Which Palestine should Britain recognise?

Many Palestinians, as well as many people within the solidarity movement for Palestine, have little faith in the current state of Palestine, as it is defined by Palestinian Authority (PA).

The geographical space of this state of Palestine is not entirely clear, given the fact it is bisected by the partition offered by the Oslo Accord: to area A (which allegedly it controls), area B, (which it co-rules with Israel) and area C (ruled directly by Israel and constitutes 60% of the West Bank).

Hence geographically recognising such a state, is tantamount to recognising a disempowered political entity stretching over less than 20 percent of the West Bank (as its role in area B is almost insignificant).

No wonder, civil societies in the world have an issue with their governments’ position on Palestine, even if they decide to recognise Palestine; deeming that the Palestine the governments will recognise is the current state of Palestine.

It should be noted that the PA demands recognition of a Palestinian state that stretches over the whole of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; a demand that is supported by those governments that had already promised to recognise the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

From this perspective, the recognition of Palestine is of a state that is not there yet, and its foundation depends on Israel’s position, the international reaction to it and the validity of the two states solution.

Nail in the coffin

Most of the political parties in Israel today are loyal to the constitutional nationality law of 2018 that stipulates clearly that there can be only one nation, the Jewish nation, and for that reason only one nation state, between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean.

In many ways this was the last nail driven into the coffin of the two states solution; a solution that has already been dead for a while.

The presence of more than 800,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the total destruction of Gaza (with a real possibility of annexation of part of it to Israel) and the political trends in Israel, leave very little hope for such a solution to be seriously discussed by Israel.

Hence, those who believe that recognising Palestine will bring nearer the two states solution are unfortunately out of touch with the reality on the ground.

And it does seem that for most of the governments which have already taken this move, the recognition is part of their unconditional support for the two states’ solution.

History, however, might be kinder to them. It could record them not as supporters of the two states solution necessarily but as standing against the current Israeli wish to expunge Palestine as a nation, a homeland and as a people.

Therefore, the timing here is crucial. Since November 2022, Israel has been ruled by a very extreme rightwing government.

Its election reflected the fundamental changes that Israeli Jewish society has undergone in the 21st century.

The move to the right of the whole society meant that a new ideological and political elite are now ruling Israel.

This new elite is messianic, some parts of it prefer Israel to be a theocracy, and all its members share deep racism towards the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular.

If there were any signs, and there hardly were any, of a significant alternative force challenging this new Israeli orientation, they disappeared after 7 October 2023.

The vast majority of Israeli Jews condone the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank, and the increased discrimination against the Palestinian minority inside Israel.

Fresh approach

The recognition of Palestine as a state is still seen by European governments as a positive contribution to future diplomacy of peace.

However, the inevitable dynamics inside Israel, and more importantly the continued genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the ethnic cleansing operations in the West Bank, call upon Europe to play a different role, and therefore in return recognise Palestine within a fresh and new approach to the Israel/Palestine question.

The fresh approach requires the European political elite to accept the historical context of the developments on the ground.

By this I mean to acknowledge that Zionism from the outset was a European project, born out of Europe’s inability to deal with its own antisemitism and opting instead for imposing a European Jewish state on the Arab world and the Palestinians.

Israelis deem themselves as part of Europe and so does Europe. Given that the current Israel openly declares a war of destruction and elimination against the Palestinian people, it enjoys so far Europe’s indifference at best and its complicity at worst.

This destructive Israeli campaign will have far reaching implications for European society itself as well as for Europe’s relationship with the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Recognising Palestine in this context, is first and foremost acknowledging Europe’s complicity in the inception of the Zionist project and its disastrous impact on the Palestinians.

Secondly, it has to be read as a commitment to defend the Palestinians, rather than involved in a diplomacy meant to “solve the conflict”.

Moral courage

This is a huge challenge to the political elites of Europe, which at best are not keen to confront Israel or the pro-Israeli lobby, knowing how easily the allegation of antisemitism and holocaust denial would be thrown at them.

Therefore, to expect these politicians to commit to such a moral posture, necessitates a similar moral commitment in other areas where the political elites face strong lobbies: military expenditure, fossil energy, neo-capitalism and multinational corporations.

One cannot be too sanguine about such a prospect, but one can always hope that one day politicians will show moral courage and not regard politics as a profession but rather as a vocation.

To sum up, even those among us who are not enthusiastic supporters of the Palestine Authority campaign to elicit recognition of Palestine as a state, should differentiate between the current Palestinian state (a Bantustan) and Palestine the country (which stretches from the river to the sea).

Until now the decision of how much the state will be part of the country was exclusively entrusted in the hands of the Israelis.

It is time for the Palestinians, the indigenous people of the country, and victims of more than a century of colonialism, to lead the way in determining the future of both Israelis and Palestinians in the land of Palestine.