France and the UK Recognizing Palestine Won’t End the Genocide
Are we really supposed to believe these Western countries suddenly care about Palestinians?
Is the recognition of a Palestinian state the pièce de résistance of two years of Western political gaslighting? I can’t help but feel that it is. We have watched the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and France shed crocodile tears for the Palestinians as Israel bombed, starved, and exploded every single university in Gaza. The UK’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron tut-tutted while making sure that Israel had all the millions of dollars worth of weaponry needed to enact its horrific slaughter of men, women, and children.
And now we are supposed to believe that these same governments that diplomatically shielded Israel from sanctions, broke international law by not enforcing ICC arrest warrants, and stood by mutely while Israel maimed so many children that Gaza is now home to the largest cohort of child amputees in the world, suddenly care about Palestinians?
I don’t buy it for a second.
Starmer had more to say about Kneecap, the Irish punk trio, than about the Israeli army’s pumping of over 300 bullets into the vehicle carrying 6-year-old Hind Rajab. Less than two weeks ago, he shook the bloody hand of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose statement post October 7 – that all Palestinians in Gaza were responsible – can be classified as demonstrating genocidal intent. All that this performative and pathetically useless gesture accomplishes is a return to the Zionist dream of a ‘two-state’ solution.
The Oslo Accords, pushed by Western media and politicians as a trailblazing document of peace, have long been dead in the water, and thank God. Edward Said called it “an instrument of Palestinian surrender, a Palestinian Versailles.” While putting no conditions or brakes on Israel, which conceded absolutely nothing, Oslo forced Palestinian recognition of Israel’s right to exist. By recognizing his occupier’s right to exist rather than the fact of its existence ipso facto, Yasser Arafat recognized, in gruesome modern parlance, Israel’s right to commit the Nakba, to massacre and to displace some 700,000 Palestinians. The PLO renounced the armed struggle against apartheid Israel, ended the intifada, and in return, Arafat was offered a Palestinian state on a measly 22% of historic Palestine. It was a degrading capitulation. The Israeli novelist Amos Oz called Oslo – or the two-state solution, as it came to be known – “the second biggest victory in the history of Zionism.”
This pointless series of recognitions, just like Oslo, purposely says nothing about the Palestinian right of return to their homeland. Rather, all the states jumping on board have hooked their recognition to the demilitarization of a people facing genocide and the disarming of Palestinian resistance, the only force standing against Israel’s onslaught. This move, whether by five Western states or 50, is a theater. It does not end the genocide, it doesn’t medically evacuate tens if not hundreds of thousands of critically injured children, and it does nothing to end Israel’s ruthless starvation of Gaza. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakri, called Israel’s starvation campaign “the fastest in modern history.”
While Israel pummels what is left of Gaza, this move benefits only Israel as it absolves it of its hideous crimes and provides a timely distraction.
By design, these recognitions don’t accomplish anything. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Anita Anand, announced Canada’s intentions to join France et al, but added that Canada won’t normalize diplomatic relations entirely. Instead, actual recognition will hinge on the Palestinian Authority’s “democratic progress.” If you’re confused, let me translate: Canada is recognizing a state but promising not to have any dealings with it, while continuing to ship weapons to Israel, while it commits genocide of the people Canada has just recognized, sort of.
Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the ICC on charges of war crimes, has fumed and threatened those pushing recognition, this too feels like a charade. Israel has lied endlessly over the past two years – about rapes, beheaded babies, tunnels, Israeli officials lied about not shooting starving people, about the aid they refuse to allow into Gaza, about UNRWA. This anger feels like flimsy gaslighting. Palestinian academic Joseph Massad wrote recently that the true purpose of Western recognition is “to save Israel from itself by safeguarding its right to remain a Jewish supremacist state.” While Israel pummels what is left of Gaza, this move benefits only Israel as it absolves it of its hideous crimes and provides a timely distraction.
If Keir Starmer and friends have suddenly felt the pangs of their long-dormant consciences, there is a lot they can actually do: end all weapon sales to Israel, sanction Israel economically, enact a cultural and sports boycott of Israel similar to the one carried out against Russia, and stage an immediate military intervention to halt Israel’s genocide. If they’re truly, truly serious about protecting and honoring Palestinians and upholding human rights, they can go further and derecognize Israel. But they won’t do it, because none of this depends on state recognition; it is an eyewash. There are many reasons to be suspicious of this dubious wave of announcements, but remember also that there is already a state called Palestine. It exists, and it has been occupied by Israel for decades.
Fatima Bhutto is an award-winning author and journalist. Her upcoming books include the memoir, The Hour of the Wolf, and a collection of essays she co-edited titled Gaza: The Story of a Genocide.
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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Zeteo.
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Recognizing the Palestinian State should have been done years and years ago. What needs to be done now is to UNRECOGNIZE the genocidal State.
When one of these countries "concerned" about the genocide in Gaza calls for a UN peace-keeping force to enter Gaza and an embargo on all trade with Israel, then I will believe that they actually care about the Palestinians.