Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at his British counterpart on Tuesday after the U.K. government vowed to recognize Palestinian statehood later this year.
“[U.K. PM Keir] Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism & punishes its victims,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.
He added: “A jihadist state on Israel’s border TODAY will threaten Britain TOMORROW.
“Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
The broadside came after Starmer — under pressure from his own party and a French push on the issue — made a conditional pledge to recognize a Palestinian state ahead of September’s United Nations General Assembly.
The British prime minister told his Cabinet Tuesday that “now was the right time to move this position forward” because of the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the diminishing prospects of a peace process.
Starmer promised that the U.K. would recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government took “substantive steps” to end the crisis in Gaza and commited to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution. Starmer repeated that Hamas must release all remaining hostages taken in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, disarm and accept they will have no role in the government of Gaza.
The move marks a significant shift in British policy in the Middle East, and comes after intensive lobbying by MPs in Starmer’s governing Labour Party.
Netanyahu has previously laid into Starmer over sanctions aimed at Israeli ministers and attacked a “shameful” decision by the U.K. last year to suspend the sale of some arms components used by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Starmer spoke to Netanyahu ahead of the U.K. Cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the U.K. prime minster’s office said.
According to a No. 10 Downing Street readout of the call, Starmer told the Israeli PM that the U.K. “remains unequivocal” in its condemnation of Hamas “terrorist atrocities.”
But he urged Netanyahu “to take immediate action to lift all restrictions on aid access and get those suffering in Gaza the food they need.”
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