Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly condemned the decision by the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia to formally recognise a Palestinian state, accusing the three countries of handing militants a victory.
In a statement issued on Sunday while visiting the United States, Netanyahu described the move as “rewarding terror with an enormous prize”, referencing the October 7 attacks in Israel.
“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,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River.”
The Israeli leader insisted that such recognition would endanger his country’s security. He said he had resisted “tremendous pressure, both domestic and from abroad” to accept Palestinian statehood and stressed that his administration would block “any attempt to force upon us a terror state in the heart of our land.”
Netanyahu also pointed to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which Israel refers to as Judea and Samaria, saying his government had already doubled the number of settlements and intended to continue that policy.
