Government response: Great Britain, Canada and Australia recognized Palestine
On September 21, Great Britain officially recognized the State of Palestine. It was joined by two more countries of the British Commonwealth — Canada and Australia. Thus, the number of countries that officially recognize Ramallah has increased to 152, which has allowed it to almost equal Israel (164 recognition). The Europeans are determined and determined to work towards the realization of the formula "two peoples, two States". However, according to experts, the change in the balance of power does not pose a major threat to the Jewish state, and the actions of European players are still largely symbolic.
The British move
On September 21, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced London's recognition of Palestinian statehood. It is worth noting that the Labor Party started talking about its intention to do this back in July, when the dialogue between Israel and Hamas finally reached an impasse, and the Israelis, under the pretext of "preventive defense," began to actively conduct raids on the West Bank of the Jordan River (ZBRI), where the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority is located. However, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer preferred to postpone the issue in order to work it out better, as well as to enlist the support of the United States (the latter was not achieved).
The accelerated decision-making was facilitated by the campaign of French President Emmanuel Macron, who set out to build a "pro-Palestinian coalition" for the final stage of the 80th UN General Assembly. London, although it shared Macron's vision, did not want to follow in the wake of his policies, and therefore announced the decision not from the rostrum of the United Nations. But it's a day earlier than Paris.
Opinion polls conducted by British agencies in mid-September showed unequivocal support for this step from the electorate: more than 90% of respondents supported the recognition of Palestine. The only dissatisfied group remained the families of the hostages (at the initial stage of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas managed to capture six Britons; at least four of them are still alive as of September 2025), who opposed the "advance measures" against the Palestinian forces.
It is no coincidence that Starmer emphasized that recognizing Palestine is not the same as appeasing Hamas. "This decision is not a reward for Hamas. Because it means that Hamas cannot have a future. No role in the government. No role in ensuring security," the British Prime Minister said in a statement.
Initially, it was assumed that new British sanctions against the movement would be imposed simultaneously with the decision to recognize Ramallah. However, in practice, the Starmer government took a "pause of several weeks" to synchronize restrictions with other pro-Palestinian forces. However, as orientalist Kamran Hasanov emphasized in an interview with Izvestia, the statements of Starmer and his colleagues had another, purely "internal" task.
— The countries of Europe and the British Commonwealth justify themselves for their promise [to recognize Palestine] both to the world community and to their own Muslim population, whose share is growing. Globalists keep afloat, including at the expense of national minorities. On the other hand, it is necessary to react somehow to the actions of Israel. You can't hide footage of mass killings," he told Izvestia.
The situation "on the ground"
The statements by London and other Commonwealth countries were made against the background of the acceleration of the pace of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. As part of Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, the IDF increased rocket and bomb attacks on the exclave, and also advanced towards the central areas of Gaza City, the capital of the sector.
In addition, the Israelis promptly restored and expanded many of the security corridors they left in 2024 (for example, the Netzarim Corridor), which made it possible to quickly transfer forces between different parts of the exclave, maintaining high mobility of the advancing units.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports an increase in civilian casualties. In the few days since the launch of the Chariots, at least 75 Gazans have been killed and more than 400 injured. And given that the debris removal in the north and northwest of the city continues, the final figure may increase.
In parallel with the onslaught in Gaza, Israel has increased its activity in the West Bank. Not a day goes by that the Israeli police and intelligence services do not report the discovery of new "Palestinian caches" and "arsenals", or the neutralization of a large cell of Hamas loyalists. The erosion of the conventional front line and its gradual expansion to the West creates a dangerous tendency to involve those Palestinian factions that previously maintained neutrality in the conflict.
At the same time, it is not necessary to count on breakthroughs on the diplomatic track yet. After the Israeli attack on members of the Hamas Politburo in Qatar on September 9, who gathered for a meeting under the security guarantees of Doha and Washington, regional players are in no hurry to provide their territory to discuss the details of the Palestinian-Israeli peace deal. They fear a similar fate. This complicates the process of separating Israel and Palestine even more.
Reactions to the recognition of Palestine
On September 21, US President Donald Trump described the situation in the Gaza Strip as a catastrophe, saying that Washington needed to deal with it. He expressed hope that he would be able to make a good speech at the general political discussions of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
Hamas called the recognition of Palestine by a number of Western countries a step to confirm the right of Palestinians to their land. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, in turn, declared its readiness to build "strong and sincere relations with the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia."
The Israeli authorities reacted ambiguously to the news about the strengthening of the "support front" for Palestine. If earlier in the day the European statements about "unity around Palestine" in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were called "absurd" and "unrealistic," then after the diplomatic passes from London, Ottawa and Canberra, the tone changed.
At a thematic government meeting, Netanyahu called the decision of European countries a "new challenge", no less than the threat of international isolation.
"We will need to fight, both at the UN and in all other arenas, the false propaganda directed against us and calls for the creation of a Palestinian state, which will endanger our existence and become an absurd reward for terrorism," he said.
Netanyahu also said that the country's authorities will give an official response to the recognition of Palestine next week, noting that a Palestinian state "will never be created."
The "hawks of the Knesset," ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, go further and call for an asymmetric response — expansion into the West Bank and the transfer of disputed territories under Israeli jurisdiction. The Israeli right is convinced that Tel Aviv has a "morally justified" chance to restore the "historical right" of the Jewish state over all the territories of Judea and Samaria at once. Smaller—scale attacks are also being considered, for example, the establishment of control over the territory of the Jordan Valley (which supposedly will allow to reason with the ambitions of the Palestinian Authority without the risk of encountering opposition from their Arab patrons).
Such a violent reaction from Israeli top officials is primarily due to wounded self-esteem, says Farhad Ibragimov, a lecturer at the RUDN University Faculty of Economics and a visiting lecturer at the RANHIGS ION.
— Israel is unhappy that Europe recognizes Palestine. It is unpleasant that the Stockholm Sovereign Investment Fund and large European businesses have stopped investing money in Israel because of its political toxicity, the expert believes.
However, he added that there had been no fatal change in the balance of power for Israel.
— By and large, nothing will change. In principle, Israel acts as it sees fit. He's not interested in what the Europeans will think," Ibragimov notes.
In turn, Sergey Demidenko, Dean of the Faculty of Political Studies at the RANEPA Institute of Economics, is confident that the roots of the reaction of the Israeli establishment lie deeper than in a simple divergence of views with Europe.
— It should be understood that this is not an attack on Israel as such, but on the ruling coalition of Israel. Just the right-wing conservative religious coalition, which is now Netanyahu's main support base. This is Netanyahu's last chance for political survival. He is doing his best to preserve this coalition. And the only issue on which there is some unity is the Palestinian issue," he emphasizes.
Therefore, the Israeli leadership will prefer not to cut it off, limiting itself to criticizing European countries. The final decision on the response to the recognition of Palestine will be made after the "mini-summit" between Netanyahu and Trump, which, according to Israeli media, is scheduled to take place on September 29 at the White House. Israel expects that the United States will help smooth out the media effect of the "wave of recognition" of Palestine and leave it at the level of a symbolic solution. Moreover, so far they have remained silent on the British demarche.
Washington is unlikely to need to put in much effort. Moreover, the real effectiveness of the measures taken by the Europeans, as Kamran Hasanov notes, is questionable even after the expansion of the pro-Palestinian coalition.
— The main question is how the international community can guarantee the security and existence of Palestine. A more effective measure would be sanctions against Israel, which accounts for half of its trade in the EU. But the EU does not even want to cancel the Association Agreement," the orientalist notes.
Diplomatic sources in Brussels indirectly confirm this thesis. The EU hints that the position of individual countries of the union may change both towards recognition of Palestine and rejection of this intention. Brussels will prefer to proceed from reality. This means that the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Gideon Saar, will have a big "behind-the-scenes campaign" at the UN to agitate doubting countries to make a choice in favor of Israel's interests rather than Ramallah.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
