By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
LONDON/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Newly elected British Prime Minister Kier Starmer suggested Sunday that Britain could soon recognize Palestinian statehood despite calls from Israel’s government to wait.
Starmer made the comments in talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In phone calls with the two leaders, Starmer discussed “a two-state solution” and noted that Britain “could recognize Palestinian statehood during the process for a two-state solution rather than at the end of one,” said sources familiar with the talks.
Starmer’s plans reflected the opinion of David Cameron, the former foreign secretary of the Conservative Party. However, Cameron stressed that the time to do so “was not now.”
Yet Starmer seemed to want to push the recognition of Palestine forward, according to a readout of his call with Abbas from the prime minister’s 10 Downing Street office: “Discussing the importance of reform, and ensuring international legitimacy for Palestine, the Prime Minister said that his longstanding policy on recognition to contribute to a peace process had not changed, and it was the undeniable right of Palestinians,” it said.
The planned recognition comes despite repeated protests from Israel after several countries made similar moves in recent months.
“A REWARD”
Israel’s government views recognizing Palestinian statehood now as “a reward” for terrorism as Israeli forces still fight in Gaza against Hamas after the group killed 1,200 people and kidnapped some 250 persons in Israel on October 7.
It was unclear how British Jewish voters would react to the recognition of Palestine. Pollsters suggested that a third to nearly a half of Jewish voters cast ballots for Starmer’s leftist Labour Party in Thursday’s election.
Their return to Labour came after the party acknowledged that antisemitism had soared under Jeremy Corbyn, who the party suspended.
Corbyn denied wrongdoing, saying the issue of hatred towards Jews had been “dramatically overstated” by his critics and claimed there was “no place” for antisemitism in Labour.
Yet the Labour Party adopted a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020 saying there had been “a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it.”
It found Labour had broken equality law over its handling of antisemitism complaints, charges Corbyn rejected.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
A newly released report in the United Kingdom alleges that predominantly Muslim grooming gangs exploited vulnerable children across Britain for decades while police, social services, schools, health officials, licensing authorities, and political leaders repeatedly failed to intervene.
President Donald Trump warned Saturday that the United States may be forced to take far more sweeping military action against Iran after U.S. aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites, which he said were used in renewed violations of a ceasefire agreement.
Hamas moved aggressively Friday to suppress planned protests across the Gaza Strip, using arrests, intimidation, armed patrols, and threats of deadly punishment to prevent Gazans from publicly challenging the terror group’s rule.
President Donald Trump threatened Friday to impose a 100% tariff on any country that implements a digital services tax on U.S. technology companies, a move that could add to what analysts estimate is already a $700-per-household burden from existing tariffs.
President Donald Trump told Christian conservatives Friday that America’s future depends on preserving faith, freedom, and the nation’s founding convictions, declaring that the United States will always remain “one nation under God.”
U.S. forces struck Iranian missile and drone storage facilities overnight after President Donald J. Trump condemned what he called a “foolish” Iranian attack on a commercial cargo ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
As the death toll from Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes approached 1,000 on Friday, stories of courage emerged from the rubble, including that of a young mother who sacrificed her own life to save her toddler daughter.