Why some Palestinians aren’t convinced by Starmer’s promise

One of the main reasons behind the presence of British Prime Minister Sir Kerr Starmer – after France and then in turn, followed by Canada – has a plan to recognize a Palestinian state in the United Nations General Assembly in September is to turn the two -state solution into a real diplomatic plan again, instead of the empty slogan that has become since the Oslo peace process that has collapsed into blood 25 years ago.

Driving Day throughout the West Bank is a useful reminder of how the facts that Israel created to stop this occurrence in the rocky hills and valleys that the Palestinians want to a country.

The success of the huge national project that started Israel after days of seizure of the region in the Middle East war in 1967 can be seen in the Jewish settlements, which are now home to more than 700,000 Israelis.

Obtaining it, there is a project that took nearly 60 years, billions of dollars, condemnation of friends as well as enemies. It is a violation of the international law of the occupier to settle its citizens on the ground they took.

Last year, the International Court of Justice issued a consultant saying that the entire occupation was illegal.

But the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is hungry for more settlements.

At the end of May, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bizal Soutrich announced that 22 new settlements will be built in the West Bank.

Katz said that the massive expansion, which is the largest in decades, was “a strategic step that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would put Israel and act as a wardrobe against our enemies.”

“This is Zionism, security and national response – and a clear decision on the future of the country,” he added.

Next to Katz, the very national leader Bezallil Sottic, who lived in a settlement in the West Bank and believed that God had given the Jews. He is the Minister of Finance, but he is also the governor of the West Bank effectively with sweeping powers on planning.

Sottic described the expansion of the settlement as “once in the generation” and announced: “The next step is sovereignty!”

Everyone in Israel, and the Palestinians in the lands know that when Sotrich and his allies say “sovereignty” they mean annexation.

Smotrich wants all lands for the Jews and publicly discussed finding ways to remove the Palestinians.

At the top of the hill after the hill top in the West Bank, there are settlements in different stages of its development, from small, established cities with gardens and mature schools, to settlement foci with a handful of convoys and armed population of young settlers who often mix religion with extremist Jewish nationalism, firearms and sometimes fatal aggression against their Palestinian companies.

Statistics gathered by United Nations and peace activists show that violent settlers have increased attacks on their Palestinian neighbors since October 7.

I went to see how this affected Taybeh, a completely Christian village with about 1500 people.

It is a quiet place that seems to have many houses more than the population. After nearly six difficult decades of the Israeli occupation, the Taybeh people forced migration more than living in the village.

Two nights before the visit, settlers entered the village when most people were in bed. They burned the Kamal Taya and tried to no avail to enter his new home, which is part of an interesting development overlooking an acre of olive groves. They rid the walls with the walls in the Hebrew language that was sprayed with red paint.

Kamal, a middle -aged man who re -evaluates whether his decision to move his family to the brink of the village was wise, stabilizes a network of security cameras.

“We were very afraid,” Kamal said. “I have an old children and mother. Our life was threatened, and it was terrifying.”

I asked him whether Britain’s plan to recognize Palestine would make his life easier.

“I don’t think so. It is a big step that there is a great power like Britain that supports us, but on the ground, it does not change much. Israel is not compatible with any international decisions or laws.

“Not listening to any other country in the whole world.”

During the next night, the Jewish settlers raided the neighboring Palestinian societies and burned cars on the walls. It is more than just sabotage.

The settlers want the Palestinians to come out, and in some places in the occupied territories, they succeeded in removing the Palestinians in remote villages from their farms and stealing livestock.

The Greek Orthodox Priest David Khoury, 74, was born in Tiba. In his church, he told me that the settlers who threatened him and other population are often armed.

“Yes, they have weapons … they will use them if we argue with them. They want us to go out, and they want us to leave.”

The old priest was a challenge.

“We are here, since Jesus Christ, 2000 years old. Our roots here. We cannot move. We will not move, even if we die here, we will not move from here … Palestine is inside our blood, and how can we live without our blood?”

There were no miles to Ramallah, the actual Palestinian capital of the West Bank, but I could not get there personally. It can make the checkpoints in Israel driving to Jerusalem slow and difficult, so it reached Husam Zomlot by zooming. He is the head of the Palestinian delegation of the United Kingdom, and he is an actually ambassador in London. He returned home for the summer and was happy with Britain’s plan to recognize Palestine.

“It is a sign that the United Kingdom and with it, the rest of the international community is really serious in a two -state solution. We are no longer in the field of lipstick that we lost three decades. In fact, if you are really looking for two states.”

“We see recognition as the starting weapon to the enemy towards the implementation and establishment of the situation of Palestine and the completion of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

Zomlot was cheerful. He said it was a first step, and Britain’s decision would make a real difference.

History is one of the powerful engines of this conflict. He added that Britain was finally atone for the mistakes made by the Palestinians when the imperial force was here between 1917 and 1948.

He was referring to the promises made in a short written message, on November 2, 1917, signed by Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour and went to Lord Rothschild, leader of the British Jewish community. The message said: “Declaration of sympathy for the aspirations of Jewish Zionism.”

Britain will consider “looking with the creation of in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.”

This was followed by another promise: “Nothing will be done that might affect the civil and religious rights of non -Jewish existing societies in Palestine.”

The majority meant the Palestinian Arabs, although he did not call them, which is a point, after 108 years, still arranged Zomlot

At the United Nations in New York this week, British Foreign Secretary David Lami said that the United Kingdom may be proud to help Israel after 1917. But breaking the promise of the Palestinians in the Balfour Declaration had caused “a historical injustice that continues to reveal.”

In The KnesSet, the Parliament of Israel, Simsha Rochd, the non -nationalist deputy of the National Religious Party, was the British Empire in the Middle East in his mind. He said that the British and the French tried to reform the borders before, when they took the Middle East from the prepared Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Britain could not play imperial power anymore.

Just like Benjamin Netanyahu and Betzzaleel Soutrich, the leader of his party, Rochd said that the plan to recognize Palestine is equivalent to terrorism Hamas. The Starmer’s offer to postpone recognition if Israel agreed, from other circumstances, refused to a complete ceasefire in Gaza and revive the two -state solution.

“It threatens the State of Israel with punishment and believes that this is the way to bring peace to the Middle East. It is not in a position that enables it to punish us, and certainly will not bring peace.”

“It is against justice, history, religion and culture … It gives a huge reward for Yahya Sinwar [the Hamas leader who led the 7 October attacks and was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year].

“Wherever he is in Hell today, he sees what Kiir Starmer says – and says,” A good partner. “

Returning to Taybeh, I asked a group of prominent local citizens who were drinking coffee with the mayor in his office, what they thought about the UK recognition plan.

One of them, a local businessman, said: “Thank you Britain. But it is too late.”

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