Salaamedia Interview: Starmer’s Declaration of a Palestinian State

Was Starmer’s promise to help the Palestinian People? Has Britain’s Policy changed? Is the “Two-State Solution” really a solution?

I was interviewed by Selaelo Makhwidiri of Salaamedia earlier today (31/7/2025) about the announcement earlier this week by UK PM Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to recognise a Palestinian State if Israel did not comply with conditions proposed by the UK - namely:

• Agree to a ceasefire based on US, Egyptian and Qatari efforts

• Allow the UN to restart the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza - to the tune of 500 trucks per day

• Stop annexations in the West Bank - which according to international law is occupied land.

• Move towards a “two-state solution”. Lammy later argued there was no better solution.

The two-state solution has never been a plausible solution. And as the decades have continued, the two-state solution has become a less and less plausible solution. It's the carrot that Western powers dangle in front of pro-Palestine people every now and then to make them feel that if they stay engaged with the West on this issue somehow someway in the future the West will back justice for the Palestinians. But just look at what a two-state solution would deliver. It would deliver a state of Palestine that exists on probably 20% or less of historic Palestine. That 20% would be divided between the West Bank and Gaza. That 20% would be utterly demilitarised. The Palestinian state would uniquely be a state that has no military and no permission to have military. The Palestinian state in the West Bank area would be this archipelago, this Balkanised area of small islands within the West Bank that are surrounded by Zionist settlers. Because that's what the West Bank currently looks like. Well, the West Bank is not one continuous area. This two-state solution would be a state that is surrounded by its enemy and occupier and oppressor. This two-state solution would not allow the historic right of return of Palestinian families evicted from Palestine to go back to their homes which are in currently occupied Israel. And a substantial amount of the Israeli political class and public believe that so-called “Arab Israelis”, those Palestinians that remained in 1948 in the areas that were occupied, those people should probably be expelled and sent to this new Palestinian state. So that is the solution that is on the table at the moment. It is not a solution.

Abdul Wahid has been active in Muslim affairs in the UK for over 25 years. He has been published on the websites of Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, and Prospect Magazine. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AbdulWahid_X.

ALSO SEE: https://www.islam21c.com/politics/uk-enabling-gaza-genocide/