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Why Britain should recognise the State of Palestine

On 13th October, British Parliament will vote whether to recognize the State of Palestine or not. Surprisingly enough this motion was not moved by any Muslim Member Parliament (MP) but by Grahame M. Morris, Crispin Blunt, Sir Bob Russell, Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn. Over 20,000 letters have been written to MPs by British Public asking them to support the Parliamentary resolution.

On 13th October, British Parliament will vote whether to recognize the State of Palestine or not. Surprisingly enough this motion was not moved by any Muslim Member Parliament (MP) but by Grahame M. Morris, Crispin Blunt, Sir Bob Russell, Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn. Over 20,000 letters have been written to MPs by British Public asking them to support the Parliamentary resolution.

European Union (EU) agreed to Palestinian right of self-determination in 1999 during European Council’s meeting in Berlin. So far 135 out of 193 UN member states have recognized the State of Palestine. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in 2012. This recognition gave Palestine a status of UN non-member observer which put it on the same level as the Vatican, allowing it to participate in General Assembly debates and make use of the International Criminal Court. But the European Union and most EU countries, have yet to give official recognition. Recently, Sweden has become the first major European country to recognize the state of Palestine. Prior joining the EU, few European countries, such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia recognized the State of Palestine.

The motion is moved in the British Parliament at a crucial time when Israel has already announced its controversial plans for more illegal settlements in the West Bank which will cut off Bethlehem from Jerusalem. UK’s Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond has already condemned the demolition of Palestinian homes in West Bank and expropriation of 1000 acres Palestinian land by Israel. Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza began in 1967. Up to that point, Gaza had been (more or less) controlled by Egypt and the West Bank by Jordan. But in 1967 there was another war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, during which Israel occupied the two Palestinian territories. (Israel also took control of Syria’s Golan Heights, which it annexed in 1981, and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which it returned to Egypt in 1982.) Israeli forces have occupied and controlled the West Bank ever since. It withdrew its occupying troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but maintains a full blockade of the territory, which has turned Gaza into what human rights organizations sometimes call an “open-air prison”.

UK has remained part of the Arab-Israel conflict. The conflict started in the early 1900s, when the most of the middle-eastern region was part of the Ottoman Empire. During the second decade of twentieth century the Zionist movement became increasingly vocal and strong, particularly in the United States, during the inter-war period. The movement demanded a Jewish homeland, with the location of this being accepted by many Zionists to be in the present day location of Palestine in the Middle East. Palestine was a predominantly Islamic area, although immigration, predominantly of European Jews, was an ever-increasing problem for the state. Jews, desperate to flee persecution and violence, travelled to Palestine to, hopefully, find security within what they considered to be their historic homeland. They did not find it, being viewed with suspicion by the Palestinian government, fearful of being evicted from their own nation.

Britain had been granted colonial rights over Palestine at the end of First World War after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and was therefore protectorate of the state, a difficult position to be in. This meant Britain was charged, by the now defunct League of Nations, to preserve Palestine and ensure its security. The Balfour declaration had committed Britain to establishing a Jewish homeland, while the 1939 white paper on Palestine had firmly supported the status quo in the region. The Labor Party, prior to winning the general election in 1945, had pledged its support to increasing Jewish immigration into Palestine, inevitably leading to a Jewish state within the Middle East. The established party policy of the Labor Party was support for a Jewish homeland in the area of the Middle East occupied by Palestine, achieved through some form of partition within the country or a managed co-habitation. This policy was changed in the immediate post-war period due to a number of various reasons.

Today, UK is one of the major donors to the Palestinian Authority and to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the UN agency that strives to meet the needs of Palestinian refugees in the occupied Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Lebanon and war-torn Syria.  Since 2000, UK has contributed at least three times to rebuild Gaza after major conflicts.

The draft of Parliament motion hints the support for ‘two states’ option as it reads: “This House believes the Government should recognize the state of Israel alongside the state of Palestine.” Two states option means Israelis and Palestinians to have their own independent states. ‘Two-state solution’ is advocated as the only option for durable peace.

If passed by British Parliament, this resolution will only be symbolic. It will not constitute any political or legal binding on British Government but nonetheless a recognition of the state of Palestine by British Parliament carries a lot of strategic significance. The Parliamentary resolution will push the UK government to recognize Palestinian national rights and their rights to self-determination.

Undoubtedly, recognizing the state of Palestine will serve as an endorsement of current UK policy which believes that the Palestinian people have the inalienable right to self-determination; and that the Israeli people have the unquestionable right to live in peace and security. Also, that the two states will determine borders based on 1967 lines, with agreed land swaps of equal size and value; that Gaza will be demilitarized, like the rest of Palestine, and linked with the West Bank; and that Jerusalem will be the shared capital of both states.

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