Our government should recognise the state of Palestine alongside Israel now, and without further delay or equivocation. Recognition does not punish Israel. It offers hope to those in Palestine and Israel working for peaceful coexistence, mutual security and equal rights.
The international court of justice has advised that Israel’s military occupation of East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank and Gaza is unlawful, and must be ended. Yet ministers in the Netanyahu government seem determined to Balkanise the West Bank with more and more illegal settlements, along with destroying viable life for Palestinians in Gaza. Both designed, it seems, to make impossible the very two-state solution to which the world has long been committed: a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israeli one. Yet how else can there be a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike?
