The British PM and others offered fine words, but after all the horror, many will say too little, too late. Palestinians need unfettered support – and now
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elcome, but behind the curve. That is the summary of the coordinated recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, Australia and Britain. The emphatic gesture is a historical moment where the record is not written, but corrected. Palestinian statehood has always existed, and recognising that fact confers credibility on the recognisers, and not the Palestinian claim to their inalienable rights.
As part of the shifting tide against Israel, even in the United States, recognition of a Palestinian state enshrines what the Israeli state seems committed to erasing once and for all – the legitimate claim of Palestinians to their own land. Naming and insisting on Palestinian statehood is vital. As the activist Arab Barghouthi told the Guardian last week, the recognition protects the idea of a Palestinian state, because the Israeli government is “bragging about the fact that they are killing the idea of a Palestinian state. And diplomatically, when countries like Britain and France and Canada recognise Palestine, that means something.”
Such gestures are important, especially for a cause that is fundamentally about a people’s right to exist in sovereignty on their own land. Keeping that notion alive, even if Israel never reverses course, resists the Israeli government’s drive to have full and final dominion over Palestinians without condemnation or acknowledgment of the erasure of Palestinian rights, and confers status, respect and international treaty relations upon the Palestinian state. And there is weight to Britain, a member of the G7 and a permanent member of the security council, along with France, going up against US and Israeli propaganda that conflates Palestinian recognition with rewarding Hamas.
