Britain’s rush to recognise Palestinian state betrays hostage families and undermines path to true peace

It is a betrayal. A betrayal of morality, of justice, and of the families who still wake up each day to the unthinkable absence of their loved ones.

I have spent my life in a kibbutz along the Gaza border, believing in coexistence. I have dedicated decades to the hope that our two peoples might one day live side by side, sovereign and at peace.

That dream is not dead. But the barbarity of October 7th - the slaughter of civilians, the abduction of 254 hostages, the desecration of every boundary of humanity - has shown us, with terrible clarity, that we are not there yet.

My 75-year-old mother, Ada, was among those taken by Hamas that day. She was held hostage for 53 days in Gaza by paid guards, including in a family home with young children and a hospital.

She was deliberately detained on the top floor as a human shield. The wait for her release was excruciatingly painful, like Russian roulette to the heart.

It is hard to fathom the depths of anguish that those families whose loved ones remain in Gaza feel after Britain’s rush to recognise Palestinian statehood. Simply, the move ignores the single most basic precondition for peace: the release of the hostages.

There is no justice, no morality, and no credibility in rewarding terrorism while innocent people are still held underground. To move forward without their release is not diplomacy; it is capitulation.

Nor can we pretend this recognition is rooted in democratic legitimacy. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which Britain proposes to elevate to statehood, is led by Mahmoud Abbas - a man elected to a four-year term nineteen years ago.

His mandate expired in 2009; he rules without the fresh consent of his people. To anoint that leadership now as the government of a state is not only premature—it is absurd.

None of this denies the suffering in Gaza. The devastation there is immense; the humanitarian catastrophe is undeniable. We grieve for innocent civilians trapped between Hamas’s brutality and the consequences of war.

We call urgently for aid to reach those who need it most, without theft or diversion by terror groups. The moral response to civilian suffering is not to reward those who caused it; it is to alleviate suffering while holding the guilty accountable.

The British Government’s plan fails this test. It dresses up political theatre as principle. It signals virtue at home while undermining any possibility of real peace abroad. Worse, it will strengthen the very extremists in Israel who argue that the world cannot be trusted - that the West will always side against them, no matter the facts.

This recognition is a gift to the far right in Israel, a faction whose agenda I oppose with every fibre of my being. It pushes moderates like me - the ones who still believe in peace - into the margins.

I do not support Prime Minister Netanyahu; I long for his departure for the sake of Israelis and Palestinians alike. Yet even I must admit he is right on this: “rewarding terrorism is dangerous and foolish”.

If Britain wants to lead, then lead. Verify the release of every hostage. Make that the baseline for any negotiation, any gesture, any reward. Anything less is a shortcut born of desperation, not principle - a policy destined to deepen wounds rather than heal them.

Recognition may one day come. But it cannot come now - not while the tunnels of Gaza still echo with the cries of kidnapped hostages. To do so is to tell those families, my family, that their agony is expendable.

And that is something Britain, with its proud history of moral leadership, should never be willing to say.

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Noam Sagi is a British Israeli psychotherapist and peace activist. His mother, Ada Sagi, was kidnapped by Hamas and Islamic Jihad during the October 7 attacks and held hostage in Gaza for 53 days before her release.

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