Priya writes

So, a few more Western governments have decided to graciously “recognise” the State of Palestine. Cue the press releases, the moral grandstanding, the self-congratulation. We’re meant to believe that this is some historic step forward, as if a people who have lived on their land for centuries suddenly become legitimate because a few white-majority parliaments finally said so.

Let’s be clear: Palestine does not need Western validation to exist. It exists in its people, in its language, in its culture, in every olive tree that still clings to the soil despite bulldozers and bombs. What’s happening here isn’t recognition — it’s performative politics, carefully choreographed to avoid any real confrontation with the apartheid state that’s been ethnically cleansing Palestinians for 77 years.

And look at the timing. For months, images of blown-apart bodies, crushed under rubble, barely moved the needle in Western capitals. Hospitals reduced to smoking craters. Journalists assassinated. Children pulled out in pieces. The needle stayed still. But the moment the world saw skeletal children, dying slowly in front of cameras from deliberate starvation — starvation created by siege as a weapon of war — suddenly there’s political will. Suddenly, “recognition” becomes possible.

Where was this moral awakening when Gaza was turned into a mass grave? Why is the West only capable of action when the suffering fits neatly into a narrative they can stomach — the slow, wasting death of a child, not the bloody dismemberment of one? Both are war crimes. Both are deliberate. Both are genocide.

And here’s the hypocrisy that reeks to high heaven: When Russia invaded Ukraine, the West moved at lightning speed. Sanctions. Travel bans. Asset freezes. International isolation. Overnight, Russian oligarchs found themselves unwelcome in Monaco, yachts seized, bank accounts frozen. The moral outrage was swift and absolute — and for once, the world agreed that an occupying force should pay a price.

But Israel? Israel can drop bombs on hospitals, starve entire populations, kill journalists, bulldoze homes, and the “international community” still treats it like a misunderstood friend who just needs a gentle talking-to. No sanctions. No arms embargoes. No meaningful consequences. Instead, there’s more military aid, more trade deals, more diplomatic cover at the UN.

We all know why. This is not just about politics. It’s about a deep, unspoken racism. Ukrainian lives are seen as worthy of protection. Palestinian lives are seen as expendable, collateral damage in a “complicated conflict.” The underlying message is clear: if you are white and European, your sovereignty is non-negotiable. If you are brown, Muslim, colonised — well, your freedom is up for debate.

And yes, let’s also talk about Hamas. Because Palestinians are being killed twice over: once by Israeli bombs, and once by the political and ideological games of Hamas. Hamas claims to be defending Palestine, but has shown it is willing to sacrifice Palestinian lives — including children — to make its point, to provoke, to hold power. Even Palestinians are saying it. The leadership hides in Qatar while families are pulverised. It thrives on the politics of martyrdom while the people it claims to represent are ground into dust. This is not liberation. It’s the cynical use of human lives as bargaining chips.

And let’s not forget — the reason this nightmare exists at all is because of the same Western powers now pretending to be arbiters of justice. Britain, with its Balfour Declaration and its colonial arrogance, carved up the Middle East without a thought to the people living there. The US has bankrolled Israeli apartheid for decades. European nations have stood by, complicit, as settlements spread and international law was shredded.

So forgive me if I don’t clap for this so-called “recognition.” It’s a hollow gesture, decades too late, meant to soothe Western consciences without forcing any accountability. The truth is simple: Palestine exists. It always has. The question is not whether Western governments will recognise Palestine. The question is whether they will finally recognise their own role in its dispossession — and do something to end it.

Until then, save the speeches. Palestine doesn’t need your permission. It needs your action