Netanyahu blasts Starmer over pledge UK will recognise Palestine unless war ends
Sir Keir Starmer is rewarding “Hamas’s monstrous terrorism” by announcing he will recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel moves to end the crisis in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed.
The Israeli prime minister issued a statement warning Sir Keir against the move, which the British PM said could take place in September.
The UK would refrain from recognising a Palestinian state if Israel allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank, agrees to a ceasefire and signs up to a long-term peace process over the next two months.
The Prime Minister recalled the Cabinet from their summer holidays to discuss steps to end what he called the “appalling situation in Gaza”, where a UN assessment has warned the population is facing a mounting famine.
Two-state solution
Sir Keir spoke with Mr Netanyahu ahead of making the announcement, when he also warned that a two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East “feels further away today than it has for many, many years”.
Mr Netanyahu did not hold back in his criticism of Sir Keir’s announcement, writing on social media site X: “Starmer 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.”
In his address, Sir Keir insisted that Hamas must immediately release all remaining Israeli hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and “accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza”.
The British Government plans to “make an assessment in September on how far the parties have met these steps”, before it decides whether to recognise a state of Palestine, Sir Keir told reporters.
Speaking from Downing Street’s state dining room – sometimes used for press conferences – the Prime Minister said: “I can confirm the UK will recognise the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September, unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire, and commit to a long-term sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
“And this includes allowing the UN to restart the supply of aid and making clear that there will be no annexations in the West Bank.
“Meanwhile, our message to the terrorists of Hamas is unchanged but unequivocal: they must immediately release all of the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza.”
Aid
Sir Keir said the Government’s “primary aim” was getting aid into Gaza and getting hostages released when asked why recognition was conditional.
He added: “This is intended to further that course, and it is done now because I am particularly concerned that the very idea of a two-state solution is reducing and feels further away today than it has for many, many years and, therefore, it should be seen in both of those contexts.”
While Sir Keir signalled the UK could back away from recognising a Palestinian state if his conditions are met, No 10 is understood to believe that such a two-state solution would also proceed from negotiations towards a sustained peace.
The UK and its allies need to see “at least 500 trucks entering Gaza every day” to deliver aid, the Prime Minister added, and are together “mounting a major effort to get humanitarian supplies back in” by air and by land.
The Prime Minister discussed a UK-led international plan to alleviate the crisis in Gaza with Donald Trump on Monday, when the US president acknowledged there was “real starvation” in the territory.
Sir Keir has likened the plan he is working on with France and Germany to the coalition of the willing, the international effort to support Ukraine towards a lasting peace.
However, on Tuesday, Mr Trump suggested they had not directly discussed the prospect of recognising Palestine.
Diplomatic phone calls
Sir Keir made a flurry of diplomatic phone calls throughout Tuesday, alongside his one with Mr Netanyahu.
These included to his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney; the president of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas; and King Abdullah II of Jordan, whose nation is leading efforts to airdrop aid into Gaza.
About 20 tonnes of aid have been dropped by the UK and Jordan in recent days, according to Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
However, speaking at the UN in New York, he insisted aid must flow in unrestricted via a land route, adding: “We have to have those trucks get in.”
Opposition parties, including the Lib Dems, the Greens and Plaid Cymru, have hit out at Sir Keir for using Palestinian statehood as a “bargaining chip”.
Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel, meanwhile, said recognising Palestine “will not secure lasting peace”.
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That bloke is responsible for thousands of innocents dying.
I don’t care what he thinks.
I agree: Netanyahu and his loathsome ultra-Zionist coalition partners are no less vile than are the Hamas fanatics. They deserve each other.
But sadly they play out their opposing fanaticisms utterly heedlessly at the expense both of ordinary impotent Gazans and decent and ethical Israelis.
This has nothing to do with Netanyahu or Hamas. The vast, vast majority of Israelis have stated in poll after poll that they support the extermination of Palestinians.
At this moment in time Netanyahu is front and centre the continuation of a pogrom.
The information I have shared about the attacks in West Bank, that preceded the October 2023 attack, was from a Jewish website. It was also 2 jewish hunan rights groups in Zion that courageous condemned the genocide in Ghazza. It is the evil zionist government that are responsible.
‘The vast, vast majority of Israelis have stated in poll after poll that they support the extermination of Palestinians.’
That doesn’t remotely correspond with any data that I’ve ever come across.
Though I do suspect that a majority of Israeli Jews might baulk at any version of the ‘two state-solution’. Especially now.
Allah willing, the majority will embrace the 2 state solution, will look forward to lasting peace and prosperity and sharing the promised land with other Abrahamic faiths.
Personally I’ve hoped for that ever since the 1960s, but sadly I see no realistic prospect of its realization any time soon.
Worth remembering that both Yitzhak Rabin in Israel and Anwar Sadat in Egypt were assassinated by sectarian fanatics because they’d expressed a willingness to explore a resolution on those lines.
If anything, the sectarian bitterness is now even more entrenched than it was in their time.
Something is different this time. Allah willing, peace and prosperity will return to the promised land. Enough innocent souls have been extinguished and this blood count demands this change. And Allah willing, this change will happen shortly.
You’re more optimistic than I am.
Stop the Hasbara. The majority of Israelis want all Palestinians expelled from the land or dead
https://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/2025-05-22/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/00000196-f3a3-d6d3-ab9e-f3bbf6070000
Praise be to Allah, the curtains covering the evils ordered by this man have completely lifted leaving his exploits exposed for all to see.
Netanyahu and his government need to be arrested and tried for war crimes. Any other world leaders who talk war also need to be locked up. One man dictating his evil ways to a nation should never be allowed. This type of person intentionally endangers the lives of millions of innocent families. Nutters!!
Netanyahu is not the problem, nor are any of his allies. Ehud Olmert was killing civilians during Operation Cast Lead in 2008–09, as was Ariel Sharon before him, and Ehud Barak before him.
In fact, even Ronnie Reagan compared Israel’s actions to the Holocaust when Menachin Begin invaded Lebanon in 1982.
“He added: “A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.“ Does that mean that if we recognise Palestine we go onto his list of countries to bomb? What Netanyahu has done very effectively is he’s shown that his government has learned nothing from the mistreatment of his ancestors during the holocaust but has learned to act like the government that carried it out. Are the people of Isreal agreeing with their government or is our press not reporting the opposition?
I think the blame for all this genocide and war lies with the evil zionist government, the well armed settlers and Hamas.