Your report that the Foreign Office’s position is that it will recognise Palestine at an “appropriate moment of maximum impact” brings to mind conversations I had in 1975 with two Labour foreign ministers, Roy Hattersley and David Ennals (Labour MPs push for Foreign Office to recognise Palestinian statehood, 13 April).
While both ministers agreed in principle with my proposal in a Fabian pamphlet for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, they were adamant that then was not the right time. It is extraordinary that this conviction is still parroted by some of their ministerial counterparts today, 50 years later.
Now is a crucial moment, for the world needs to make it absolutely clear that it will not tolerate a future that does not include the Palestinians having self-determination in their own state, possibly in the form of a confederation with Israel, preferably to include Jordan as well.
Every Israeli voter will need to understand and process this when they next go to the polls, for their own future depends on it too.
But recognition is not enough. For maximum impact, it needs to be bolstered by an international affirmation that the only acceptable alternative to a Palestinian state now is equal rights now until there is a solution.
Tony Klug
London
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