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UK, Canada and Australia formally recognise Palestinian state
- FridayoLeary 1y ago[flagged]
- abxyz 1y agoCanada and Australia are famously invested in how the left wing of the U.K’s Labour Party feel, and how British Muslim voters feel.
- chrisweekly 1y agosarcasm?
- crikeykangaroo 1y agoWhat are the borders of the genocidal state of Israel? I think they haven't been defined either... They seem to be expanding...
- basisword 1y ago>> Does it in any meaningful way help palestinians Given the Israeli governments ongoing efforts to make them disappear from the face of the earth, other countries recognising that they exist is helpful.
- devzx 1y agoIf that was their goal they would have done it on October 8th, quit with the nonsense. They wouldn't send their soldiers in to die when they could obliterate the entire place by air and sea if not for the fact they are purposefully not trying to what you accuse them of.
- oncallthrow 1y ago30% of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or severely damaged.
- devzx 1y agoUnless the definition of genocide has been changed, even if all the buildings were destroyed that would still not constitute a genocide. My question still stands, why are Israel risking the lives of their young men and women inside Gaza if they are perpetrating a genocide which they have the capability to carry it out in less than a day?
- oncallthrow 1y agoYou argued that Israel are not “obliterating” Gaza. I simply pointed out to you that they are, by any reasonable definition. As it happens, they are also committing a genocide. I suspect you won’t accept that, but I don’t care. History will look back on this and agree with me, not you.
- oddgenocide 1y ago[flagged]
- catlover76 1y agoWhat a nakedly disingenuous set of questions. It's based in the West Bank, which is decidedly recognized, as a legal matter, as occupied territory, and the "government" is the Palestinian Authority. The PLO hasn't been relevant for some time. > what message does this send to Hamas? who cares? Israel has had a genocidal government for some time now that has, until very recently, only received positive reinforcement.
- oncallthrow 1y ago[flagged]
- oncallthrow 1y ago> Finally is this anything more then an empty gesture? You might think it is “empty”, but diplomacy is conducted via gestures like this. Israel is rightfully becoming a pariah state. You should probably get used to headlines like this.
- Zealotux 1y ago>genocidal Hamas Genocidal Israel has no issue being recognized in the West.
- Simulacra 1y agoI think a more correct title would be they recognized the potential of a Palestinian state.
- ViewTrick1002 1y ago> I state clearly, as Prime Minister of this great country… > That the United Kingdom… > Formally recognises the State of Palestine. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-the-recognition-of-palestine-21-september-2025 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-statement-on-the-r...
- PhilipRoman 1y agoI think a more correct title would be anything not containing "Candada" :)
- __s 1y agosave me Candaddy from geopolitical feuds
- blibble 1y agopractically means little however a clear display of the end of the US soft power, after an interesting 6 months of foreign policy
- 37 1y agoLast month the Wikipedia article for "International recognition of Palestine" had these countries in dark green, what am I missing? https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_recognition_of_Palestine&oldid=1308050887 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_rec...
- Weryj 1y agoThey already announced they intended to do this a month ago
- throw_a_grenade 1y agoIf you're talking about the image, I think you need to look at the image history itself: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palestine_recognition_only.svg#filehistory https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palestine_recognit... (“File History”) Just browsing history on MediaWiki will probably show the old tex with recenn image. If you want full article, you'd have to use web.archive.org, archive.is or somethinglike that.
- 37 1y agoThank you very much, this is the answer.
- SkySkimmer 1y agoWhen you look at an old version of a wikipedia article it still displays the current version of images. That's why in your link the image legend has eg >[light green] Countries that have announced their impending recognition of Palestine (Australia, France, Malta, and San Marino) but Australia is dark green in the current image (France still light green and I can't be bothered zooming to see the small ones)
- solatic 1y ago[flagged]
- jacquesm 1y agoYou are missing the point entirely: this is not about future peace attempts, this is an attempt to stop an ongoing genocide.
- bombleaders 1y agoHard to have a government or leaders when they get bombed simply for meeting to discuss peace proposals. The Israeli government has systematically stopped the Palestinians from developing a functioning government or economy.
- cooloo 1y agoI'm a disagreement on many things that horrifying Israeli government is doing. Yet I can only imagine what would happen to Qatar if Bean Laden was taking shelter in it, none the less I hope this terrorists will meet their maker soon
- clipsy 1y ago> Yet I can only imagine what would happen to Qatar if Bean Laden was taking shelter in it You don’t have to imagine; Bin Laden took shelter in Pakistan and all that happened was a single commando raid.
- tguvot 1y agoActually first Bin Laden took shelter in Afghanistan. Could you please remind me what happened to it ?
- _DeadFred_ 1y agoThought they were bombed because they continue to hold Israeli citizens that they abducted from their homes during the process of murdering over 1,000 people while maiming thousands more using indiscriminate violence. We saw this because Hamas were so proud they broadcast videos of themselves spitting on twisted bodies of stripped young women and kidnapping 6 year old girls. That is why they were bombed.
- mikaTheThird 1y agoI hope they recognize the stete of Assyrians, aramiac/Syriac, Chaldeans, Yizdi and every other indigenous nation in the middle east. As an Assyrian, my nation has been getting exterminated by Arabs, Turkish and Kurdish colonialist for millennia. We live in constant fear and I don't think we will exist in the next 30 years
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- TheGuyWhoCodes 1y ago[flagged]
- guizmo 1y ago[flagged]
- bigyabai 1y agoNo, this is a signal that ignoring the PLO was a humanitarian disaster. Israel was complicit in radicalizing Gaza and they should not be rewarded with Gaza's destruction after adopting indiscriminate terror tactics.
- guizmo 1y agoThat's plain wrong. The PLO was already there before October 7th. They didn't recognize a Palestinian statehood at that time. This is a victory for Hamas, not for the PLO. The timing is everything. Today Starmer finalized Yahya Sinwar plan. You can try to blame it on Israel but you're playing a music written by Sinwar.
- bigyabai 1y agoHamas exists because Israel chose to support them. They wouldn't be dealing with Sinwar had they not deliberately sabotaged the PLO, so of course we're in this scenario now! You can't get angry at the natural response to subverting democracy, same thing happened after the Iran 1953 coup. The only way to legitimize terrorism worldwide is to let Israel persist unpunished. Precision-striking civilians cannot be the basis for future conflict: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_the_Gaza_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...
- ethniccleanse 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dang 1y agoPlenty of commenters have been making that case in plenty of threads on this site. p.s. Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=community%20identity%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
- ViewTrick1002 1y agoBased on history and looking long term I see three paths out: 1. South Africa / Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where Palestine and Israel is united leading to an exodus of the former ethno-nationalist "managerial" class. 2. Two-state solution where an acceptance of each other is grown over generations. 3. Continuation of the current genocide of the Palestinian people until they are exterminated from their land. Leading to the isolation of Israel. For Israel and the Israeli people the only palatable option should be 2, but they seem hellbent on 3 as per how Israeli people post here on HN and the actions of their democratically elected government.
- cooloo 1y ago[flagged]
- g-b-r 1y ago> From POV of Israelies they gave Palestinians (2) and got a genocide in returns. The one Israeli prime minister who was about to give the Palestinians (2) was killed by an Israeli > Looking at Palestinians behavior they only want (1) that it's basically genocide for all Jewish Israelies. I guess it more complicated than you think Wanting their land back does not imply wanting to exterminate its present occupants.
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago[flagged]
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago[flagged]
- tguvot 1y agoQuoting the one Israeli prime minister who was killed: "Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin used the phrase "less than a state" to describe his vision for a Palestinian entity during negotiations. After Rabin was killed, there were offers that palestinians refused
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- drankl 1y ago[flagged]
- palata 1y ago> This seems practically impossible What does? They have recognised Palestine in practice, it's done. Therefore it was possible.
- AaronAPU 1y agoThere seems to be an important distinction between “recognizing” a thing and that thing existing in the myriad of real ways the “recognition” would imply. I’d imagine the parent post is referencing this distinction.
- drankl 1y agoTo quote the British Prime Minister, the purpose of recognising a Palestinian state comprising both Gaza and the West Bank is to "revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution". But how can that work in practice when the stated aim of Hamas is to eradicate Israel? It seems that removal of Hamas from power in Gaza would be a prerequisite.
- AlecSchueler 1y agoHamas isn't Palestine. Hamas is a response to the lack of recognition. Treat the people like humans and the support for violence rapidly decreases. You see this everywhere again and again. The stated purpose of the IRA was to end British rule in Ireland and bring about a unified Irish Republic. How was it possible for that conflict to end without reunification, why did the support for the violence dissipate? Giving people equal status and the means to better their material position. But as long as the British would have kept the army on the ground shooting protestors? They wouldn't even sit at the table.
- apexalpha 1y agoThe Israeli political left agrees with you and as such retreated from Gaza in 2006 to allow Gazans self determination. They voted in Hamas and started a 19 year long terror campaign against both their neighbours. Any pointers to prevent such a thing happening but 10x bigger when all of Palestine get self determination?
- spants 1y ago[flagged]
- FridayoLeary 1y ago[flagged]
- tguvot 1y ago>And they think this is a good opportunity to recognise a state? narrator: yes. because this is not about recognizing palestine, it's about punishing Israel (and making some people happy internally). UK openly said 2 months ago, "unless Israel does following things, we will recognize Palestine".
- FridayoLeary 1y agoExactly it's pure politics. I'm sure all the people getting blown up in Gaza city and who have lost everything appreciate this gesture. It's not at all cowardly and disingenous of the UK to link their recognition of a palestinian state to Israels actions. It really shows how deeply they believe in this cause. Also well done for starmer for coordinating this with everyone else so the UK wouldn't be singled out by trump. But i have to hand it to France and Macron for being the most disingenous and cowardly of the lot. They spearheaded this effort and are bravely waiting to see what Trump will do before putting their money where their mouth is.
- raxxorraxor 1y agoThey also said that Hamas needs to give up the hostages, which they never did. If they surrendered, the war would be over tomorrow.
- watwut 1y agoThis is not about Israel self defense against violence and was not for a long time. Israel has all the power in the region, was trying to expand for years, did nothing with illegal settlements and is literally consciously organizing genocide. Israel was giving all benefits of the doubt for years and years while actively creating currently present situation. Like common.
- ckemere 1y agoQuick comment - I think many lesser known Palestinian leaders have advocated for decades for a “one state solution” that would give Palestinians equal rights but preserve some aspects of the current Basic Law to protect Jewish rights?
- JimmaDaRustla 1y agoCandada? really?
- CLPadvocate 1y ago[flagged]
- FridayoLeary 1y agoThey demand that the children of adam go back through the wardrobe and stop killing the giants. They also affirmed their ongoing calls for the white witch to thaw her statues and condemned the arrival of spring which according to the leaders of the goblin hordes created adversial conditions for them. "we are well adapted to winter, and the arrival of summer gives hope to our enemies". Read their official statement. While concerns mount about the fate of the centuars and the sapient horses, the white witch is in the middle of constructing her 15th winter palace. "i think we should be focusing on more important things, like ensuring the supply of food so that my palace can get completed. Just because i've declared perpetual winter for the last 3 centuries doesn't mean we must starve. My team is in negotiations with Aslan and our demands from him are clear. We want him to surrender himself so i can murder him. I was here since the beginning, who is he to tell me what to do? Would you like a Turkish Delight?" she said in response to a question posed to her by our correspondent. In other news Caloremens Deplorable Word program is close to a major breakthrough according to experts. "we are researching swear words for peaceful purposes only. In order to better train our language models on what to avoid" they insisted. They also denied claims they started the current war in Narnia as a distraction.
- uncircle 1y agoSerious question: how is declaring “oh wait, Palestine actually exists!” help the plight of the Palestinian people? I really doubt Bibi and his cronies will lose any sleep over a timid declaration in a climate that is increasingly critical of Israel’s actions. In UK’s case, it seems to me more of the classic Starmer flailing about to recapture the votes of whatever group fared worst in his opinion polls. After appeasing Reform and the Tory voters, he probably feels it’s time to throw a bone to the Corbynites now.
- Gud 1y agoIt’s better than the alternative, which is to NOT recognise Palestine.
- beefnugs 1y agoIf anyone really cared, there should have been drones from every country flying recon over the place for years now confirming or denying evidence of atrocity
- 903246348927 1y ago[dead]
- ath3nd 1y agoMy cynical take is that the leadership in these countries has realized that no amount of hiding under the carpet could save them from the culpability of having actively supporting a genocide, so now they are scurrying like cockroaches trying to distance themselves from the genocidal Israeli state. We should remember that it was those very same governments that happily supplied weapons to Israel and actively blocked resolutions by the UN to recognize and stop the genocide that's been happening in the last two years. We need to hold our "leaders" accountable and not allow them to escape culpability.
- password54321 1y agoLabour is down really bad in the polls [1] and they need to score political points at least with left-wing voters who are currently split. This doesn't actually change anything on the ground especially as the UK is still arming Israel [2]. In the end, they might just end up tanking more in the polls as they end up having no consistent values. [1] https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/ https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/ [2] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9964/ https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...
- guizmo 1y agoMacron wants France to recognize a palestinian state as well. His party lost the last legislative elections. Polls show 78% against recognizing palestinian statehood NOW and without conditions. He is totally illegitimate in doing so. He's still going to do it.
- redoxate 1y agoWhich polls ?
- guizmo 1y agoThis one from june[0]. 78% that are against recognizing a Palestinian state now, emphasis on now. 0: https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/exclusif-reconnaissance-d-un-etat-palestinien-les-francais-disent-pas-maintenant-pas-comme-ca-17-06-2025-2592292_24.php https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/exclusif-reconnaissance-d-un-et...
- overfeed 1y agoFWIW: Polling showed American support for interracial marriages was still underwater in 1992, decades after the Loving ruling. Majortity support only happened on the mid-to-late 90s
- 1y ago
- Fizzadar 1y agoYet another flagged post, this should be unflagged and returned to the default homepage.
- Symbiote 1y agoIt's off topic for HN: > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- jakupovic 1y agoThis is real life not some made up rule book, people like you refer to when faced with things they don't like.
- youngtaff 1y agoCharlie Kirk was off topic but yet it didn't get flagged…
- Jensson 1y agoAre you implying that was due to HN right wing bias? If so why is this the topic about Jimmy Kimmel not flagged when it is clearly left wing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45282482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45282482 In general all topics about politics gets flagged when they first appear since they are semi off topic. Then when enough people vouch for them they get unflagged, reports of big political events tend to get unflagged, but political opinion pieces or smaller events typically do not.
- Aeolun 1y ago> does nothing to stop the suffering of innocent people caught in this war No shit. You are welcome to go further. Why people would use this as an argument against recognizing statehood baffles me.
- didntknowyou 1y agothey would do anything but concrete steps to help
- NewJazz 1y agoFirst step is acceptance?
- don_quiquong 1y agoAustralia is doing 2 way arms trade with Israel, UK is helping Israeli planes refuel and doing recon for them. Seems pretty paltry
- NewJazz 1y agoBargaining is definitely one of the other steps.
- narrator 1y agoThe irony is the British signed the Balfour declaration back in the day that in many ways helped to create Israel in the first place.
- SilverElfin 1y ago[flagged]
- CommanderData 1y agoIndeed. Some analysis say this serves Israel's plan and it's smoke and mirrors. I guess we shall see how Israel actually benefits from this soon.
- jjani 1y agoHaven't come across this take before, what's the idea behind it?
- Sammi 1y agoOf the top of my head I'd say it takes pressure of Israel. "Our leaders are doing something", which makes western populace feel good about themselves again and move on to the next thing. I'd describe it as a 4d chess move for Israel.
- warabe 1y agoAs a Japanese person, I think that Japan before World War II was probably seen by the world much like Israel is seen today. The difference is that Israel has the United States backing it.
- aussieguy1234 1y ago[flagged]
- protocolture 1y ago[flagged]
- dunekid 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- kepeko 1y agoI think there should first be something resembling a state and only then it could be recognised. Now there isn't any entity that looks like an independent Palestinian state. For that reason this recognition seems pointless to me although I'm sympathetic to finding a peaceful solution.
- boston_clone 1y agoDo you think it's possible that Israel's campaign of violence and destruction was to result in a scenario not unlike what you're describing: a land so thoroughly bombed and a people so controlled by terrorism that it barely resembles anything self-governing?
- givemeethekeys 1y agoNone of the groups who rule Palestine have surrendered to Israel. The allies did not stop bombing Germany and Japan until they surrendered. Why do we expect Israel to behave differently than we would have?
- NomDePlum 1y agoThat would be rewarding Israels actions though. Similarly your arguments apply to Israel as it doesn't meet all of the standard criteria of statehood, should it's statehood be revoked?
- kepeko 1y agoI don't think this from the point of view of who I'm rewarding. To me, Israel looks like a state with its independent foreign policy, army, government. How about Gaza/West Bank, no even before Oct 7 attacks it didn't look like a state. Israel is right now so much more powerful that it won't let Palestinians have independence. This situation is so strange I don't have time to write a more detailed answer about my opinions.
- NomDePlum 1y agoPalestine is not allowed statehood by Israels actions, often illegal. Israels illegal settlements and apartheid regime should have resolved the discussion on statehood decades ago. The only moral viable solution I can see is 2 separate states. At this point support of anything else is supporting genocide and ethnic cleansing. If it doesn't happen then that is a deliberate choice of the US and I fear for the world never mind Israel or Palestine.
- dragonwriter 1y agoWith France expected to recognize Palestine today, the United States will be the only permanent UNSC member not to recognize Palestine. (And over 75% of the UNGA also recognizes Palestine.)
- maerF0x0 1y agoFor the sake of discussion. Is there any objective difference to recognizing a Palestinian state, and Taiwan?
- fabianholzer 1y agoChina will not stop having diplomatic relationships with a state that recognizes Palestine, as opposed to those who recognize Taiwan.
- maerF0x0 1y agoAnd if a country does not recognize taiwan why would they recognize palestine? is it simply that there are greater consequences to the former?
- arp242 1y agoThere are many differences between the two cases, and also some similarities. I don't really understand the purpose of your question, or why it's useful to compare?
- maerF0x0 1y agoI suppose it feels inconsistent in my mind not to do both, and personally I feel like Taiwan is a more legitimate case. (afaik they are not actively attacking another nation, the picture with Palestine is far less clear)