On Sunday, British prime minister Keir Starmer announced that his country would recognize Palestinian statehood. In July, he had threatened such a move if Israel did not declare a ceasefire. This already told us that this was more about distancing himself from the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) onslaught than recognizing Palestinians’ inalienable right to self-determination.

Speaking on Sunday, Starmer again posed Palestinian statehood in vague, conditional terms. He said that recognition was about “acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution.” He went further than before in recognizing Israeli responsibility for mass starvation in Gaza. Yet while he commented that Israel deserved to be “safe and secure,” a future Palestinian state need only be “viable.”

For Starmer, this “two-state solution” meant that “Hamas can have no future, no role in government, no role in security.” It remained unclear how this version of self-determination is to be made a reality, and Starmer did not explain why Palestinians’ statehood alone depends on their form of government. Israel’s government is today led by a wanted war criminal, but few would suggest that Israeli statehood depends on Benjamin Netanyahu handing himself over for prosecution.