Starmer highlights the “moral responsibility of acting” that the international community has before the tragedy of Gaza: the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Portugal recognize the Palestinian state | International

Keir Starmer is not someone given to get carried away by passion. Both their decisions, as their rectifications, are executed with the coldness and the method of whom he was a lawyer and prosecutor rather than politician. The prime minister announced at the end of July that he would take the historical step of recognizing the state of Palestine if Israel did not immediately fulfill a series of conditions that included the end of the famine in Gaza, a high fire in the region and the commitment “with a long -term process that concludes with a solution of two states.” Starmer has concluded that none of this has happened, and this Sunday he announced a historical step. The same day, Canada and Australia have officialized this Sunday that they also recognize the Palestinian State and Portugal plans to do it today.

Downing Street has published a video statement from the Prime Minister in which the Labor leader defends “the inalienable right of the Palestinian people” to have a state, as well as “the moral responsibility of acting” that the international community has, before the aggravation of the offensive of the Government of Benjamín Netanyahu and its deaf ear to the requests of a pause in the conflict.

“Given the growing horror that we witness in the Middle East, today, to revive the hope of peace and the solution of two states, I clearly say, as prime minister of this great country, that the United Kingdom formally recognizes the state of Palestine,” Starmer proclaimed.

The recognition of Palestine is no longer going back, and has advanced to that of others such as that of the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, which will officially take place next week, during the United Nations General Assembly that will be held in New York.

Despite the calculation and the coldness with which Starmer has ended up adopting his decision, the prime minister has silenced the voices of the most critical sectors of his party, which distrusted an announcement that was accompanied by conditions.

The prime minister has pointed out in his speech that the situation in Gaza “has worsened significantly in recent weeks,” and has described as “intolerable” the images of famine and suffering that are seen in the strip.

The United Kingdom, the country under whose mandate the Zionist cause grew in Palestine, responsible for the Balfour Declaration, which encouraged the creation of a “home for the Jews” in that region of the world, now promotes with its decision, and all the symbolism it entails, a strategy of response to Israel already advanced by other nations: Spain, Ireland or Norway have already recognized the state of Palestinian. France has announced its irrevocable decision to do so during the UN General Assembly.

Message against Hamas

Starmer’s decision is a turn regarding the historical position of the United Kingdom government, which has always defended the solution of the two states, but understood that Palestine’s recognition should be the last step of a negotiation process and mutual assignments.

The British government knows that the measure will cause the wrath of conservative sectors, of the families of the hostages that remain retained in Gaza, of the Israeli government (which considers recognition a way of rewarding Hamas’s terrorism) and, above all, of the United States, the most faithful ally of Netanyahu.

“Most of us want a solution of two states for the crisis of the Middle East,” he said in the newspaper The Daily Telegraph The leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch. “But it is obvious, and the United States has been very clear in this regard, that the recognition of a Palestinian State at the moment, without the hostages having been released, is a prize for terrorism.”

To convey a message of calm to all of them, Starmer has insisted on his hard condemnation of Hamas, and in pointing out that his demands to this organization remain “absolute”: the unconditional delivery of the hostages and a high immediate fire.

“Let me be very clear: Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization, and our vision of two states represents exactly the opposite of what they symbolize,” Starmer said.

The prime minister, who already made clear to Trump, during the state visit, and in previous statements, which Hamas will never be part of a future government solution in Palestine, has reiterated that commitment.

In the coming weeks, Downing Street announced, the British government will announce an increase in sanctions already in force against Hamas, with the aim of increasing pressure on the organization.

Recognition waterfall

Canada and Australia, who also announced, as Portugal, that recognition, have also made it official this Sunday. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has affirmed in a statement that “Canada recognizes the state of Palestine and offers its collaboration to build a peaceful future for both the state of Palestine and for the state of Israel.” “The recognition of the state of Palestine, led by the Palestinian authority, empowers those who seek peaceful coexistence and the end of Hamas. This does not legitimate terrorism, nor does it suppose any reward for him,” said Carney.

The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, in a statement. The recognition is part of an effort to reactivate the impulse towards a solution of two states that begins with a high fire in Gaza and the release of the hostages retained there, according to Albanese in the joint declaration with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Penny Wong. Hamas should not have any role in Palestine, says the statement.

The Portuguese government also plans to join the cascade of recognition this Sunday, although it has not yet made the official announcement. The decision was anticipated Friday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and confirmed this Sunday by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Rebelo de Sousa has affirmed that the government’s decision has its “full support”, since it represents in its opinion a message of “moderation” in favor of the solution of two states against “radicalism”, Tereixa reports it. Rebelo de Sousa, conservative, explained that although the Luís Montenegro government is the one who has full competition in this matter, the Executive has been “constantly contact” with the Presidency and has taken into account other “recommendations” raised from Parliament, reports the Portuguese news agency.