Britain’s foreign secretary has been forced to clarify that his position on Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group has not changed after his own party’s backbenchers hit out against comments on Wednesday.
Lord David Cameron of Chipping Norton, who, as many expected, has made a string of controversial foreign policy decisions since being appointed to government towards the end of last year, opened the door to the UK formally recognising a Palestinian state. He told a room of Arab ambassadors meeting in London that it was “most important” to give “the Palestinian people a political horizon,” which would involve a two-state solution and “crucially the establishment of a Palestinian state.” It is important to note that recognition, it is suggested, would be granted before, not after, the completion of a peace deal.
Western officials have pinned continuing violence in the region on Israel’s rejection of a two-state solution, even though Hamas has continually rejected the idea of such a deal in far stronger terms. The terrorist group is not waging jihad to establish an independent Palestinian nation state at all. It seeks to wipe Israel off the map as part of its struggle to impose a global Islamist caliphate.
Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, “welcomed” the comments from Lord Cameron, according to The Daily Telegraph. Tory MPs have been far less impressed.
Former minister Theresa Villiers said that any recognition of a Palestinian state would “reward Hamas’s atrocities” following the October 7th massacre of Israeli civilians. Greg Smith MP added:
The grim reality is that Hamas does not seek a ceasefire and Israel cannot be reasonably expected to pursue one with a group that actively seeks its destruction.
This quickly pushed the government to “downplay” Cameron’s view—not least after the Socialist Voice newspaper claimed “the Tories are now to the left of Labour on Palestine,” a line which will sting both parties.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would also later only go so far as to say that the matter will be considered properly “when the time is right.” Downing Street later insisted that Cameron’s comments did not mark a shift in the government’s broader position.
This joins a list of other moves which campaigners say prove Britain is turning its back on Israel. The Speaker of the House of Commons was earlier this month forced to backtrack after a diary note suggested Parliament would display the Palestinian flag “in honour of [the] Palestine Ambassador,” even though Britain does not recognise Palestine as a state and the “ambassador” in question does not hold ambassador status. An all-party parliamentary group on antisemitism stressed that the affair, which was one of many, “does not send the right sort of signals” to the formally recognised state of Israel.
