No one casting an eye over the letter from Tory grandees urging the government to recognise a Palestinian state will have been surprised by the signatories. Nicholas Soames, Kit Malthouse, Desmond Swayne – it’s a veritable Who’s Who of Tory Arabists.
The names are not new and nor are the arguments. It’s the same invincible certainties about the nature of the conflict, the same faith that legalism can deliver a resolution where politics has not, the same conviction that Palestinian rejection of coexistence is the fault of Israel. The British political class, Labour progressives and patrician Tories alike, believes in self-determination for the Palestinians but not agency.
Even so, the letter’s authors have stumbled across a point. Recognition can send a powerful message about where Britain stands, what it stands for and who it stands with. Which is why, instead of recognising a Palestinian state, the government should recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Currently, Whitehall only accepts Israel’s "de facto authority” over the western parts of the city while considering the east to be “under Israeli military occupation”. As such, the UK does not treat Israel as the lawful sovereign in any part of its capital and locates its embassy in Tel Aviv instead.
This has been the stance taken by every prime minister until Liz Truss, who pledged to review the UK’s position with an eye to recognition. Unfortunately, the lettuce also outlasted that policy and it was quietly dropped by Rishi Sunak. Nevertheless, recognising Jerusalem would be a reasonable measure to clarify UK foreign policy and a desirable action for any government that wished to strengthen relations with the Jewish state.
Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government, home to its parliament, and location of its supreme court. Under Israeli law "the complete and united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel”. The city, which was also the political seat of the Kingdom of Judah, has only ever been the capital of a Jewish state. The city’s eastern portions were occupied by Jordan during the 1948 war and subsequently annexed, but the Israel Defence Forces liberated these territories during the Six-Day War.
Reunified and under Israeli sovereignty, Jerusalem has become a place where the three Abrahamic faiths are afforded greater freedom to worship than at any other time in the city’s history. The compromises involved are hard, their application imperfect, and their stability forever at the mercy of roiling tensions, but Israel’s capital is a case study in how coexistence can be translated from theory into practice.
Despite these successes, Britain and most other countries withhold recognition and demand that Israel hand over half its capital to the Palestinians so they can do for that city what they’ve done for Gaza. However much they dress up their stance with reference to global laws and norms, the international community simply resents Israel for governing Palestinian lives better than every Palestinian institution the West has given its backing to.
Opponents of recognition would brand it a unilateral move, prejudicial and an unwarranted interference in the peace process, but the same charges can be levelled against recognising Palestine, and with more credibility. Besides, the UK could copy the Americans in recognising Jerusalem without defining its parameters, affirming the reality of Israeli sovereignty without foreclosing on the possibility of a future Palestinian capital in an outer-lying suburb.
We should recognise Jerusalem because it is the truth and therefore the right thing to do, but there are other reasons. It would enhance diplomatic relations, and it would also acknowledge the deep spiritual connection British Jews have with the city of their ancestors. It could be a way for the government to signal its solidarity and understanding for Jews at a time when they face growing threats and hatred on Britain’s streets.
Across the West, anti-Zionism is on the march. Such taboos as remain against urging the dismantling of the Jewish state cling on by a thread. The radicalisation of European and North American progressives only emboldens Palestinian rejectionism and escalates our domestic extremism problems. Recognising Jerusalem could remedy that by setting forth a defiant statement of intent: however much its enemies bomb or slay, shout or march, boycott or intimidate, Israel is here to stay.
