Badenoch says Starmer ‘rewarding terror’ as UK prepares to recognise Palestine
Kemi Badenoch has accused Sir Keir Starmer of giving Hamas a “reward for terrorism” amid reports the UK could recognise a Palestinian state as early as Sunday.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Conservative leader said she would “never apologise for standing by Israel when it strikes back against terrorism”, and said Labour’s foreign policy was to “condemn our allies, indulge our adversaries and hand away our sovereignty”.
Her comments come as the Government is expected to announce its formal recognition of Palestine.
Sir Keir announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state in July, saying he would do so during the UN General Assembly meeting in September if Israel did not take “substantive steps” towards peace in Gaza.
Famine
There has been no ceasefire and the situation in Gaza has deteriorated, with a declaration of a famine in Gaza City and the expansion of Israeli military operations.
The Times reported that Sir Keir intends to recognise a Palestinian state on Sunday, the day before the UN General Assembly’s general debate begins in New York.
The move would spark a diplomatic row with Israel and the US.
During a visit to London last week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said recognising Palestine “won’t help one Palestinian, one hostage” and could be “adversely interpreted by Hamas”.
Trump
During a joint press conference with the Prime Minister at Chequers on Thursday, Donald Trump said he disagreed with recognition, although he did not repeat previous comments that it would reward Hamas.
At the same press conference, Sir Keir denied that he was waiting for the US president to leave the UK before announcing recognition, saying he had “made my position clear at the end of July, so the timing, it’s got nothing to do with this state visit”.
But he said Hamas could have “no part in any future governance in Palestine”, adding the group “don’t want a two-state solution. They don’t want peace, they don’t want a ceasefire”.
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Only a profound mind sickness could prevent it from recognising as terrorism the ongoing mass slaughter, starvation, displacement and attempted eradication of an entire people.
So she is standing up for genocide and ethnic cleansing of a semitic Palestinian population. She might as well sit down now.
She says while being totally irrelevant after leading the Tories into obscurity.
Sucking up to a genocider (according to a UN investigation) is rewarding terrorism.
If our allies choose genocide, we must disavow them
The thing about Kemikazi (As the Guardian’s John Grace callers her) is that she is a most reliable politician. She has always been well out of touch with reality and the responsibility of being Leader of the Opposition has never changed her. I wonder if there is anybody out there who actually believes the things that she says?
She has her orders from the US GOP.
She doesn’t say anything that will upset Trump.
All forms of terrorism deserve our utmost condemnation and I profoundly denounce Hamas’ attack on Israel in 2023 (1,140 killed, 200 hostages taken). However, this is nowhere near the terror meted out on the Palestinians by the Israelis since then – over 65,000 killed, a deliberate starvation policy employed and most of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure (including hospitals) destroyed. The Palestinians are just as deserving of their own state as the Israelis. This I believe not because I’m rewarding Hamas terror, as Badenoch suggests, as I believed it long before I’d heard of Hamas.