Nearly 60 UK lawmakers have written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, urging the UK to immediately recognize Palestine as a state and take concrete action to halt Israel’s plans for the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza. The letter, signed by 59 Labour Party members, criticizes Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s plan to force Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinians into a so-called “humanitarian city” built on the ruins of Rafah, likening it to a concentration camp.
The lawmakers cited Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, who described the plan as “an operational plan for crimes against humanity” and “ethnic cleansing”. They urged Lammy to stop Israel’s “operational plan for crimes against humanity” and follow the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently announced his intent to recognize a Palestinian state. Macron’s statement gave calls to formally recognize Palestine as a state “extra heft” during his three-day state visit to the UK.
In his address to the UK’s Parliament, Lammy emphasized the need for “absolute urgency” and “only path to peace” in creating political momentum for a two-state solution. He also criticized the US-backed GHF sites, stating, “It’s not doing a good job. Too many people are close to starvation. Too many people have lost their lives.” The sites have sidelined Gaza’s UN-led aid delivery network, with three out of four locations in southern Gaza, effectively forcing Palestinians towards Israel’s new “humanitarian city” in Rafah.
The UN reported that 819 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food, with 634 deaths near GHF sites since late May. On Saturday, 34 more Palestinians were killed near a GHF site in Rafah. Lammy stressed that the UK wants to recognize Palestine as part of a concrete move towards the two-state solution, not just as a symbolic gesture.
The lawmakers welcomed the Labour government’s calls for a ceasefire, suspension of arms licenses to Israel, and sanctioning of hardline Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. However, they emphasized that more action is required, stating, “We cannot leave actions in our back pocket while the situation facing Palestinian civilians reaches critical and existential levels.” The letter added that not recognizing Palestine as a state would “set an expectation that the status quo can continue and see the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory”.