Exclusive: UK considered Palestine recognition in 2014 if Israel built settlements now being planned
The UK privately decided in 2014 that it would consider recognising a Palestinian state if Israel advanced with the contentious E1 settlement project, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Israel is currently poised to move forward with the settlement plan, which would effectively split the occupied West Bank in two.
“This is how we effectively kill the Palestinian state,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees settlement activity and civilian affairs in the West Bank, said last Tuesday.
Although the construction plan dates back to the 1990s, its implementation has repeatedly been delayed due to strong international opposition.
Britain's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government publicly criticised the plan in 2014.
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But multiple Foreign Office sources with knowledge of the matter told MEE that privately, the government went much further and decided it would consider recognising Palestine if the Israeli government moved forward with the project.
Responding to the revelation, Labour MP Kim Johnson said: "Even the last Tory government acknowledged the necessity of recognising the state of Palestine in the event of any further Israeli illegal annexation of Palestinian land and escalation of a threat to the viability of a Palestinian state."
She added: "Britain must unilaterally recognise the state of Palestine without any further delay."
Alon Liel, who was formerly director general of Israel's foreign ministry and adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, told MEE he believes UK support would be vital in helping to secure Palestinian statehood.
"Britain's position on the two states issue and the recognition of the state of Palestine is critical mainly because of its historic responsibility," said Liel, a founding member of the Policy Working Group, an Israeli organisation which opposes Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.
"British recognition of Palestine will save the two-states idea. The Labour Party has the recognition issue on its platform and should proceed and implement its commitment in order to avoid a further Middle Eastern deterioration that will endanger Europe too."
Labour MP Uma Kumaran, a member of Britain's Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told MEE that "we are witnessing the total destruction of Gaza and the creeping annexation of the West Bank in real time.
"If there is further delay, the devastating reality is, there may soon be nothing or no one left to recognise."
In October 2014, the House of Commons voted 274 to 12 in favour of recognising a Palestinian state, but the government insisted it would do so when it was "appropriate for the peace process".
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent MP, told MEE: "It is disgraceful that the government has chosen to delay and delay the recognition of a Palestinian state.
"We should recognise it unconditionally and immediately. Not some time in the future. Not when the time is right. Now."
Asked for comment on the revelation on Tuesday, the Foreign Office referred MEE to the Labour government's position on the issue.
Earlier this year British Foreign Secretary David Lammy insisted that the UK would only recognise a Palestinian state "when we know it’s going to happen and it’s in sight".
Now, however, there is speculation that Britain and France could recognise a Palestinian state at a conference on the two-state solution in June.
In late April, Lammy acknowledged for the first time that the UK is in discussion with France and Saudi Arabia on the topic.
Kumaran said: "This government was elected on a manifesto that promised to recognise Palestine as a step towards a just and lasting peace. I strongly support the recognition of a Palestinian State, and I have raised this repeatedly in parliament, on the Foreign Affairs Committee and with ministers."
Former senior British diplomat Sir William Patey, who chairs the Labour Middle East Council, told MEE: "Now is the time for the UK along with France to recognise a Palestinian state before it is too late to save a two state solution."
'Irreversible consequences'
Both the United States and the European Union have warned successive Israeli governments against advancing the E1 plan, citing its potentially devastating impact on prospects for a two-state solution.
The project would involve the construction of 3,412 housing units for Israeli settlers on occupied Palestinian land.
It aims to connect the settlements of Kfar Adumim and Maale Adumim with occupied East Jerusalem, cutting off Palestinian communities from one another and significantly disrupting territorial continuity.
'The UK should be recognising Palestine because it recognises Palestinian national rights'
- Chris Doyle, CAABU
Responding to MEE's revelation that the UK decided in 2014 it would consider recognising Palestine if Israel advanced the E1 project, independent MP Ayoub Khan said: "That moment has now arrived.
"The Israeli government is moving forward with E1 - an illegal project that would sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank and destroy the geographical viability of a future Palestinian state."
Khan added: "To prevent the E1 project and its irreversible consequences, the UK must immediately recognise the State of Palestine and defend this position across international diplomatic platforms.
"If necessary, the UK must table a motion at the UN to deploy international protection forces on the ground to uphold the territorial integrity of Palestine and safeguard its population."
Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich said at a settlement conference last Tuesday that the Israeli government had already approved 15,000 settlement units in 2024 and is investing 7bn shekels ($1.9bn) in new roads across the West Bank to facilitate further settlement growth.
Independent MP Adnan Hussain said: "The UK government must take immediate actions to recognise the Palestinian state before Israel advances its plans for the E1 settlement project, which if successful will split the West Bank in two and end any hope for a Palestinian state."
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), added that the UK "should not recognise a state of Palestine as a punishment for illegal conduct.
"Israeli criminal behaviour, as with any state, should be met with sanctions," he told MEE.
"The UK should be recognising Palestine because it recognises Palestinian national rights and the right to self-determination."
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