Diaspora Jews warn extremists will be emboldened by recognition of Palestinian state

Diaspora Jewish groups from the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia have issued warnings that extremists will be emboldened by a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly this week. The Jewish groups urged their respective governments to reconsider their decisions. 

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and the Executive Council of Australian Jews jointly warned that such diplomatic recognition would be interpreted as a reward by the terrorist organization Hamas. 

"Our governments are in effect saying that the fulfillment of these requirements post-recognition will be taken on trust and left for some unspecified time in the future. This is a posture that lacks credibility, borders on recklessness, and sets up Palestinian statehood for failure from the outset," the Jewish groups warned. "It will therefore set back rather than advance prospects for a genuine peace based on the internationally-endorsed principle of two states for two peoples."

The Jewish groups specifically referred to the senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad who literally defined state recognition among the “fruits of October 7.” 

In August 2024, Hamad openly praised the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

“We must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight,” Hamad said in an interview with a Lebanese TV channel.

Hamas and its allies also kidnapped 251 people from Israel. Forty-eight Israeli hostages remain in Gaza including up to 20 who are believed to be still alive. The British, Canadian and Australian governments have demanded that Hamas releases the remaining hostages. However, they have not, so far, made recognition of the Palestinian state conditional on the release of the hostages or the disarmament of Hamas.

Jewish groups argue that their respective government’s official positions largely ignore that Hamas started the war and that Hamas’ sponsor – the Iranian ayatollah regime, openly calls for Israel’s destruction and has promoted terrorism and violence against Jews worldwide. 

Addressing the issue on Friday, Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that a recognition of a Palestinian state is "a step predicated on progress on key reform commitments and advanced alongside several international partners." Carney did not specify these key reform commitments. 

Twenty French Jewish leaders jointly urged President Emmanuel Macron in a letter to condition the statehood recognition to the release of the remaining Israeli hostages and the dismantlement of Hamas: 

"While France has prudently refrained from any recognition of a Palestinian state since 1948, pending the establishment of conditions for peace and mutual security, how can it justify doing so while the war triggered by the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust is still raging? How can it be announced while Hamas is still holding hostages? Why do so at a time when antisemitism is flaring up in France, specifically using the situation in the Middle East as a pretext?"

"We know that this is not your intention, yet recognition tomorrow before the fulfillment of the conditions you have set out would be claimed as a symbolic victory for Hamas, which would only worsen the murderous stranglehold it imposes on the Palestinians," they added. 

In August, the French Jewish leader Robert Ejnes warned that recognition of a Palestinian state and unbalanced Middle East policies fuel antisemitism in France, which is home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities.

Meanwhile in London, the British Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council met on Thursday with the British Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer to discuss the British government’s intention to recognize Palestinian state without demanding the release of the Israeli hostages. The Jewish group warned that London’s Middle East position "may have created incentives on the group [Hamas] to avoid a ceasefire."

The British Jewish group also argued that they "received insufficient clarity" from Falconer.