it's easy to recognise Palestine after it's destroyed.
how to grant statehood whilst ensuring it never actually exists.
Good day, spectators,
And firstly, I want to say thank you to one of my readers for inspiring the title for this post:
So here we are, the United Kingdom is finally set to do it. After decades of prevarication, hand-wringing, and the thorough enablement of a genocide, Keir Starmer's government will today extend its hand to recognise the State of Palestine.
One must admire the timing. This really is the main spectacle today, this act of political theatre which doesn’t come as a defence of a people, but as a eulogy for a nation that is being systematically dismantled with British and American weapons and unwavering diplomatic cover.
The condition for this grand gesture, you might remember from a previous post, was that Israel must fail to meet certain demands: a ceasefire, a commitment to peace, an end to the 'appalling situation' in Gaza. And it failed very well because it was a tripwire designed to be stumbled over. It was an excuse waiting for a moment. And my, what a moment they chose.
Because let's be clear about the 'situation on the ground' that prompted this moral awakening.
Gaza is a smouldering ruin. At the very least, 65,000 Palestinians are dead, its infrastructure is destroyed, and its population is displaced and starving under a man-made famine. The last high-rises in Gaza City are being deliberately flattened in a 'cataclysmic' offensive, and hundreds of thousands are being forced south into so-called 'humanitarian zones' that are neither safe nor humanitarian. But who is surprised? This is the logical endpoint of a project the West has bankrolled.
And whilst this final solution in Gaza plays out, the future 'state' of Palestine in the West Bank remains under brutal military occupation, dotted with 160 illegal settlements housing over 700,000 settlers, where apartheid is not an accusation but a way of life. This is the state Britain is recognising? A phantom limb, a theoretical concept drawn on a map that Israel is still actively and violently erasing?
I am angry.
the conditions of the generosity.
And I am even more incensed when I think of the utter, staggering gall of the conditions attached to this recognition which really reveals its true purpose. It was never about Palestinian rights.
Weaselly Starmer's July ultimatum was a masterpiece of mealy-mouthed statecraft. The idea was to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire and commit to a two-state solution—things which you, me and anyone who is paying attention know is not going to happen. Its government has explicitly and repeatedly rejected this notion because it would like to continue enacting its final solution.
The Palestinians, however, were handed a different set of rules. Their statehood is contingent on their good behaviour.
Canada's promise of recognition comes with a long list of caveats. The first commitment on its government's website is 'support for Israel and its security'. It demands the demilitarisation of the Palestinian state which is enduring genocide from its neighbour, governance reforms, and elections in which the resistance faction Hamas 'can play no part'. Australia echoed similar demands, insisting Hamas must end its rule and hand over its weapons.
So, there you have it. The terms of statehood are thus: Palestinians must have a state that is demilitarised, governed by a deeply unpopular and compromised Palestinian Authority, and utterly subservient to the security demands of the very power that occupies and is actively destroying it.
You’d be naïve to think this is honest recognition, it’s just a blueprint for a client state. A Bantustan (search that term if you don’t know it, very interesting). It is the international community formally signing off on a permanent state of subjugation, all while patting itself on the back for its progressive values. Essentially, they are recognising a state whilst ensuring it remains forever powerless to actually be one.
perfidious Britain’s history of betrayal, not partnership.
The UK's sudden concern for Palestinian statehood is particularly rich given its historical role as the chief architect of this current nightmare. This is the nation that issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, promising a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine whilst casually noting that 'nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities'.
A century on, that second part remains perhaps the most spectacularly broken promise in modern diplomatic history. As Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy himself incredibly admitted, this amounted to a 'historical injustice which continues to unfold'. To now pose as a midwife to Palestinian statehood is an act of breath-taking vomit-inducing.
This recognition does not atone for Balfour; it simply adds a new layer of hypocrisy to this vile cake.
As Lammy himself conceded in an interview today, this move 'will not feed children nor will it free hostages'.
No Dave, it does not stop a single one of the bombs you and your mates are sending. It does not reverse a single ‘settlement’.
Yesterday, I was in Vienna, Austria for the biggest Palestine demonstration the country has ever seen:
And whilst I was there, I was chatting to a Palestinian activist who noted, ‘Western states seem to embrace symbolic gestures, while Palestinians are left with neither justice nor statehood, only a widening gap between lived reality and international performance'. The hope in diplomatic circles is that it grants Palestine a 'diplomatic upgrade', strengthening its position in future negotiations and international legal forums. But, I’ve come to think this is a feeble hope when confronted with the raw, violent power of an Israeli state that has just been told by the World Court that its occupation is illegal and responded by…approving more settlements.
The only thing this wave of recognition truly changes is the West's ability to say it did something while continuing to arm the genocide. It is a moral fig leaf. A way to manage outrage without altering the material reality of oppression. Nothing short of military intervention will stop Israel.
The UK is recognising a state that exists only on paper whilst refusing to use any of its real power to stop the state that is destroying it on the ground. They are granting a title whilst ensuring the holder has no land to claim it with.
So forgive me if I don't celebrate this 'historic' correction. A state is not built on statements in Westminster or votes in New York. It is built on land, with sovereignty, and with the power to defend its own borders.
All this recognition does is make the West feel better about its complicity in ensuring that state never, ever comes to be.
And on that note, I'll let you go. Just wanted to say it’s my birthday in a few days so consider ‘Buying me a sandwich’ below although I can’t guarantee it will be used for a sandwich as it might be used for a beer!
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"So, there you have it. The terms of statehood are thus: Palestinians must have a state that is demilitarised, governed by a deeply unpopular and compromised Palestinian Authority, and utterly subservient to the security demands of the very power that occupies and is actively destroying it."