LONDON // Members of the British House of Commons will vote on Monday on a potentially historic motion to recognise a Palestinian state.
Although the vote is largely symbolic and will have no direct bearing on British government policy, supporters of the motion believe the timing of the debate is significant and victory could have game-changing consequences.
The debate comes 10 days after the new Swedish government announced that Sweden would become the first major member of the European Union to recognise the state of Palestine, joining the 134 other members of the 193-state United Nations that have already done so.
Like the Swedish decision, a successful vote in the House of Commons would also add weight to efforts by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to seek a UN Security Council resolution calling on Israel to end its occupation by November 2016.
The motion has been put forward by Grahame Morris, a member of the opposition Labour party.
However, there is a strong chance that the motion will be carried. Labour MPs are under party orders to support it and many members of the ruling Conservative-Lib Dem coalition parties, free to vote according to conscience, are also believed to be in favour of the motion.
If the vote is carried, the British government will find itself in the embarrassing situation of seeing its current policy – “to recognise a Palestinian state bilaterally at the moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace” – rejected as inadequate by a majority of members of the House of Commons.
Mr Morris has told the media there is a “very strong” case to recognise Palestine’s right to statehood now.
“Over the past 20 years what we have learnt when the peace talks haven’t produced any tangible results is that we need greater equity between the parties in order for these negotiations to succeed,” he said.
Opposition to the motion has been mounted by the All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group, whose membership is behind an amendment to the motion which, if carried, could dramatically reduce its effect.
To the motion, “That this House believes that the government should recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel”, it would add “on the conclusion of successful peace negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority”.
“There certainly should be a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” Louise Ellman, a Labour member of the Britain-Israel group, told the BBC, “but it can only be achieved by direct negotiation between the parties.”
That, said Mr Morris, in effect gave Israel “a veto over the Palestinians’ right to self-determination” and was unacceptable. “I think the British people think that’s wrong in principle and wrong in practice.”
On the other hand, validating the Palestinian state would “encourage the peace process, re-energise and re-engage the Americans, may well encourage other members of the EU to recognise and would bring greater equity to the negotiations”.
Baroness Warsi, the former minister of state for faith and communities who resigned in August in protest at what she called the government’s “morally indefensible” policy over the conflict in Gaza, has called on members of parliament to support the motion.
It was, she said, vital to “breathe new life” into the stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, “and one of the ways we can do that is by recognising the state of Palestine”.
Whether the government will be moved by the debate to alter its policy remains to be seen. But an appetite for possible change may have been signalled in an article in the Guardian on Friday by Sir Vincent Fean, who from 2010 to 2013 was the British government’s consul general to Jerusalem and de facto ambassador to the Palestinian territories.
The motion was “right and timely”, said Sir Vincent, and was significant because of Britain’s permanent membership of the UN Security Council, its partnership with 27 EU states and its historical role in the region.
If Britain became the 136th state to recognise Palestine, “we can take a decisive political step to break a political impasse for which we have a bigger share of responsibility than all the [other] 135 put together”.
Recognition would also “help to preserve the two-state solution, which is, after all, the policy of the three main [British] political parties … would reward and encourage moderation in both states [and] is something that is overdue”.
The debate and vote, which will begin this evening at about 18.30 UAE time and is expected to last for up to six hours, will be streamed live on the UK Parliament website, at www.parliamentlive.tv
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
