CAAT welcomes the recognition of Palestine as an independent state by the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Portugal, and others. Joining 147 of the UN’s 192 member states, this is an important, though severely belated recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, a right that cannot be treated as dependent on Israel’s permission, but as an inherent, fundamental right.
This recognition of Palestine must now be followed by urgent action to make Palestinian freedom a reality. At present, the territory of a prospective Palestinian state is under illegal Israeli occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, marked by brutal repression and dispossession; and all-out military invasion, bombardment, and starvation in the Gaza Strip, in an ongoing genocide in which the UK remains deeply complicit.
Israel is seeking to permanently erase every foundation of society, infrastructure, and normal life in Gaza, and ultimately the presence of the Palestinian population altogether. In the West Bank they are pursuing progressive land theft, annexation, and destruction of homes and land that would make a meaningful Palestinian state impossible. The Israeli government has made abundantly clear that they have no intention of ever permitting a Palestinian state to exist. This will not be changed by recognition, or by pious repetition of statements calling for a 2-state solution, that amount to little more than asking Israel nicely.
Action is most urgently needed to end the genocide in Gaza, as recognised by the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and by countless legal and academic experts on genocide. This requires meaningful sanctions on Israel, sanctions which are severe enough in their practical impact on Israel to affect the Israeli government’s decisions.
Most of all, it requires a full, two-way arms embargo, including sanctions on the Israeli arms industry. The UK government is still allowing the supply to Israel of critical components for their F-35 combat aircraft, of which the UK produces 15%, and which Israeli is using intensively to bomb Gaza with 2000lb bombs. This is the most consequential element of the UK’s arms trade with Israel, and stopping the supply of these components could rapidly make these genocidal jets inoperable.
The UK also cooperates in projects with, buys from, and supplies components to, the Israeli arms industry that produces a large proportion of the arms Israel uses to commit genocide. The UK should follow the example of Spain in cutting off such cooperation and supplies, who recently cancelled a major €700 million artillery contract with Elbit Systems as part of their own 2-way embargo.
In the face of mounting outrage at the genocide in Gaza, and the UK’s inaction, complicity, and support for Israel’s genocidal war machine, the public and Parliament must not allow the government to get away with a purely symbolic and rhetorical response. We must continue to demand powerful action from the UK government to end the genocide and pursue freedom and justice for Palestine.
The act of recognition of Palestine by the UK must be the start of a serious effort to end the genocide and pursue real, practical steps towards securing Palestinian freedom.
