Too little, too late: why recognition of Palestine is meaningless now
TetleysTLDR: the summary
Keir Starmer’s UN recognition of Palestine is a hollow stunt. It costs Britain nothing, saves no lives, and changes nothing on the ground. Meanwhile, Labour continues to arm Israel: only 30 of 350 export licences were suspended, and F-35 parts vital for Gaza bombings still flow. This breaches Britain’s own laws, the Arms Trade Treaty, and the Geneva Conventions.
Labour’s so-called 'moral leadership' masks cowardice and complicity. It witch-hunted pro-Palestinian voices while shielding arms dealers and lobbyists. Recognition becomes cheap symbolism while Britain profits from war and eyes Gaza’s reconstruction as an 'investment opportunity', luxury resorts, Trump-branded towers, and stolen gas reserves. Tony Blair lurks again, laundering colonial profiteering as 'peace'. Real justice would mean embargoes, sanctions, prosecutions, restitution, and Palestinian-led rebuilding. Instead, Labour delivers optics, not justice. Recognition without action is fraud, bloodstained symbolism masking Britain’s ongoing betrayal.
TetleysTLDR: the article
Keir Starmer stood at the UN and declared Britain would finally recognise the State of Palestine. The BBC gushed. The Guardian called it historic. Labour MPs fell over themselves to praise his statesmanship. Come on, be honest, it is nothing of the sort. It is a sham. Recognition now, after everything, is a grotesque insult. It costs Britain nothing. It saves not a single Palestinian life. It rebuilds no homes, no schools, no hospitals. It is naked symbolism designed to obscure Britain’s complicity, Labour’s cowardice, and the ongoing funnel of money and weapons that keeps Israel’s war machine humming.
Israel has been 'warned' again by the UK not to compromise Palestinian statehood with new settlements and a continued destruction of Gaza. It won't listen. It has been warned a thousand times, and each time it shrugs, carries on, and often doubles down. These supposed British warnings are pure theatre: carefully worded statements designed for the news cycle, not backed by any material consequences. When Britain (or the EU, or the UN) tells Israel not to compromise Palestinian statehood, Israel hears it as background noise. Why? Because there’s never a cost. No sanctions. No suspension of arms sales. No withdrawal of trade agreements. Just words. And Israel has decades of experience proving that Western governments will never follow through. Ministers send 'stern letters' with one hand while signing defence contracts with the other. The Israeli government knows this game inside out, and so it simply ignores the rhetoric. Palestinian statehood, in practice, has already been systematically undermined by settlement expansion, annexation of land, apartheid laws, and military occupation. Britain’s 'warnings' ring hollow because the UK is complicit in enabling the very behaviour it claims to oppose.
Britain isn’t some neutral outsider suddenly discovering a conscience. It is a co-author of this catastrophe.
- In September 2024, Labour suspended just 30 arms export licences out of around 350 (Guardian). The rest continued.
- The UK still ships F-35 fighter jet parts, vital for the bombing of Gaza. A High Court challenge failed to stop them this year (Al Jazeera).
- Reports show thousands of other military items have been exported even after the so-called review (AOAV).
This isn’t moral leadership, it’s collaboration, and it puts Britain in breach of its own laws and international treaties. The Arms Trade Treaty forbids selling weapons where there’s a clear risk they’ll be used in war crimes. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment, which Gaza’s siege epitomises. Yet Labour has carried on exporting, licensing, and profiting.Recognition on paper doesn’t wash the blood off Britain’s hands.
Labour’s cowardice
Labour had a choice. It could have led. It could have enforced a full embargo, sanctioned Israeli leaders, backed prosecutions at the International Criminal Court. Instead, Starmer’s government has done what it always does when faced with power: duck, cover, and grovel.
This is the same Labour leadership that spent years witch-hunting members who dared show solidarity with Palestine. The same Labour Friends of Israel network still entrenched at the top of the party, still hosted at every conference, still bankrolled by donors with vested interests. The same Labour leadership that abstained or voted down motions calling for an arms embargo, while children were being buried under rubble. They knew damn well the scale of Israel’s crimes. UN agencies called Gaza hell on earth. Independent jurists warned of genocide. Yet Labour’s response was cowardice, triangulation, silence, until it needed a headline. Starmer’s recognition stunt is damage control. It’s there to placate the public, not to save Palestinians.
Recognition means nothing on the ground
Even Starmer admits recognition “does not change the situation on the ground” (gov.uk). Then what’s the point? It doesn’t stop the bulldozers carving the West Bank into ever-smaller Bantustans.
It doesn’t stop the bombs pulverising Gaza’s refugee camps.
It doesn’t let refugees return, as guaranteed under UN Resolution 194.
It doesn’t feed a starving family in Rafah. It’s a flag without land. A passport without borders. A state without sovereignty. Recognition means nothing if the same government is still arming the occupier.
Follow the Money
This isn’t just about cowardice. It’s about money. British arms firms profit from every F-35 component, every weapons part shipped. Israeli investment and donors sit in Westminster. Reconstruction contracts are already being eyed up by British, American, and Israeli corporations.
And Labour is wide open to this influence. Just look at the surge in arms exports under its watch (AOAV). Or the way Israeli lobby groups still shape its policy. Or the silence on sanctions, because they’d upset City investors. Recognition is cheap. Sanctions cost. Embargoes bite. And Labour won’t risk offending the donors who keep it afloat.
The Gaza Riviera
While Gaza lies in ruins, plans are already being drawn up to turn it into a playground for foreign investors.
- The so-called Gaza Riviera plan imagines luxury seafront apartments, tourist promenades, glittering high-rise blocks (Guardian).
- A 'Gaza International Transitional Authority', floated by Tony Blair and others, would govern Gaza after Hamas is removed, with heavy Israeli and US oversight (Times of Israel).
These proposals are obscene. They envision Gaza not as a home for Palestinians, but as beachfront real estate for developers and an investment opportunity for elites. They erase the right of return. They entrench outside control. They profit from destruction. This is how modern colonialism works: first you bomb a place to rubble, then you sell off the ruins to investors.
Blair’s grubby paws
And who should pop up in all this like a blood soaked Jack in the Box but Tony Blair. The ghoul who dragged Britain into Iraq on a lie. The man who cashed in as a Middle East peace envoy while consulting for regimes and corporations. Now Blair is reportedly working with US and Israeli officials to design Gaza’s future: a transitional authority, heavy on foreign oversight, light on Palestinian sovereignty. Add in Trump-branded towers, tourist resorts, and the prize beneath it all: Gaza’s offshore gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean. While Palestinians starve, foreign powers are already carving up their coastline for energy extraction. Blair’s role? To launder this colonial grab as reconstruction. This is what Britain’s recognition masks: not freedom, not sovereignty, but another cycle of profiteering. Gaza reduced from an open-air prison to a gated investment zone. From killing fields to a grotesque theme park for elites, built on graves, fuelled by stolen gas.
What real justice would look like
If Britain meant a word of its recognition, it would:
- Impose a total arms embargo on Israel. No loopholes. No open licences.
- Sanction Israeli leaders and companies complicit in settlements and war crimes.
- Back ICC prosecutions and cooperate with investigations.
- Refuse reconstruction schemes that erase Palestinian rights, insisting instead on restitution, return, and Palestinian-led rebuilding.
- Cut ties with lobby groups that shield Israel from accountability.
But of course Labour won’t do any of that, because it is too timid, too compromised, too beholden to donors and arms dealers.
The Recognition Fraud
Recognition of Palestine in 2025 is not solidarity. It is not justice. It is Britain lighting a candle at the funeral of a victim it helped kill. Labour can dress it up as a bold step, but unless it comes with sanctions, embargoes, prosecutions, and reparations, it is worthless. Worse than worthless, it is a smokescreen for ongoing complicity. As Blair and his friends sketch out a future Gaza of Trump Towers, luxury resorts, and gas pipelines, we see the truth. Palestine is recognised only when it suits the powerful. Recognition is not about justice for Palestinians, but about resetting the optics, soothing British consciences, and preparing the ground for the next wave of exploitation.
The killing fields of Gaza are being rebranded as a business park. And Labour, drenched in cowardice and money, is applauding itself for finally recognising the very people it helped betray.
It stinks to high heaven.
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