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It was inevitable that justice would finally prevail for the Palestinian people, long denied a state to call their home. And, ironically, Israel had quickened the process.

Though still not officially recognised by a minority of states, their dream for a separate state is rapidly coming closer to being realised at the United Nations.

After Hamas had taken 251, including foreigners, hostage on October 7th two years ago, Israel, as international law permits, exercised the right to a ‘proportionate response’ to the attack.

But that right long outstayed its visit and had fled from Israel a long time ago. So has the tornado-swept wave of sympathy that created Israel in the late forties, following the Jewish Holocaust by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, vanished even sooner.

For Israel had exceeded its brief too far.

For two years it has relentlessly pounded the Palestinian people with a daily barrage of missile attacks and razed buildings to the ground, even specifically targeting hospitals which held the victims of the week’s bombing campaign, without qualm or conscience, on the pretext that they sheltered terrorists.

YOU CAN’T HOLD BACK THE DAWN: In the midst of devastation Palestine sees the rising star

Not that Hamas remained silent. Its own retaliatory fire aggravated human suffering on both sides. The Gaza Strip became the world’s theatre of war, and scenes of violence and deaths, its common fare.

The world watched helplessly to prevent the tragedy that was being conducted by Israel on the ground and directed by Trump from afar. The rest of the world could only sit on comfortable settees and watch the latest episode unfold on their TVs: how Israel, with her superior military power, rode shotgun on the Gaza Strip, blockading UN food convoys and urgent medical supplies from reaching the blood-drenched scene of devastation to grant relief to the needy.

The turning point for world leaders and their electorates came when the media revealed pictures of little children—too harrowing to watch—being starved to death for want of food.

TRUMP: Reward for terror

Those heart-rending sights awoke the world’s conscience. They had watched enough bombings and deaths on a daily basis to make them immune to such tragedies. But now it watched astir, screaming to help the doomed children of Palestine.

Nearly two months later, with the food crisis worsening, their anguished cry brought the British Prime Minister out from his cabinet room last Sunday to dramatically announce: “In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East, we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution.”

Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer declared, “That means a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state. At the moment, we have neither. Ordinary people, Israeli and Palestinian, deserve to live in peace, to try to rebuild their lives free from violence and suffering. Yet almost two years after the barbaric attacks of 7 October, hostages are still held by the terrorists of Hamas.”

“Let’s be frank,” Starmer continued, “Hamas is a brutal terror organisation. A call for a genuine two-state solution is the exact opposite of their hateful vision. So, we are clear this solution is not a reward for Hamas, because it means Hamas can have no future, no role in government, no role in security.”

Finally, Starmer ended his announcement, stating, “As part of this effort, I set out in July the terms upon which we would act in line with our manifesto to recognise Palestinian statehood. That moment has now arrived. So today, to revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution, I state clearly as Prime Minister of this great country that the United Kingdom formally recognises the state of Palestine.”

NETANYAHU: Reward for Hamas

Britain in the forties had helped to build the foundations of Israel for the Jews who had escaped Nazi genocide. Now she was laying the foundation stones to build a separate state for Palestinians to be spared of Jewish genocide.’

Had 75 years been enough to wipe out a trace of the Jewish experience in Nazi Germany from Israeli hearts that they share no empathy with the people of Palestine when they are being bombed out of existence by their leaders, the rabid Netanyahu and gung-ho war cabinet?

Are their hearts so callous, their feelings so sadistically bent that they take some perverse delight in inflicting upon the Palestinian people the same brutal terror, the same fear, the same pain the Jewish race must have felt in their bones when persecuted by Nazis 75 odd years ago? Was it that inherent, long-embedded thirst for revenge that they have quenched, even from a Palestinian well?

Britain’s unilateral declaration of granting recognition to a Hamas-free sovereign state of Palestine was, indeed, a momentous day in the life of its people. It trailblazed the path to realise the long-held elusive dream of Palestinians to gain their rightful seat at the League of Nations as a sovereign people with a state of their own.

The path that Britain had newly furrowed was soon trod by Canada, Portugal, Australia, France, Monaco, Luxembourg and Malta, with more expected to join the trail. Norway also recognised the State of Palestine on 28 May last year. So did Spain last year. Belgium has granted recognition on a conditional basis. The Vatican, though holding only nonmember observer status, has also recognised it.

How can Netanyahu deny them justice on a historical scale?

Not for the Trump administration to shoo out Palestine President Abbas by refusing him entry to the US and personally deliver his plea for justice to his people. Instead, he had to swallow the ignominy and deliver his speech virtually.

Netanyahu’s lame response to Britain’s recognition of Palestine was to say, “I have a clear message to those leaders who are recognising a Palestinian state after the horrendous October 7 massacre: You are rewarding terror with an enormous prize.”

This same lame duck excuse was echoed by Trump at the UN on Wednesday, when he said, “The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists for their atrocities. Instead of giving in to Hamas’ ransom demands, those who want peace should be united with one message—release the hostages now; just release the hostages.”

But when had the hostages become an issue for Israel, when they relentlessly bombed Hamas shelters in the Gaza Strip and razed high-rise buildings to the ground, regardless whether they held the hostages or not? Now the remaining and expendable 20 hostages have been resurrected and paraded on the international dais, showcased to wreak a tear of sympathy from western eyes, to justify the continued genocide against the people of Palestine.

Already 158 out of 193 UN member states—that is, 81 per cent—have recognised the State of Palestine. With Britain and other major Western powers lending their powerful and influential weight to make the UN grant full membership status to Palestine, what immovable object on earth can stop this irresistible force?

The answer is: America’s veto power at the UN Security Council, which Trump holds in his hands. Aye, there’s the rub.

For that singular veto power that makes a mockery of the founding principles of the United Nations of equality to all member states. Exercising that singular power at this elitist enclave can negate the combined will of a majority of member states and can ensure that the Palestinian Dream never comes to fruition but remains a mirage in the region’s dusty deserts. It reduces the majesty of the UN’s General Assembly to nothing more than a glorified talking shop.

But Trump or Netanyahu or any veto power can’t hold back the dawn of a Palestine as a Hamas-free sovereign state. It’ll be just a matter of time.