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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
France and Saudi Arabia will convene a high-level international conference aimed at advancing the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on July 28-29, multiple diplomatic sources confirmed Friday.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United States has reached a new deal with NATO to provide weapons to Ukraine, with full reimbursement from the alliance. The announcement follows growing frustration over Russia’s intensifying assault on Ukrainian civilians and a temporary Pentagon pause on U.S. arms shipments earlier this month.
Civilians backed by Sudanese security forces have demolished the building of a Pentecostal Church in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, Christians told Worthy News Friday.
There was mounting concern Friday that Ukraine will be split up under a future peace deal and that Kyiv will be forced to accept it due to relentless Russian long-range drone and missile strikes.
A major Christian advocacy group has asked Colombia’s government to urgently “conduct a full and coordinated investigation” into the disappearance of a Roman Catholic priest who was last seen on June 17.
Europe marks the 30th anniversary of the “Srebrenica massacre”, its worst single atrocity since World War Two.
Nearly 46 million acres of forest and farmland are held by foreign investors, including by countries hostile to America, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.