The United Kingdom, France and Germany prefer to avoid any public exhibition of disagreement and show as much firmly as possible with a common position. In a joint statement issued this Friday, but they have avoided any reference to the recognition of a Palestinian State, the point where there are more divergences between the three governments.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, had urgently convened Emmanuel Macron and Friederich Merz this Friday to celebrate a videoconference meeting, with the aim of “ending the matanzas, getting food to the strip and begin to build a lasting peace in the region”. of the three countries already increase the pressure on their respective political leaders.
Macron attended the meeting, when he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York. France thus joins 148 countries, Spain included, which have already taken that step. But the dimension of the announcement is much higher, because it is a state that is permanent member of the UN Security Council, and that has an important Jewish population. Macron’s decision has deeply divided a country with a high and diverse sensitivity with respect to Israel.
The governments of the United Kingdom still maintain a strategy of apparent prudence, convinced that the recognition of Palestine can only be the end, not the beginning, of a long process of political negotiation, which includes the disappearance of Hamas and the demilitarization of the area. Therefore, the joint statement has avoided an express mention to that possibility, although it has launched a warning to Israel to the expansionist aspirations of members of its government and the movement of settlers to those who support.
“We firmly oppose all attempts to impose Israeli sovereignty in the Palestinian occupied territories. The threats of annexation, settlements, and acts of violence of the settlers against the Palestinians undermine the perspective of a negotiated solution of two states,” says the statement of the three countries.
and claims Israel to “comply with the obligations imposed by International Humanitarian Law.“ The human catastrophe we are witnessing in Gaza must end. The most basic needs of its population must be met without major delays. Retaining essential humanitarian aid so that it does not reach the civilian population is unacceptable, ”says the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany.“ We demand that the Israel government immediately lift those restrictions on the flow of aid, and that it urgently allows the UN and other humanitarian organizations to be able to carry out their work to avoid famine, ”they demand.
The pressure on Starmer
The British Prime Minister faces an increasing pressure within his own party, the Labor, for the lukewarm and the calculation he has so far deployed in the conflict that faces Israel with Hamas. Starmer has been very inclined at all times on the Israeli side, and has monitored the strategy deployed by Donald Trump’s White House.
Although there has been no choice but to harden his message against the Government of Benjamín Netanyahu, to quell his own internal revolt -this Thursday, Downing Street defined suffering and famine in Gaza as “indefensible and horrible” -, Starmer still has an extensive number of dissolved deputies. More than two hundred (221, according to the last count) have signed a letter in which they require the British Government to recognize the Palestinian State. Most of them belong to the parliamentary, liberal-democratic and Scottish nationalists parliamentary groups, but at least a dozen comes from the ranks of the conservative party.
“British Palestine recognition would be especially powerful, given the role of the country as the author of the Balfour Declaration [de 1917, que expresó el apoyo a la creación de “un hogar nacional para el pueblo judío” en Palestina] And as a power that controlled the mandate in Palestine, ”says the text.“ Since 1980 we have supported a solution of two states [Israel y Palestina]. The recognition would be relevant to that position, as well as justice to the historical responsibility we have with those who lived under that mandate, ”says the letter.
The joint statement signed this Friday by the United Kingdom, France and Germany expresses the will of the three, together with other international partners, to work for the development of a specific and credible plan for Gaza, which ensures a transition government, security measures and the arrival of humanitarian aid. “All this must be accompanied by the withdrawal of Israel’s troops and the elimination of Hamas leadership, as key steps for negotiation of a solution of two states,” they say.
