The UK should recognise the state of Palestine while there is still a Palestine left, a powerful Commons committee has told Keir Starmer.
The foreign affairs select committee said the UK’s actions over the ongoing conflict and “in the years preceding, have often been too little, too late,” as they called for further sanctions “against settlers”.
It comes as Keir Starmer has issued his strongest condemnation yet of Israel’s starvation of Gaza and hinted he is edging closer to recognising a Palestinian state,
In a new report the committee said Israel must open all crossing points to food, medical, materials for shelter and other aid to Gaza.
It also calls on the UK to act “more boldly and bravely”, including sanctions on all businesses operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The report also warns that, despite being an ally, Israel is not listening to the UK and says pressure should be put on the US to persuade Tel Aviv.
However, the recommendation of recognising a Palestinian state pushed through by the committee’s majority of Labour majority threatens to reopen deep divisions in the party again.
Labour Friends of Israel, which has powerful supporters in the cabinet including chancellor Rachel Reeves and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, has warned that recognising Palestine now is the wrong thing to do.
But Labour’s main financial backers the trade unions have repeated their demands for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.
Dame Emily Thornberry, a long term critic of Israel and the Labour chair of the Commons’ foreign affairs committee, said immediately recognising the state of Palestine would signal the UK’s desire to work urgently towards a two-state solution.
On Thursday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Labour was “deeply committed” to recognising a Palestinian state, a pledge in the party’s last general election manifesto, but he said such a move would have to be meaningful and come as part of a “genuine move towards a two-state solution and a long-term peace settlement” with Israel.
Dame Emily also said Labour “must not shrug our shoulders in despair and say that there is nothing we can do”.
She called on ministers to “immediately” extend sanctions against settlers and for the UK to play a part in evidence collection “which will be vital to the inevitable legal reckoning when this conflict finally comes to an end”.
She said that the UK “must be realistic about our role” and “our greatest power is in our alliances”.
“Whether that is persuading the US to have an influence on Israel to come to a ceasefire, or with nations in the region whose support will be vital to a long-term two-state solution.”
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan is among the senior Labour figures who have recently called for Palestine to be recognised.
MPs on the committee were divided over the call, but a majority backed it.
In a sign that divisions on the issue continue to plague te Labour Party, Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), repeated the demands from the party’s biggest financial backers for the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.
He said: ““Words must be matched with action. That’s why we are calling for the UK and its international partners to use every diplomatic, political, and economic tool available to help deliver an immediate and permanent ceasefire, end the illegal occupation and start a meaningful political peace process that respects the right to self-determination.
“This must include formal recognition of the State of Palestine. Not in a year’s time or two years’ time – but now.”
However, Labour Friends of Israel chair Jon Pearce MP warned: “Recognition is a card that can only be played once. It must be done when it will have maximum impact.
“As we saw when Ireland, Spain and Norway recognised a Palestinian state outside of any process, recognition changes nothing on the ground but does risk tearing up the Oslo Accords without a plan for security and sovereignty to replace it, whilst at the same time being seen as a reward for terrorism, inadvertently emboldening Hamas in the ceasefire negotiations.”
