The UK Government’s travel advice for the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ has been changed to ‘Palestine’ for the first time.
Since at least 2013, official travel advice for the country has described it as an occupied territory, according to internet archives.
The phrase refers to how parts of Palestine – the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem – have been occupied by Israel since 1967.
But the page, made by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, was changed to Palestine yesterday.
The advice is largely unchanged, cautioning against travel to Gaza and some parts of the West Bank and Golan Heights.
This was the same day that Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that the UK formally recognised Palestinian statehood.
Starmer said: ‘The hope for a two-state solution is fading, but we cannot let that light go out.’
Australia, Canada and Portugal also made similar announcements on the eve of the annual gathering of the UN General Assembly.
To recognise a would-be state means that the region has four elements: a stable population, defined boundaries, a government and an ability to carry out international affairs.
Of the 193 UN members, 147 recognise a Palestinian state. France said it will vote to do the same this week.
While recognition is a mainly symbolic act of support, the move from the UK only piles the pressure on Israel amid its war against Hamas.
At least 65,500 Palestinians have been killed and 166,800 injured since the war began on October 7, 2023, the Gaza health ministry said today.
Gaza, which is four times smaller than London, has also been gripped by a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Throughout the war, Israel has continued to have control over what comes into the coastal enclave, including food, fuel and humanitarian supplies.
Gazans are at ‘critical risk of famine’ and tens of thousands of children will suffer malnutrition if Israel does not let aid into the strip, UN-backed experts said this month.
A UN commission also found this month that Israel was committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave. Israel has denied this.
Starmer said in July his final decision to recognise Palestine as a state hinged on Israel addressing the aid crisis, signing a ceasefire agreement with Hamas to secure the release of the remaining 48 hostages and pursuing a two-state solution.
Israel has since expanded its combat towards Gaza City, as well as attack Hamas chiefs in Qatar, a Gulf state where peace talks have taken place.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the international criticism, calling it ‘false propaganda’.
He has repeatedly vowed to escalate the war in Gaza and turbocharge the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
On Sunday, he said: ‘It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.’
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