UK’s Labour Party pledges to recognise Palestinian state
UK’s opposition Labour Party has pledged to recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process.
“Palestinian statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people,” said Labour’s election manifesto – the collection of policies it would enact if it forms the next government.
“We are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.”
The current Conservative-led government has previously said the UK could formally recognise a Palestinian state before the end of a peace process, and that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip must be given “the political perspective of a credible route to a Palestinian state and a new future”.
Israel ‘responds to calls for a ceasefire by shedding blood’
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has applauded Spain’s PM for his stance on the ongoing Gaza crisis.
“I congratulate my dear friend, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, for his stance on Gaza, on behalf of myself and my nation,” Erdogan said in an address at a business forum in the Spanish capital, Madrid, adding that Sanchez “has been etched in the hearts of our Palestinian brothers”.
“The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for 250 days hurts everyone with a conscience.”
Last month, Spain formally recognised Palestine as a state, with Sanchez saying it was a “historic move towards justice and the only route to achieve peace”. Erdogan also took aim at what he called Israel’s “spoiled attitude”, saying the Netanyahu government “responds to calls for a ceasefire by shedding blood”.
“No country with a conscience can accept this,” Erdogan said.
Israel’s government ‘destructive, disastrous’
Former Israeli deputy chief of staff Yair Golan has called for Netanyahu’s resignation, criticising the government’s handling of the release of 120 captives.
“I think we should have already reached a deal when four [Israeli forces] divisions were in Gaza, and that happened four to five months ago,” Golan, chairman of the Labor Party, told the Israeli daily Maariv.
“I don’t know if we missed the opportunity, but there is no doubt that we missed the best conditions,” he said, adding that the government is “mainly busy with its personal interests”.
“We cannot enter into another war in the north, which will probably be more difficult, cruel and prolonged than the current one, without the State of Israel being led by a government that the people trust.
“This government is a destructive government, a disastrous government … it is not normal for a country to go to war with a government that the people do not trust.”
Israel will consider ‘expelling senior UN officials’
Israel will consider expelling senior UN officials, the country’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has said.
“Within days, Israel will study the possibility of expelling senior United Nations officials from its territory,” he told Israeli public radio. “The time has come for Israel to seriously consider the pros and cons of withdrawing from the United Nations.”
