Starmer's promise in exchange for the Balfour Declaration!

As these words are being written, Britain has taken a step closer to acknowledging its historical guilt over the infamous Balfour Declaration, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing his readiness to recognize a Palestinian state. This announcement was echoed by Foreign Minister David Lammy from the podium of the United Nations.

Although many considered Starmer and his Foreign Secretary's announcement a step in the right direction and a significant historical leap, it did not come without conditions. Rather, it came with the proviso that Britain was prepared to recognize Israel unless it changed the reality in Gaza and its destructive war, allowed aid in, halted land confiscation in the West Bank, and undermined the two-state solution.

Starmer and Lammy's announcement would not have been made without the suffering and struggle of the Palestinian people, the horrific images coming and going from Gaza, the cancerous reality of the colonial settlement in the West Bank, and the ugliness of the war in all its details against the Palestinians led by the reckless political trio in Tel Aviv: Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir. This position would not have been issued without the growing internal pressure on Starmer's government from the pillars of his party, 230 of whom signed a letter demanding recognition. It would not have been made without the tremendous human pressure to end the Palestinian holocaust and halt the mad war led by the extremist Zionist government. This position would certainly not have been made without France's recent announcement of its intention to recognize Palestine next September during the conference led by Paris and Saudi Arabia. This position would not have been made without the steadfastness of a group of Arab capitals in the face of the horror of displacement, normalization, and subjugation.

A major and important step that was delayed for more than a century, but its conditions lacked momentum and motivation. The Starmer/Lammy promise should not have been accompanied by conditions. If Israel brought in 1,000 trucks of flour tomorrow, would the promise be invalidated and become nothing more than ink on paper?

The politics of bread for dignity, flour for sovereignty, food for freedom, and aid for independence must disappear from the British political lexicon. Today is your day in Downing Street (the seat of the British government in London), so either your promise is decisive or it is not necessary.

There is no more room for maneuvering, evasion, or prevarication. Lamy, who is celebrating his announcement, which was leaked as I wrote these words, based his words on the infamous Balfour Declaration, to remind us and the world that this promise was conditional on preserving Palestinian rights and not changing the reality on the ground. However, Lamy says, this did not happen, which is what prompted Britain to take the decision to recognize. Lamy seemed proud and elated with his announcement, having put in a remarkable effort to achieve this tremendous shift in British policy. Indeed, in the face of the applause of the majority of the members of the General Assembly for the new declaration, he seemed as if he had taken revenge on Britain's colonial past, which had once made his family victims of this colonialism.

Britain did well today, but its action is inevitably incomplete. The happiness, freedom, and independence of peoples are not measured by the amount of aid they receive, nor by the loaves of bread they receive, but rather by the magnitude of the great need to address a deep historical wrong, uphold rights, apply justice, and enforce international law.

Today is your day to make your conditions complementary steps to recognition, not an alternative to it. Today is your day to move away from maneuvering and tactics, for politics is the art of the possible and the art of the impossible. So support the impossible in its implementation, realization, and consolidation, not by burdening it with conditions and pretexts.

A free, independent, fully sovereign Palestine, with a permanent membership in the United Nations, is clear atonement for a sin that has become entrenched, a wound that has festered, and an injustice that has become entrenched. Will Britain do it next September, or will Starmer, in a political slump, swallow his words? We'll just have to wait and see!

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