Britain’s Labour government said Tuesday that it would formally recognise a Palestinian state prior to the scheduled United Nations General Assembly on September 9 unless the Israeli government changes its policy in Gaza.

A government statement issued after an “emergency” Cabinet meeting said the move would be taken unless the Israeli government takes “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank, and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a Two State Solution”.

It then “reiterated that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas and that our demands on Hamas remain, that they must release all the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, accept that they will play no role in the government of Gaza, and disarm.”

The plan was reportedly discussed with France and Germany and with US President Donald Trump by Starmer during their meeting Monday in Scotland.

The UK government has managed to craft a polite threat directed at Israel, a filthy manoeuvre that is meant to allow Israel to complete the ethnic cleansing of Gaza while offering Labour an alibi for standing aside while an historic crime is completed. Pontius Pilate would be proud.

Starmer recalled his Cabinet from parliamentary recess in response to mounting popular outrage at the catastrophe in Gaza. The deliberate starvation of 2 million people by Israel—as the death count from its genocide officially topped 60,000 on Tuesday, with over 145,000 maimed—has accelerated a political crisis among the European powers who have supported Israel’s genocidal slaughter from the outset.

Even Britain’s most right-wing, pro-Israeli tabloids have been forced to call for aid to be allowed into Gaza. The Daily Express, which specialises in demonising refugees and asylum seekers, ran a front page with a harrowing photo of a starving child and the banner headline: “For Pity’s Sake Stop This Now”.

At his meeting with Trump Monday, Starmer felt obliged to warn the would be Fuhrer, “People in Britain are revolted at seeing what they’re seeing on their screens.” Even Trump felt obliged to say later that Israel must allow aid into Gaza.

On Tuesday, the UN’s World Food Programme declared that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip”. Emergency director Ross Smith told reporters, “This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century.”

Last week, 221 MPs, around a third of Parliament, from nine parties—including 100 from Starmer’s Labour Party—signed a letter calling for an immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. Roughly a third of Starmer’s cabinet, according to the Times, have privately made the same case to the prime minister.

These are murderers fleeing the scene of the crime. Starmer was given permission to endorse Palestinian statehood by Trump in their joint press briefing. The US president shrugged, “I’m not going to take a position, I don’t mind him [Starmer] taking a position.”

The proposal put forward by the UK still requires Hamas to sign its own death warrant, making support for a Palestinian state entirely conditional on the government which has already wiped Gaza off the map, starved and massacred tens of thousands and forcibly displaced millions. Given the reality on the ground, Starmer’s policy is a recipe for a Palestinian state with no Palestinians in it, the myth of a “land without people” made real.

This has been made possible by a genocidal campaign which has proceeded with the direct complicity of Starmer’s government. On October 11, 2023—within four days of Israel beginning its bombing of Gaza—Starmer, then Leader of the Opposition, told LBC’s Nick Ferrari, “Israel does have that right, must have that right, to defend herself, and Hamas bears responsibility.” Ferrari asked, “A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water, Sir Keir?”, to which the Labour leader responded, “I think Israel does have that right.”

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On October 31, 2023, Israeli warplanes blew up the heavily populated Jabaliya neighbourhood in northern Gaza, which houses the largest refugee camp in the Strip. At least 195 civilians were killed, with 120 more buried under rubble.

The following month, his then shadow foreign secretary David Lammy visited Israel for meetings with President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to offer his support. Lammy said of this war crime that “it’s clear to me that it’s wrong to bomb a refugee camp, but clearly if there is a military objective it can be legally justifiable.”

Taking office in July last year, Starmer massively stepped up UK support for the genocide, including increasing arms sales and reconnaissance flights to aid the Israeli Defence Forces in its destruction of Gaza.

Today, Starmer and his government know that Israel can continue with the full backing of the United States.

When French President Emmanuel Macron declared, last week, his own plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Trump responded, “What he says doesn’t matter. He’s a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn’t carry weight.” Further humiliating the French head of state, Trump went on, “Here’s the good news: what he says doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything.”

This was followed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posting on X, “The United States strongly rejects Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly. This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

Even as Trump was graciously allowing his toady Starmer to “take a position”, the US and Israel were boycotting a United Nations conference opening that day in New York with a remit of laying out a roadmap towards a two-state solution, and discussing the parameters that could lead to a Palestinian state while defending the Israeli state.

The three-day conference, hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, is being attended by Lammy. It opened with a statement from French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot that “Only a political, two-state solution will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security.”

Even such diplomatic niceties are now beyond the pale for the US, with Israel making clear that the only “solution” it will recognise is its conquering of the entire territory of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of its inhabitants.

As the conference got underway, a US State Department spokesman attacked it as “unproductive and ill-timed” and a “publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.”