“UK Must Recognize Palestine as a State Immediately to Help End Gaza Crisis” – Say 60 Labour MPs

“UK Must Recognize Palestine as a State Immediately to Help End Gaza Crisis” – Say 60 Labour MPs

[London, July 13, 2025] – Nearly 60 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the UK’s Labour Party have called on the British government to immediately recognize Palestine as an independent state and to take urgent action to stop what they describe as “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. This was reported on Saturday by British newspaper The Guardian.

The call was made in a letter organized by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, signed by 59 MPs representing both centrist and left-wing factions of the Labour Party. The letter was sent to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Thursday.

In the letter, the MPs strongly criticized the Israeli government’s plan to build a so-called “humanitarian city” or tent settlement in the devastated southern Gazan city of Rafah. They described the proposal as a calculated attempt at forced population transfer and an effort to erase the Palestinian people’s existence.

The letter stated:

“The plan announced on Monday by Israel’s Defense Minister, which involves forcibly relocating all Palestinian civilians in Gaza to the ruins of Rafah and not allowing them to leave, in our view, constitutes an act of ethnic cleansing. We are writing to you with deep concern regarding this matter.”

The MPs further asserted that it is not enough for the UK to resume funding for UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and support efforts to free hostages. The government must also impose trade sanctions on goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

They wrote:

“If we fail to recognize Palestine as a state, we undermine our own stated commitment to a two-state solution and send the message that the current occupation can continue indefinitely—leading to the effective erasure and annexation of Palestinian territory.”

So far, the newly elected Labour government in the UK has not officially changed its stance on recognizing Palestine as a state. Meanwhile, the war in Gaza has entered its tenth month. Palestinian officials and international observers describe the conflict as marked by mass displacement, widespread infrastructure destruction, and a collapse in peace negotiations.