World Leaders Slammed for Giving ‘Absurd Prize for Terrorism’ as UK Recognises Palestine State
- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashes out at foreign leaders for ‘rewarding’ Hamas with Palestine state recognition
- Netanyahu claims recognition will ‘endanger Israel’s existence’ and is a ‘direct outcome’ of the October 7 massacre
- Tens of thousands of protesters in Israel demand a negotiated end to the conflict in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, has launched a scathing attack on foreign leaders, accusing them of giving an ‘absurd prize for terrorism’ by recognising Palestine as a state. In a blistering statement, Netanyahu claimed that the UK’s recognition of Palestine on Sunday was a ‘direct outcome’ of the October 7 massacre, which killed about 1,200 people.
‘Israel will have to fight both in the UN and in all the other fronts against the slanderous propaganda aimed at us, and against the calls to create a Palestinian state that will endanger our existence,’ Netanyahu said. ‘This recognition is a reward to Hamas, and it will be understood as a prize to them.’
Israel’s foreign ministry weighed in, posting on X that the UK’s recognition of Palestine was ‘nothing but a reward for jihadist Hamas’. ‘Don’t let Jihadist ideology dictate your policy,’ the post read.
Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, warned that Hamas would now claim that without its 2023 attack, the recognition of Palestine by the UK and others would not have happened. ‘It will be understood as a reward to them, and Starmer has lost any leverage that he had,’ Amidror said.
Tens of thousands of protesters in Israel demonstrated against the government and for a deal that would bring back the Israeli hostages seized during the 2023 raid and held since by Hamas in Gaza. A coalition of groups representing the hostages’ families condemned ‘various nations’ unconditional recognition of a Palestinian state while turning a blind eye to the fact that 48 hostages remain in Hamas captivity following the October 7th massacre’.
Yair Golan, the leader of the opposition Democrats party, blamed the government’s political recklessness and refusal to end the war in Gaza for the UK’s recognition of Palestine. ‘This is a direct result of Netanyahu’s political recklessness: refusal to end the war and the dangerous choice of occupation and annexation,’ Golan said.
The fallout from the UK’s recognition of Palestine is likely to be a major talking point when Netanyahu meets with leaders in Washington at the end of the month. Far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government, including Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, have called for wholesale annexation of the occupied West Bank. ‘The only response to this anti-Israeli move is sovereignty over the historic homeland of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria, and permanently removing the folly of a Palestinian state from the agenda,’ Smotrich said on X.