Emily Thornberry said the UK government had failed Palestinian people and should move beyond recognition of Palestine by taking direct action against Israeli settlements. Speaking in Westminster on Monday night, she said Britain had let Palestinians down and had not made it economically impossible for Israel to continue to act with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza.
Thornberry’s intervention lands now because she is asking the government why, more than eight months after the UK recognised Palestine as a state, she says nothing further has been done. She said more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed, and that over 700 people have died in Gaza since Donald Trump proclaimed what he called “the greatest moment in humanity”, before walking away from his claim of a ceasefire. Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intended to take over 70% of Gaza, a move Thornberry held up as proof that the conflict is still escalating.
At an event convened by Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Council on Arab-British Understanding, Thornberry accused her own government of lacking ambition and “wringing its hands” over the crisis. She said she had always been proud that Britain understood the importance of international law, but that on Palestine the country had “fallen well short” and in doing so had failed the Palestinian people.
She also pressed the argument that recognition was never meant to be the end of the policy. “We knew, and we have to remember, that recognition was only the first step,” she said. “Where is the second step, where is the 10th step, what are we doing?” That criticism goes to the heart of the gap between what ministers announced and what Thornberry says they have delivered since.
The most concrete part of her message was aimed at settlements. Thornberry called for the UK to ban imports of goods produced in illegal settlements, impose sanctions on those involved, stop the involvement of British companies, come down hard on insurance networks and make clear that settlement construction in the West Bank cannot continue. She said the “sense of impunity” was “staggering”.
The pressure on ministers is sharpened by the fact that the government has still not published its formal response to the International Court of Justice advisory opinion, 682 days after it was issued on the lawfulness of the occupation of the Palestinian territory. Thornberry’s remarks suggest she wants that response to be more than a legal formality. If the government does not move, the complaint she made in Westminster will hang over Labour’s Middle East policy as a warning that recognition alone is no longer enough.
