Gavin Williamson: Keir Starmer has got it badly wrong on recognising a Palestinian state too soon

The pictures of hundreds of happy young faces stretched out in front of me. Bright young things. They looked so beautiful, joyful, and full of life. I thought about the horror that they must have felt and I could not help but cry.

The images of the 378 men and women murdered at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, were on display as I joined a parliamentary visit to the site of the slaughter by Hamas terrorists.

My trip took place as Sir Keir Starmer outlined his plans to recognise Palestinian statehood. I was sickened as I contemplated what had taken place at the site. It was here where young women were gang raped and abused in an orgy of sexual violence. Ordinary Palestinian citizens, including journalists, teachers and UN agency staff, also flooded across into Israel to take part in the atrocities.

The prime minister’s words jarred against the still fresh memory of these horrors. Starmer’s statement clumsily appeared to reward Hamas for the horrors they inflicted on Israel on October 7.

Thousands marched through central London yesterday to demand the release of hostages still held in Gaza. Appallingly, Starmer failed to demand that Hamas do this before awarding Palestinian statehood. They will be allowed to keep refusing a ceasefire deal, keep the hostages and still get state recognition. It is completely wrong.

Like most people, I am deeply concerned about the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Almost two years of conflict has caused immense suffering on both sides. The war needs to come to an end. But just saying you support the idea of Palestinian statehood is not solving the problem. It prolongs the war and hands Hamas a propaganda victory.

This dangerous move by the Prime Minister is being driven by self-interest. He has lost control of his parliamentary party, and is only doing this after 150 Labour MPs made the demand.

As a former Conservative party chief whip, I understand the need to keep your MPs happy. But you cannot make momentous decisions like this when they are driven by political weakness.

The consequences are far too great.

At the Nova site, I reflected on how the seeds for this awful war were sown in the barbarity and evil that happened in the remote, dusty field where thousands of young people had gathered to party through the night. The abominable attacks at dawn were filmed by the terrorists themselves, with footage live-streamed on social media.

Hostages were bundled on to the back of trucks and motorcycles and taken into Gaza, where they were met by mobs of jubilant Palestinians revelling in the depravity of that day. Those captured at the Nova site are among some of the hostages and bodies still held by Hamas in deep tunnels inside Gaza.

I visited another scene of mass murder and rape at the small village of Nir Oz, where elderly people were among those gunned down or taken hostage. One in four people in this tranquil community of 400 people were either killed or taken hostage. It is a place frozen in time. The homes have been left exactly as they were that day, with people’s possessions scattered across the floor. It is striking how quiet it is. The only sounds I heard were the chirping of birds in the trees. I soon realised that what was missing was the hubbub of neighbours chatting, of children playing, people going about their daily lives. All human life had been extinguished.

Seventy-six hostages were taken from Nir Oz, including little Ariel and Kfir Bibas who were snatched with their mother Shiri and father Yarden. While in captivity, the children and their mother were murdered by Hamas.

Yarden was separated from his family and only learned of their fate after he was released earlier this year. The cruelty of that is unbearable to imagine.

I cannot help but wonder how we would respond if something like this ever happened in Britain. What if it was my two beautiful daughters who were being held hostage? I would want to do everything I possibly could to get them back. And I would want to make sure this never happened again.

My fear is Starmer has lost sight of what needs to be done to end the Israel-Hamas conflict. It was striking that this week Arab states have called on Hamas terrorists to put down their weapons. Meanwhile, Britain and other western countries, such as Canada and France, are strengthening Hamas’s hand. This is baffling. As a former defence secretary, I cannot stress strongly enough how vital an ally Israel is for our military and intelligence community in the fight against Islamist terrorism and the threat from Iran’s tyrannical regime.

My fear is that Starmer’s weakness will embolden terrorists around the world to commit horrendous acts of violence. They will now be more likely to believe that these acts will lead to them achieving their aims.

As a matter of great urgency, Starmer needs to make it crystal clear that there can be no state recognition for Palestine without the hostages first being returned to Israel. The Prime Minister sat with the families of hostages and promised to do “everything we can” to bring them home. Before anything else, he has to deliver on this.

Anything else is a grotesque betrayal of the victims of October 7, and sets the world on a path to more instability and chaos.