https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/29/us-joins-israel-accusing-starmer-rewarding-hamas/
Amy Gibbons 29 July 2025
The US and Israel accused Sir Keir Starmer of rewarding Hamas after he announced a plan to recognise Palestine as a state.
The US and Isrfter he announced a plan to recognise Palestine as a state.
The Prime Minister said the step would be taken in September unless Israel met a series of conditions, including ending the “appalling” situation in Gaza.
The move was signed off at an emergency meeting of the Cabinet – a third of whom, including Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting, have been pressuring Sir Keir to recognise Palestine in recent weeks amid growing calls from the wider Labour party.
But the announcement triggered anger from both supporters of Israel, for criticising Sir Keir’s failure to impose any conditions on Hamas, and pro-Palestinian figures on the Left, who said it did not go far enough.
Tammy Bruce, of the US state department, said it was a “slap in the face” for the victims of the Oct 7 massacre by Hamas.
“It gives one group hope, and that’s Hamas,” Ms Bruce told a briefing. “It is a rewarding of that kind of behaviour that if you wait long enough, if you don’t co-operate in any other normal environment where someone was so utterly defeated, they would surrender.”
The US state department says the move ‘gives one group hope, and that’s Hamas’ Credit: Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, hit out at Sir Keir and suggested his country would not agree to the conditions.
He said: “Starmer rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims. A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow. Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
Donald Trump, the US president, appeared more relaxed about the move while speaking on Air Force One after meeting Sir Keir in Scotland, but suggested he did not agree with him. Mr Trump said the UK was “going the same as Macron” but that it was “OK, it doesn’t mean I have to agree”.
Israel’s foreign ministry was also critical and referred to Emmanuel Macron’s announcement last week that France would recognise Palestine.
A statement said: “The shift in the British Government’s position at this time, following the French move and internal political pressures, constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages.”
The criticism was echoed by the Conservatives, who called it “political posturing at its very worst”, while Reform said the “knee-jerk reaction” to pressure from the Left had been taken at the “wrong time”.
Meanwhile, vocal supporters of Palestine such as Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader who is setting up a new Left-wing party on a pro-Palestinian platform, said statehood was being used as a “bargaining chip”.
The change in position – one taken “with the hand of history on our shoulders”, according to David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary – was announced after days of intense internal deliberations.
Sir Keir said on Tuesday: “I’ve always said that we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution. With that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act.”
He said the change would formally be made at the United Nations General Assembly in September unless Israel – not the Palestinians – met a series of conditions.
The Prime Minister made four specific demands of Israel: end the “appalling” situation in Gaza and allow 500 aid trucks in a day; reach a ceasefire; “make clear” there will be no annexation in the West Bank; and commit to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution.
Given the Israeli government’s current position, which plays down the chance of a two-state solution and insists on continuing its military operation in Gaza, it appears unlikely that the conditions will be met.
Sir Keir justified his decision by saying the “very possibility of a two-state solution is reducing” and “feels further away today than it has for many, many years and it should be seen in that context”.
He argued that he wanted to end the malnutrition being seen in Gaza and also said his demands on the “terrorists of Hamas” remained “unchanged and unequivocal”, including the immediate release of hostages and the acceptance that Hamas would play “no part” in any future government.
The Prime Minister said he would assess how both Israel and the Palestinians had progressed towards these demands when making his final decision on recognition in September.
Already, 147 UN member states have recognised Palestine as a state, including Spain and Ireland, which did so last year, as well as Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, but until Mr Macron’s intervention last week, no leader of a G7 nation had taken the step.
It remains unclear what actions would follow recognition, such as the normalisation of ties or an acceptance that Palestine could have a military.
Downing Street confirmed that Sir Keir spoke to Mr Netanyahu before the announcement on Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesman said Sir Keir told him he intended to “discuss next steps to alleviate the humanitarian situation, to secure the release of all remaining hostages, to develop with allies a long-term political settlement for the region, and to consider next steps on the recognition of Palestine”.
Cabinet ministers who had been pushing for Palestine to be recognised as soon as possible appeared satisfied after the announcement. One source close to a minister who had been pressing for the move said there had been “unanimous support around the table” for the Prime Minister.
Labour MPs who had campaigned for the change also backed the decision, but some figures on the Left wanted immediate recognition to be announced.
Sarah Champion, the Labour chairman of the international development committee, who co-ordinated a letter calling for recognition that was signed by one in three Labour MPs, said a “very strong message” was being sent to Israel.
However, she added: “I am a little concerned that from what I’m hearing it seems to be conditional on Israel accepting some terms, and I don’t understand why the two things are being linked together.”
Lord Walney, the Government’s former political violence tsar and a former Labour MP, told The Telegraph that Sir Keir “risks emboldening Hamas”.
He added: “The Government should think again – it is wrong and counterproductive to heap pressure on Israel when Hamas terrorists are thwarting aid delivery and continuing the grotesque war crime of withholding living and dead hostages from Israeli families.”
Meanwhile, Mr Corbyn, now an independent MP, said: “Palestinian statehood is not a bargaining chip. It is not a threat. It is an inalienable right of the Palestinian people. Our demands on this shameful Government remain the same – end all arms sales to Israel, impose widespread sanctions, and stop the genocide now.”
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: “When the country is looking for answers on asylum hotels, the cost of living is getting worse, and doctors are threatening to go on strike again, further endangering lives, it’s disgraceful that Keir Starmer recalled his Cabinet to try and sort out a political problem for the Labour Party.
“Recognising a Palestinian state won’t bring the hostages home, won’t end the war and won’t get aid into Gaza. This is political posturing at its very worst.”
A Reform UK spokesman said: “Recognising Palestine as a state does little more than reward Hamas for their actions on Oct 7. This decision is being made at the wrong time and is a knee-jerk reaction by Keir Starmer to appease the hard-Left forces inside and outside of his party.”
Outstanding questions remain about how the Starmer Government will approach recognition if, as now expected, it is formally implemented at the UN gathering in New York in September.
Mr Lammy attempted to make clear that recognition did not amount to giving support for Hamas when he addressed the UN Assembly on Tuesday, saying: “Hamas must never be rewarded for the monstrous attack on Oct 7. It must immediately release the hostages, agree to an immediate ceasefire, accept it will have no role in governing Gaza and commit to disarmament.
“But Hamas are not the Palestinian people. And there is no contradiction between support for Israel’s security and support for Palestinian statehood. Indeed, the opposite is true.”