Palestine-Israel: Four more get it right

It is the sign of pragmatic wisdom to change one's opinions when new facts come to light. This holds as true for countries as it does for individuals. So, when on Sunday, Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal broke ranks with their traditional Big Brother ally, the US, and formally recognised the State of Palestine, it was a healthy reckoning. After nearly two years of relentless bombardment, starvation and displacement in Gaza by the Benjamin Netanyahu government, the moral bankruptcy of silence became too heavy to bear. Recognition was not a gift to Hamas or terrorism, as Netanyahu chose to describe it, but a CPR to the idea that Palestinians deserve dignity, sovereignty and a future.

This move is not merely symbolic. It shifts the diplomatic centre of gravity somewhat, since Trump had noted in his recent London visit that Keir Starmer's decision - an important one, considering that Britain was one of the prime architects of the creation of Israel in 1948 in the British-administered League of Nations mandate - was a point of difference in the Anglo-American friendship. When G7 nations - who helped shape the post-WW2 order - acknowledge Palestine, they challenge the monopoly of vetoes and ultimatums that have long stalled peace.

Politically, this recognition isolates extremism. It empowers Palestinian Authority, while marginalising Hamas. It joins a comity of nations that has already called out Israel on its barbarism in the name of existential self-protection. Morally, it was overdue. More than 65,000 Palestinians have died since October 2023. To recognise their right to statehood is not to erase Israeli suffering, but to affirm that suffering should not be the currency of statecraft. Well done, London, Canberra, Ottawa and Lisbon.