Ministers are under pressure from inside and outside Labour to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN conference next month, with party grandees arguing it would bolster prospects for peace and demonstrate moral leadership amid escalating tensions.
Alf Dubs, the veteran Labour peer and Holocaust survivor, said the symbolic recognition of a Palestinian state would offer Palestinians “the self-respect they’d have if they had a proper state,” and provide them a stronger footing in any future peace negotiations.
“Even if it doesn’t lead to anything immediately, it would still give Palestinians a better standing,” Lord Dubs said. “Symbols matter.”
The former cabinet minister Peter Hain echoed the call, warning that “delaying recognition until negotiations are concluded simply allows Israel’s illegal occupation to become permanent”. Lord Hain argued that formal recognition should be “a catalyst, not a consequence” of peace talks.
At the first preparatory meeting in New York before a UN conference on a two state solution due to be held between 17 and 20 June, Saudi Arabia urged countries to recognise Palestine as a state, saying that “recognition should be seen as a precondition for peace, and not its product”.
The conference is seen as a potential moment when states such as France and the UK that have yet to recognise Palestine take what would be a momentous diplomatic step.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, indicated last month that Paris may recognise Palestine, joining 147 other countries, but said he wanted to do so at a UN conference in New York in June as part of a wider process.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has confirmed to parliament he has been in discussions with the French about recognition, but also said he would not simply support a gesture with no practical impact.
The Guardian reported last week that the British view is that France was very likely to decide the time was not right to make the announcement. The UK’s official position is that it will recognise a Palestinian state, but only at the point of maximum impact.
The pressure has been building within Labour’s parliamentary ranks as 69 MPs and six peers earlier this month signed a joint letter urging the prime minister to seize what they described as a “unique window of opportunity” to recognise Palestinian statehood.
The Guardian understands that the letter – which was coordinated by the chairs of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, Sarah Owen and Andrew Pakes – was also signed by several serving ministers.
In a concept note for June’s UN conference, France and Saudi Arabia, the two co-chairs of the conference say the ambitious aim of the international conference in June “would not be to ‘revive’ or to ‘relaunch’ another endless process, but to implement, once and for all, the two-state solution”.
The call to implement the two-state solution has become even more urgent in the context of illegal settlements and other illegal unilateral measures, violence, hate speech and the ongoing plans and actions undertaken for the forcible displacement and dispossession of Palestinians.
With eight working parties covering all the issues surrounding a two-state solution, each nation has been asked “to highlight the actions they are willing to undertake, individually or collectively, in fulfilment of their obligations and in support of the international consensus on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the two-state solution”.
Alex Ballinger, a Labour backbencher and member of the foreign affairs select committee, said it was time for the UK to “show principled leadership,” adding: “We can no longer speak in platitudes about two states while blocking the very steps that could help make one of them real.”
Afzal Khan, a former shadow minister and longtime campaigner on Palestinian rights, said Labour must act on its internationalist values. “Recognition would now be a positive first step towards securing a peaceful two-state solution, end unlawful settlement expansions and blockades, and unlock the diplomatic and humanitarian pathways to lasting justice,” he said, warning that the UK risks “dragging its feet” while 147 other countries have already recognised a Palestinian state.
