In September 2025, the UK formally recognised the State of Palestine, a gesture hailed by some as historic. Yet it is a hollow, belated move after more than a century of complicity in dispossession, violence and erasure.
To understand the magnitude of this "recognition", one must look beyond the headlines and ask: what remains of Palestine today for Britain to recognise and how much has been lost since it first conspired, along with its Western allies, to dismantle the Ottoman Empire and plant the seeds of the Israeli settler-colonial project in the early 1900s?
The moral bankruptcy of Britain's role in the Middle East is not a new story. It began with the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which then foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour promised the land of Palestine to the Zionist movement, disregarding the rights and existence of the Palestinian majority.
As US president John F Kennedy once remarked decades later, "Palestine was hardly Britain's to give away". Yet it was given away through calculated colonial manoeuvring, military suppression and a century of unwavering support to the Zionist cause, even as the native Palestinian population endured ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and systematic erasure.
The dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I was not merely about redrawing borders; it was about creating pliable states under Western tutelage and ensuring control over resources and trade routes.
Palestine, strategically located and historically significant, was sacrificed at the altar of imperial expedience. Between 1917 and 1948, Britain administered Palestine under the guise of a "mandate" during which it facilitated mass Jewish immigration, armed Zionist militias, and violently suppressed Palestinian resistance.
This betrayal culminated in the Nakba of 1948, when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes, more than 500 villages were destroyed and the new State of Israel was declared with Britain’s tacit blessing. The seeds planted by the Balfour Declaration had borne their poisonous fruit.
And in the decades that followed, Britain and its Western allies continued to bankroll, arm and defend Israel, while Palestinians remained stateless, scattered in refugee camps or subjected to apartheid inside their ancestral homeland.
Now, more than a century later, Britain's recognition of Palestine comes not from moral awakening but from political pressure. The UK government, long one of Israel's staunchest backers, has been shaken by unprecedented global protests, especially after Israel's 2024–2025 assault on Gaza, where over 120,000 Palestinians were killed in less than a year, figures cited by UN human rights monitors as among the highest civilian death tolls since World War II.
Entire neighbourhoods were flattened, hospitals destroyed and more than two million people displaced, many of them for the second or third time in their lives.
This mass outrage, visible in streets from London to Manchester, from New York to Cape Town, has forced Western governments to confront their complicity. Britain, in particular, faced accusations of enabling genocide by continuing arms sales to Israel despite overwhelming evidence of war crimes.
Recognising Palestine, then, is less an act of justice than a desperate attempt to salvage legitimacy in the eyes of an outraged public. But what does recognition mean when the very land of Palestine is being devoured before our eyes? The West Bank is fragmented by more than 750 checkpoints and sprawling settlements; Gaza lies in ruins under siege; and East Jerusalem has been effectively annexed. Britain recognises Palestine now, but on what map?
The consequences of Britain’s colonial betrayal are not only political but also deeply economic and social, reverberating across generations. Today, there are more than 6.9 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, according to UNRWA, many living in dire conditions in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. This mass displacement has strained the economies of host countries, created social friction and perpetuated cycles of poverty.
Palestinians have been systematically denied access to their land and resources. Israel controls 85% of Palestinian water resources, according to Amnesty International and restricts Palestinian farmers and businesses.
Meanwhile, Britain and the EU import goods from illegal Israeli settlements while restricting Palestinian exports, policies rooted in the same colonial mindset that began with Balfour, leaving no economic sovereignty for Palestinians.
The psychological toll of dispossession and occupation has been profound. Studies show that over 80% of children in Gaza suffer from PTSD-like symptoms, with malnutrition and lack of education further undermining prospects for recovery.
These social wounds trace back to the century-long denial of Palestinian rights and identity by Britain and its allies. The betrayal of Palestine has fueled resentment and instability across the Middle East, shaping conflicts from Lebanon to Iraq. Groups have used the Palestinian cause as a rallying cry against Western hypocrisy, and Britain's duplicity continues to haunt its credibility in the Arab and Muslim world.
Britain's recognition of Palestine in 2025 cannot undo these consequences. It cannot restore the destroyed homes of Gaza, resurrect the dead children, or erase the trauma of generations. It cannot return the stolen olive groves, the desecrated cemeteries or the bulldozed villages. It is, at best, a symbolic step.
At worst, it is a cynical gesture designed to deflect criticism while doing nothing to end Israel's ongoing crimes. For recognition without accountability, without sanctions on Israel, without reparations for Palestinians, is meaningless.
Britain bears not only a moral but a legal responsibility. As the architect of the Balfour Declaration and the former colonial administrator of Palestine, it must do more than offer words. Britain must acknowledge its role in enabling ethnic cleansing and dispossession.
Support international legal mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, in holding Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes. Provide reparations and aid to Palestinian refugees and communities devastated by conflict.
End all arms sales and trade with Israel until it complies with international law. Without such measures, Britain's recognition is nothing more than political theatre.
The tragedy of Palestine is not only that it was betrayed, but that this betrayal has been sustained for more than a century.
Yet there is a glimmer of change. Public opinion, especially among younger generations in the West, is shifting rapidly. Boycotts of Israeli products are gaining momentum, universities and trade unions are demanding divestment, and even mainstream politicians are beginning to question unconditional support for Israel. Britain's recognition of Palestine, however belated, is a reflection of this shift.
The tide is turning — not because governments have changed their moral compass, but because their people have forced them to. The global outrage against genocide has shaken the foundations of Western complicity.
Britain's recognition of Palestine in 2025 is a case of too little, too late. It comes after more than a century of betrayal, after millions of lives destroyed, after generations of trauma inflicted. It is not a gift Britain bestows, but a debt long overdue, a debt that can never truly be repaid.
The British government must not imagine that this act absolves it of responsibility. Words cannot undo genocide. Recognition without justice, without reparations, without accountability, is hollow.
For Palestinians, the struggle is not for recognition by those who once denied their existence, but for liberation, dignity and return. And for Britain, the question is not whether it has recognised Palestine, but whether it will finally reckon with the evil it unleashed a century ago when it planted the settler-colonial state of Israel in the heart of Palestine. Only then can we begin to speak of justice.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.
The writer is a trade facilitation expert, working with the federal government of Pakistan.