The UK’s Prime Minister
has described his decision to recognise the state of Palestine as being a ‘moral
responsibility’. It’s a nice rhetorical flourish to justify something which
should have been done a long time ago, but it doesn’t explain how and why
something which was apparently unacceptable to him last year suddenly became a
moral imperative. Was it the non-stop killing of Gazans by Israel which tilted
the balance? Maybe, but that doesn’t explain why so many had to die before it
became a ‘moral’ issue. Perhaps it was the expansion of settlements in the West
Bank and the driving out of Palestinians from the areas being settled, but
that, too, has been going on for a long time. ‘Morality’ isn’t a numbers game;
there’s no magic threshold at which deliberately killing civilians, including children,
moves from being a practical issue to a moral one, no magic threshold at which
the seizure of land becomes a moral issue. Framing it as a moral issue might
sound good, but it also avoids serious action to bring about change.
The recognition is, in
any event, more limited than it appears. No-one in their right mind would want
to see Hamas forming the government of the newly-recognised state, but if the
Palestinians have the right to a state (as Starmer argues), by what authority
can the UK declare in advance that the people may not choose a government which
includes a specified group or party? Although, on reflection, an international
order which precludes certain individuals or groups from ever exercising power
isn’t such a bad idea – there are a number of regimes across the world which I
think we would be better off without. But who decides what is or is not
acceptable, and how is it to be enforced? And if it is not a general rule, why
should one ‘independent and sovereign state’ be singled out as uniquely having
no right to choose whatever government it wishes? There are practical issues as
well – banning an organisation is all well and good, but it’s easy enough for any
organisation to disband and reform under another name.
There is one simple
truth underlying what is happening in Palestine, and it applies to other conflicts
as well. The world is not and never has been run on the basis of morality, and
there isn’t even a single set of moral standards on which we all agree. It is
actually run on the basis of raw power – in effect, ‘might is right’. He who
possesses the power and armaments imposes his will on others. It’s a philosophy
to which most of the world’s leaders (including Netanyahu, Trump, Putin, and,
yes, Starmer himself) subscribe, in their actions if not in their words. As
long as that remains true, those leaders talking of ‘moral responsibility’ is just window
dressing.