UK Middle East minister rejects calls from MPs to recognise Palestine

The UK Middle East minister, facing over a dozen calls from a cross-section of MPs for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state, said that “practical measures” are still needed before such a state would be possible.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East Hamish Falconer made his comments in a debate on Tuesday following this week’s visit of the Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa to London and the signing of a UK-Palestinian memorandum of understanding.

The memorandum affirms the UK’s belief in “the alienable right of the Palestinian people” to an independent state, with a two-state solution as “the best way to achieve Palestinian statehood”.

It was also accompanied by £101m for humanitarian relief, Palestinian economic development, and strengthening Palestinian Authority governance and reform.

But on Tuesday, several MPs pushed the government to recognise a Palestinian state immediately.

French President Emmanual Macron has said that his country plans to recognise a Palestinian state soon, potentially as early as June, at a UN conference on the two-state solution.

“Does my honourable friend agree that now is the time to take the next serious step, which is to finally recognise the state of Palestine?” said Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who chairs the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

“The best time to do that might be alongside the French in New York in June.”

Falconer responded that, while the question of recognition was raised repeatedly in parliament, the government’s position remained the same.

“We do wish to recognise a Palestinian state, and we wish to do so as a contribution to a two-state solution,” he said. 

Sense of urgency

“We will make the judgment about when the best moment is to try to make the fullest possible contribution.”

Scottish National Party MP Chris Law said he had recently represented the UK parliament at the Inter-Parliamentary Union where over 1,200 MPs from 188 countries passed a unanimous resolution supporting a two-state solution.

“There was plenty of notice of the UK not recognising a nation state,” Law said. 

Law also said the Palestinian prime minister had told him that recognition of a Palestinian state would “be a paradigm change”, and asked Falconer to explain what impediments stood in the way.

Falconer suggested that until questions about security and governance, which he described as “final-status determinations”, were agreed, two states could not live side by side.

“While we are committed to the inalienable right of the Palestinians to a state as part of a two-state solution, let us not pretend that there are not vexed issues at the centre of what a Palestinian state would look like,” he said. 

At least two MPs questioned whether a Palestinian state would still be viable into the near future, presumably considering both the war on Gaza, and the expansion and consolidation of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Conservative MP Desmond Swayne said: “For how long does the minister think he will be able to recognise a Palestinian state that retains sufficient economically viable land to actually be a goer?”

A majority of UN member countries – 147 out of 193 – have recognised Palestinian statehood, but other countries which do not recognise Palestine include Canada, Italy and Germany.

“Some 147 states have recognised a Palestinian state, yet no Palestinian state is fully functioning,” Falconer said.

“Many members have referred to some of the practical impediments, whether it is the removal of Hamas from the Gaza strip or the economic challenges that face the Palestinian territories in both the West Bank and Gaza.”

He added: “The British Government are focused on changing the actual facts on the ground. That is the approach that we will take.”