The UK PM’s comments are too little too late, and simply provide cover for his and his government’s complicity in the genocide. The future lies in accountability for Israeli war crimes, and the creation of one democratic state.

This is what the wrong side of history looks like: supporting a state carrying out massive crimes, providing it with abundant military support and aid, giving it the political cover it requires to perpetrate atrocities by justifying its actions, being fully aware of each and every crime it commits, and then, when the violence inevitably escalates (as you knew it would), and the world screams in horror, feigning innocence and distancing yourself from the terror you supported and enabled to avoid being tarnished by your complicity.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recent ultimatum, threatening recognition of a Palestinian state in September unless Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ceases violence in Gaza, represents yet another superficial and insincere approach by Western powers toward Palestinian statehood. Instead of seeking rights based and moral resolution to the gargantuan crimes being perpetrated before the world’s eyes, the proposal weaponizes Palestinian sovereignty as a diplomatic bargaining chip. Rather than genuinely supporting Palestinian rights or addressing decades of dispossession and occupation, it appears to be provided to cover-up Starmer’s hitherto staunch support for Israeli war crimes. The statement neither recognises Israeli aggression to be genocide, makes an attempt to end the forced starvation of Gazan (now in its final stages) or stop the deeply embedded military support the UK has provided the Israeli regime during this period. Instead, Starmer frames the catastrophe as a failure of aid distribution, deflecting from the wanton violence and destruction his government has enabled Israel to carry out.

IHRC has long documented Israel’s rejection of meaningful Palestinian autonomy, notably highlighted by Netanyahu’s conditional acceptance of Palestinian statehood in 2009, which demanded a demilitarised Palestinian entity subordinate to permanent Israeli security dominance. Israel’s ongoing expansion of illegal settlements and systematic erosion of Palestinian rights further demonstrate its unwillingness to pursue any sincere two-state solution.

Moreover, the two-state framework itself is fundamentally flawed and unviable. As IHRC analyses consistently show, establishing an autonomous Palestinian state is impossible under the entrenched context of apartheid policies, expanding settlements, and continued military occupation. The fragmented territorial reality deliberately crafted by Israeli policies has isolated Palestinian communities into disconnected enclaves, rendering any separate Palestinian state practically unviable.

IHRC advocates for a rights-based approach to dismantling the apartheid structures inherent in the Zionist occupation, emphasising that genuine peace demands rejecting superficial diplomacy. Instead, the path forward must be a unified, democratic state guaranteeing equal rights for all inhabitants of historic Palestine. It must start by ending the current genocide in Gaza, and holding those responsible accountable for their terrible crimes.

Starmer’s conditional offer is thus neither a sincere commitment to peace nor a realistic pathway to Palestinian statehood. Instead, it undermines genuine Palestinian aspirations, allows Israeli violence against Palestinians to continue unabated, and once again allows Britain to wash its hands of the system of oppression it created. Rest assured, when accountability is to be had, and history is written, these paltry words from Starmer will be simply part of the evidence against him.

For further comment please email media@ihrc.org.

Image: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported from Wikimedia from Jessica Taylor.