The UK’s Recognition of Palestine: A Bantustan, Not a State

It’s often said that, if you really want to understand Israel’s leaders, you have to listen to what they say in Hebrew. This isn’t a case of meaning getting lost in translation. They hide their true intentions from the English-speaking world.

Keir Starmer is no different: he tells Israelis one story and the British public another. His recent speech, marking Britain’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state, was aimed at a domestic audience. It emphasised the historical significance of recognition, and included thorough criticism of Israel’s policies. The message was clear: we have taken action; now please get off our backs about the genocide.

Starmer also wrote an op-ed in Ynet, an Israeli news website. It tells a very different story. His criticisms of Israel are gone, replaced by reassurances about Israel’s “security”. Starmer also uses personal ties, like his family in Israel, to reassure Israeli readers he’s on their side. This is notable, given how keen he is to keep his family out of the limelight in Britain.

Starmer also promises, in his Ynet article, policies he left out of his speech to the British people.

We are clear that the Palestinian state must be demilitarised. It will not have an army or air force.

The U.N. states that Palestinians, like all occupied people, have a right to “struggle for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”. Not so, says Starmer. This is particularly galling given his own manifesto emphasised that “the first duty of any government [is] to keep the country safe.”

It gets worse. Starmer also pledges in this Israeli publication to meddle in Palestinian elections:

No party will be allowed to contest Palestinian elections unless they endorse the principle of non-violent politics.

Starmer pledges a “safe and secure Israel, alongside a [merely] viable Palestinian State.” His message to the Israeli people is clear: Don’t worry about it. We’re not giving the Palestinians a proper state like we gave you.

He’s right. What Starmer proposes is not a state. It more closely resembles the Bantustans that white South Africans set aside for black people, as part of their policy of apartheid. We must force our government to concede this fact.

Unless they can explain how they’ll remove 700,000 armed settlers backed by the Israeli state, presenting “two states” as a sensible solution should be treated like climate denial. We must demand that our government stop retreating into fantasy to avoid facing the present. An Israeli regime of permanent occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and British backed genocide.