against the group, insisting: “Our call for a genuine two-state solution is the exact opposite of their hateful vision.” He added that recognition was necessary because the situation had become “increasingly intolerable,” citing the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the recognition an “absolutely disastrous” decision. “We will all rue the day this decision was made. Rewarding terrorism with no conditions whatsoever put in place for Hamas,” she said. “It leaves hostages languishing in Gaza and does nothing to stop the suffering of innocent people caught in this war.”
A spokesman for Reform UK echoed those concerns, describing it as “a knee jerk reaction by Keir Starmer to appease the hard left forces inside and outside of his party.”
Netanyahu reiterated his opposition in a post on X, saying the UK’s step “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism” and “punishes its victims.” He added: “A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also condemned the decision, warning it “constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.”
The move has prompted strong international reactions. President Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One after meeting Starmer in Scotland earlier this year, said the issue had never been raised in their discussions. “We never did discuss it,” he told reporters. “You’re rewarding Hamas if you do that. I don’t think they should be rewarded.”
Starmer, however, stressed that recognition was about creating momentum for a two-state solution. “I know the strength of feeling that this conflict provokes. We have seen it on our streets, in our schools, in conversations we’ve had with friends and family. It has created division,” he said. “Some have used it to stoke hatred and fear, but that solves nothing.
”Not only must we reject hate, we must redouble our efforts to combat hatred in all its forms. We must channel our efforts, united together in hope, behind the peaceful future that we want to see… the release of the hostages, an end to the violence, an end to the suffering and a shift back towards a two-state solution as the best hope for peace and security for all sides.”
While the UK’s decision was celebrated by some Labour figures as “historic,” critics described it as symbolic and ineffective. Questions remain over whether recognition will alter the realities on the ground, with Israel continuing its military operations in Gaza, where the conflict has already claimed tens of thousands of lives.
AFP
