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Both the French and UK heads of state have announced that their governments will recognize a Palestinian state by September, giving Israel’s genocidal regime roughly 30 days to ethnically cleanse parts of Gaza.
Throughout the siege on Gaza, now into its 20th month, it’s been clear that no amount of international condemnation or pressure will dissuade the rogue state from pursuing its aims for annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, and removal of the Palestinians in the process. The only milestone that remans both unreached and a realistic potentiality is the recognition of Palestine by the UK, Germany, or France.
WaL previously reported that former and current Israeli diplomats speaking with Middle East Eye have suggested that short of the United States recognizing a Palestinian state, there would be no event more significant in the history of Israel’s apartheid rule over their captive Arab population.
“We can pull our ambassadors from Spain, or from Oslo, or from Dublin,” said Alon Liel, former director general of Israel’s foreign ministry. “But we cannot pull our ambassador from London. We cannot close our embassy in London”.
However close Liel’s assessment is to the actual lengths that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet feel they can take, reports from various outlets suggest the key men in power in Tel Aviv either don’t place any stock in the announcements by President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, or they do take stock in them—and so will try to cleanse as much of Gaza and the West Bank as possible before September.
The Times of Israel reported Wednesday that an ultimatum was sent to Hamas stating that if the group does not accept the unilateral conditions of Israel’s most recent ceasefire proposal, Israel will begin annexing parts of Gaza. According to Israel’s Channel 12, officials gave mediators such a response to Hamas’s latest proposal on Tuesday night and they aren’t expecting Hamas to accept the offer.
Israel’s Fiery Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which would cause him to lose power and become vulnerable to his many political enemies. The threat was in response to Netanyahu allowing some limited food aid into Gaza, which Smotrich opposed, having previously stated that he would not allow one single grain of wheat will enter the Strip following the end of a two-month ceasefire in March.
Haaretz reported earlier this week that Netanyahu had proposed the idea of annexing Gaza to appease Smotrich, by a stretch the most outspokenly genocidal of the Israeli cabinet. The Israeli Defense Forces have already carved Gaza into several sections through the establishment of corridors and buffer zones, which would make it easy, considering the famine that has already killed dozens, to cleanse large areas in the north quickly. Smotrich actually said the Gazans will be “concentrated” when describing how the majority of Gaza’s remaining population are currently in the south of the strip.
Antiwar reports that the Channel 12 and Haaretz claims contradict one another regarding any ethnic cleansing operation—that either the White House has “no appetite” for cleansing Gaza, or it’s already given such an operation the green light.
30 days to settle Gaza
Additional pressure on Netanyahu is coming from settler groups. One in particular, the radical Nachala movement, made headlines this week for marching 1,000 families to the walls of Gaza chanting “Gaza, ours forever”. Nachala leader, Daniella Weiss, sanctioned by Canada and the UK for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, told reporters that the “way to defeat Hamas is to take back our land”.
“[W]e are ready to move now, as things stand, and to live in tents,” Weiss said. “We are ready with our children to move into the Gaza area right away, because we believe this is the way to bring quiet, peace, to put an end to Hamas”.
Smotrich supports settlers like Weiss, and During a meeting at the Israeli Knesset last week, he expressed support for settling Gaza.
“This is doable and realistic. I’m very optimistic. Conquering Gaza and settling it as an integral part of the State of Israel,” he said.
Comparing this rhetoric to that of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said that the country would recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel “takes substantive steps” to stop committing genocide, reveals a gap in resolve that bodies ill for the Palestinians. Indeed, Starmer’s choice of conditioning recognition of Palestine on Israeli actions was decried as an “utter disaster”.
“So actually, amazingly, in some areas, it’s weaker than previous government statements, where they have called for the UN to have unimpeded access. So it’s an utter disaster,” said Chris Doyle, the director of Council for Arab-British Understanding. “There’s enough in there to allow him to wiggle out of a recognition in September. Nothing that the government announced yesterday, nothing will stop or slow down the genocide in Gaza”.
Macron, by contrast, said that France will recognize Palestine at September’s UN meeting, having previously aimed to announce it at an earlier UN conference, but opted to delay it in the face of potential negotiations.
“I will make the solemn announcement at the United Nations General Assembly next September,” the French President wrote on X. “There must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. It is also necessary to ensure the demilitarization of Hamas, secure and rebuild Gaza”.
Speaking with Middle East Eye, former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy has said that recognition of a Palestinian state is the go-to option to make it appear as if substantive changes will occur.
“It is something that doesn’t require an actual reconfiguration in important elements in the bilateral relationship with Israel,” Levy said. “Arms and trade sanctions, or joining the South African case at the ICJ [International Criminal Court] on genocide, or looking at Israeli assets that are being held within your banking jurisdiction that you could freeze—those would be meaningful steps”.
“This is something that’s eminently dismissible, especially by Israel,” he added. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Daniella Weiss, (right) called the Godmother of Settlers, at an event with her extreme Nachala Settler Movement in 2022. PC: Nachala Settler Movement, retrieved via Facebook.
