UK PRIME Minister Keir Starmer declared in Downing Street yesterday afternoon: ‘I state clearly as Prime Minister of this great country that the United Kingdom formally recognises the state of Palestine.’
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Husam Zomlot responded: ‘This is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people, a birthright, long overdue and the question is why didn’t the UK recognise the state of Palestine all this long?’
He continued: ‘This is a moment when we build an acknowledgement about the wrongs of the past, an acknowledgement that the genocide must end, and act to end it via sanctions and accountability, an arms embargo and an embrace towards the future.
‘So we build it together and we move in a different direction than the crazies of Netanyahu and Smotrich.
‘We’re one of the few countries in the region who have convened elections. We even convened the last elections that Hamas won. And it was actually handed power.
‘But this is not about elections and it is not about our behaviour. We have to continue on the democratic process as a state that protects its people just like any other. We have to end this exceptionalism about Israel and the exceptionalism about us. We will be just like any other democratic state.’
Mustafa Barghouthi, Director of the Palestinian National Initiative, said: ‘We reject the absolutely fascist law which states that the right of self-determination of the land of Palestine is exclusive for Jewish people.
‘It’s an important step also to correct the sin of the Balfour Declaration, which hurt the Palestinian people so much. But recognition by itself is not enough. What we need now is sanctions on Israel. Punitive sanctions. Recognition thank you, but that’s not enough, we need sanctions immediately. The right of the Palestinian people for freedom will never be gone.
‘If they don’t want a two-state solution then we’ll have to have one democratic state with equal rights for everybody. There is something that should be clear to everybody: Nobody will break our will, or our determination to be free from oppression, occupation and this terrible Israeli discrimination.
‘These recognitions, coming too late from countries like Britain, Australia and Canada, are happening because they finally saw that Israel is destroying the very opportunity of a two-state solution. These countries are responding to what Israel is doing and not the other way round.
‘Now, if Israel proceeds, it has to be subject to sanctions. It has to be isolated, as it is becoming isolated, with the United States if it continues to support Israel. But eventually we will win. Eventually we will get our freedom. It’s not a victory for Hamas or for Fatah, or for us – it’s a victory for the Palestinian people. What you deal with here is the Palestinian people, not this or that faction.’
Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, said: ‘Above all, this is a message of hope to the Palestinian people, a message of hope for a free, independent, sovereign state.
‘The recognition of Palestinian statehood means that Israel has no sovereignty on the territories of our state. The whole world stands united behind the Palestinian cause. The Israeli occupation is the root of all evils within the region.’
