By Maighna Nanu and Harriet Barber. Media: Telegraph
An Israeli minister has compared Lord Cameron to Neville Chamberlain after the foreign secretary suggested the UK may formally recognise Palestinian statehood.
Amichai Chikli, the diaspora minister, accused the foreign secretary of handing Hamas “Nazis” a prize as he likened him to the former prime minister known for appeasing Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War.
“Hello to David Cameron, who wants to bring ‘Peace in Our Time’ and grant the Nazis who committed the atrocities of Oct 7 a prize in the form of a Palestinian state as a token of recognition for murdering babies in their cribs, mass rape and abducting mothers with their children,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mr Chikli is a controversial figure in Israel and has faced recent scrutiny from the country’s finance ministry after it suggested his department was superfluous and should be shut down.
His remarks came after Lord Cameron doubled down on earlier suggestions that the UK could formally recognise a Palestinian state, despite Israeli opposition to the idea as it continues its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Speaking during a visit to Lebanon on Thursday, he said recognition could come after a ceasefire in Gaza but before any potential peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians reach a conclusion on a two-state solution.
The UK’s recognition of an independent state of Palestine “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process”, Mr Cameron said.
“It could be something that we consider as this process, as this advance to a solution, becomes more real,” he added, calling the prospect “absolutely vital for the long-term peace and security of the region”.
“What we need to do is give the Palestinian people a horizon towards a better future, the future of having a state of their own.”
The US and other Western countries have also supported the idea of an independent Palestine existing alongside Israel, saying that a two-state solution is vital for long-term stability.
However, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has publicly rejected the creation of an independent Palestinian state after the war.
“In any future arrangement… Israel needs security control of all territory west of the Jordan [River],” Mr Netanyahu said last month.
“For 30 years, I have been consistent, saying one simple thing: this conflict is not about a lack of a state, but about the existence of a state.”