One year on, the UK’s recognition of Palestinian statehood is bearing fruit

This week marks one year since the United Kingdom, along with nine other Western countries, recognised the State of Palestine. What shifted was politics, not policy: overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause by the British public finally persuaded the government to align with the law.For decades, the UK backed a two-state solution in words only. Its logic was twisted: recognise statehood only after a final peace agreement, handing Israel a veto over the very policy it claimed to support, even as successive Israeli governments worked – through words, bulldozers and bombs – to render Palestinian statehood impossible.This approach treated Palestinian self-determination as conditional, not an inalienable right — earned through reform, “good governance” and benchmarks no other people have been made to meet.The British recognition of Palestinian statehood marked a turning point – one that is already bearing fruit a year later. Upgrading relations with Palestine has allowed the UK to turn rhetoric into policy.From words to policyAlmost a year after the UK formally recognised the State of Palestine, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced that the British government now regards the Is...