statehood

Leading activist says three to five people feared killed in police fire, but no official word yet on casualty figures.

A protest in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh demanding statehood for the federal territory has turned violent as protesters clashed with police and set fire to a paramilitary vehicle and the office of the country’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Police fired tear gas on Wednesday and charged demonstrators with batons, injuring dozens of them, police said. Some among the injured were in critical condition, residents said.

Authorities banned the assembly of more than five people in Leh district, the capital of the Ladakh region, after the clashes.

No official statement has been released on the number of casualties, but a local activist who has been on hunger strike seeking more power for the region bordering China told Indian media that three to five people are believed to have been killed in police gunfire.

“We have reports that many people have been injured. We don’t know the exact count,” Sonam Wangchuk was quoted as saying by the Indian Express site.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the casualty figures.

Protests erupted after youth groups called for the shutdown of Leh.

The protests are part of a larger movement in the federally governed region that seeks statehood and constitutional provisions from the Indian government for autonomy over land and agricultural decisions.

Ladakh lost its autonomy in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government carved the region out of India-administered Kashmir. Since then, the majority Muslim-Buddhist territory has been directly governed from New Delhi.

Protesters have called for Ladakh to be given special status that would allow for the creation of elected local bodies to protect its tribal areas.

At its core, the protests are calling for Ladakh to be included under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which provides provisions for tribal areas and allows local communities to have a say in how the regions are administered.

Wangchuk called for restraint as he called off his hunger strike, which he launched two weeks ago. “My message of peaceful path failed today. I appeal to [the] youth to please stop this nonsense. This only damages our cause,” he said.

In a public notice, District Administrator Romil Singh Donk announced a ban on demonstrations, public gatherings and inflammatory speech.

Activists and local politicians in Ladakh have accused Modi’s government of not addressing their concerns. Several rounds of talks between local politicians and representatives from New Delhi in the past few years have not yielded results.

The next round of talks is expected to take place on October 6.

Ladakh, which shares a long border with China, is a strategically important territory for India. Ladakh was the site of deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers in 2020 that strained the ties between the two Asian countries. The two Asian giants have recently moved to mend their ties in the wake of Trump’s punishing tariff war.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II told the 80th United Nations General Assembly that Israel is “burying the very idea of a Palestinian state,” while blasting decades of international inaction. He urged recognition of Palestinian statehood as “an indisputable right, not a reward.”

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper says she has warned Israel not to annex parts of the West Bank in retaliation for the UK’s recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Cooper was speaking to the BBC before attending a conference on Monday at the UN in New York where France and other European states are due to make a similar announcement.

In what was a significant change in policy, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state on Sunday, along with Canada, Australia and Portugal.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the moves, saying they give “a huge reward to terrorism”.

Asked by the BBC if she was concerned Israel would take this declaration as a pretext for annexing parts of the West Bank, Cooper said she had made it clear to her Israeli counterpart that he and his government must not do that.

She said: “We have been clear that this decision that we are taking is about the best way to respect the security for Israel as well as the security for Palestinians.

“It’s about protecting peace and justice and crucially security for the Middle East and we will continue to work with everyone across the region in order to be able to do that.”

Cooper said extremists on both sides were seeking to abandon any prospect of a two-state solution, which the UK had a moral obligation to revive.

“The easy thing to do would be to just walk away and to say well it is all just too hard,” Cooper said. “We just think that is wrong when we’ve seen such devastation, such suffering.

“Just as we recognise Israel, the state of Israel … so we must also recognise the rights for the Palestinians to a state of their own as well.”

She did not say when the UK’s Consulate General in East Jerusalem would become a full embassy, saying it would continue while a diplomatic process began with the Palestinian Authority.

The foreign secretary was speaking in New York, where the UN General Assembly is convening this week.

Cooper will push to build international consensus on a framework for peace in the Middle East, the Foreign Office has said.

France will co-chair a meeting alongside Saudi Arabia addressing the path to a two-state solution to the conflict, after it pledged to recognise Palestinian statehood in July. Belgium is also expected to follow France’s declaration at the meeting.

Making the announcement on Sunday, Sir Keir said he wanted to “revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying that Palestinian statehood “will not happen”.

The US joined him in describing the move as a diplomatic gift to Hamas after it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.

Sir Keir stressed this was not the case as the terms of the recognition mean Hamas can have “no future, no role in government, no role in security”.

This message was echoed in a statement from the Foreign Office, which said the foreign secretary would use the UN meeting to “ensure violent terrorists like Hamas have no role to play in the future of a Palestinian state”.

The prime minister added that the decision was instead a “pledge to the Palestinian and Israeli people that there can be a better future”, saying the “starvation and devastation [in Gaza] are utterly intolerable”.

Sir Keir, who has repeatedly said Hamas can have no role in the future governance of a Palestinian state, said during his announcement that the UK had already proscribed and sanctioned Hamas and that he had directed work to sanction further Hamas figures in the coming weeks.

Hamas on Sunday welcomed the recognition as an “important step in affirming the right of our Palestinian people to their land and holy sites” but said it must be accompanied by “practical measures” that would lead to an “immediate end” to the war.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Conservatives’ deputy chair Matt Vickers said that the prime minister was “rewarding Hamas”.

“Hamas has already said this is a victory for them and the evil things they did on October 7”, he said.

“This is not the way you play the game, this not what you do if you want to get a two state solution. Everyone is devastated by what they see in Gaza, everyone is devastated by what they saw on 7 October. We need to work with the US to make sure those hostages come home.”

Last week, a UN commission of inquiry said that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

Across a three-page resolution, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) presented a litany of actions undertaken by Israel throughout the 22-month-long war that it recognises as constituting genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Around 65,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza in the nearly two-year war.

UN-backed health experts have also declared a famine in Gaza City.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the genocide report was based on “Hamas lies” and poor research, calling it an “embarrassment to the legal profession”.

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and has said that where there is hunger, it is the fault of aid agencies and Hamas.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the UK’s decision, saying it would help pave the way for the “state of Palestine to live side by side with the state of Israel in security, peace and good neighbourliness”.

Palestine is currently recognised as a state by around 75% of the UN’s 193 member states, but has no internationally agreed boundaries, capital or army – making recognition largely symbolic.

The two-state solution refers to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, broadly along the lines that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Due to Israel’s military occupation in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority, set up in the wake of peace agreements in the 1990s, is not in full control of its land or people. In Gaza, where Israel is also the occupying power, Hamas has been the sole ruler since 2007.

UK ministers have highlighted the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, as a key factor in the decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Mohammed Jarrar, mayor of the West Bank city of Jenin, told the BBC that “this Israeli government wants to annex the West Bank” – but stressed that recognition was important as “it confirms the fact that the Palestinian people possess a state, even if it is under occupation”.

Netanyahu repeated his intentions on Sunday, saying “we doubled Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and we will continue on this path”.

Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir responded to the news by calling for Israel to annex the West Bank and dismantle the Palestinian Authority.

Canada and Australia have joined the United Kingdom in formally recognising Palestinian statehood as Israel plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank and intensifies its war on Gaza.

In a statement on Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the recognition of a Palestinian state and offered “our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel”.

Carney added that the Israeli government was working “methodically to prevent the prospect of a Palestinian state from ever being established”.

“Recognising the State of Palestine, led by the Palestinian Authority, empowers those who seek peaceful coexistence and the end of Hamas. This in no way legitimises terrorism, nor is it any reward for it,” Carney said.

He added that the Palestinian Authority provided “direct commitments” to Canada on reforming its governance; holding general elections next year, which Hamas “can play no part” in; and demilitarising the Palestinian state.

At the same time, Australia announced that it was also recognising Palestinian statehood.

In a statement by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australia said its recognition alongside Canada’s and the UK’s was part of an international effort for a two-state solution.

Albanese said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Penny Wong that the decision was meant to revive momentum for a two-state solution that begins with a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of captives held in Gaza.

But the statement reiterated that Hamas must have “no role in Palestine”.

Canada’s and Australia’s recognition of Palestinian statehood was coordinated with the UK, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his country was formally recognising a Palestinian state shortly after the announcements from Ottawa and Canberra.

Starmer said recognition would “revive hope for peace for the Palestinians and Israelis and a two-state solution”.

However, the announcements from major Western powers – and longtime Israeli allies – indicated that Israel is growing increasingly isolated internationally in light of its war on Gaza, where it has killed more than 65,200 Palestinians.

Israel and the United States have repeatedly said recognising Palestinian statehood in the midst of the war in Gaza would be a “reward” for Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that message in his reaction to Sunday’s recognition of Palestine, saying that it was a “prize” for Hamas.

He added that a Palestinian state “will not happen”.

At the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, more countries have pledged to recognise Palestine, including France.

While recognition of Palestinian statehood is largely symbolic and has little influence on Israeli actions in the occupied territory, it highlights growing international support for Palestine.

So far, 147 of the 193 UN member states have recognised Palestinian statehood.

But that recognition still does not give Palestine an official seat at the UN, which can only be approved by the Security Council.

The US, a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, has already rejected calls for recognition at this moment.

But in the US as well as other Western countries, domestic pressure to back the Palestinian cause is strengthening.

Alongside recognition of Palestinian statehood, a number of Western states have imposed sanctions on Israel or are threatening to do so.

And in the past few weeks, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and others have pledged to boycott the European Song Contest if Israel is allowed to participate in next year’s event.

The international chorus against Israel has been acknowledged by Netanyahu, who said last week that his country was “in a sort of isolation” and would need to adapt its economy accordingly.

Aug. 12 (UPI) — Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday her district should become a state as National Guard troops arrived in the capital.

“It’s times like these when America needs to know that DC should be the 51st state,” Bowser said in an X post, which also contained a clip of her being interviewed on the “Breakfast Club” iHeartMedia radio program.

“We think this action kind of plays into his narrative on cities, about using force, about being tough on crime” Bowser said in regard to President Donald Trump‘s reasons for sending the national guard into the capital and placing city police under federal control.

Despite crime being generally down throughout the district, about 800 soldiers have been stationed in the district after being activated by the U.S. Army on Monday to assist with law enforcement, and Bowser has pledged to work “side by side” with the federal government as Trump’s directive rolls out.

Trump put forth a memorandum Monday titled “Restoring Law and Order in the District of Columbia,” in which he stated that “As President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the District of Columbia National Guard, it is my solemn duty to protect law-abiding citizens from the destructive forces of criminal activity.”

He then mentioned recent high-profile crimes as the impetus behind his decision to mobilize the District of Columbia National Guard and order them to “address the epidemic of crime in our Nation’s capital.”

Trump said in the directive that the mobilization will continue until he determines that “conditions of law and order have been restored in the District of Columbia.”

However, despite that open-ended statement, the troops have already been notified their deployment will last until Sept. 25.

According to the district’s Metropolitan Police Department crime statistics, the level of every categorized offense committed there has dropped since last year, except motor vehicle theft which has a flat change rate of 0%.

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state in September, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

Albanese said on Monday that his government would formally announce the move when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meets in New York.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said at a news conference in Canberra.

Australia’s announcement comes as Canada, France and the United Kingdom are preparing to formally recognise Palestine at the meeting next month, joining the vast majority of UN member states.

It also comes about a week after hundreds of thousands of Australians marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking a day after the protest, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that “there is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise.”

“In relation to recognition, I’ve said for over a year now, it’s a matter of when, not if,” Wong added.

The opposition Liberal Party criticised the move, saying it put Australia at odds with the United States, its closest ally, and reversed a bipartisan consensus that there should be no recognition while Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

“Despite his words today, the reality is Anthony Albanese has committed Australia to recognising Palestine while hostages remain in tunnels under Gaza and with Hamas still in control of the population of Gaza. Nothing he has said today changes that fact,” Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said in a statement.

“Recognising a Palestinian state prior to a return of the hostages and defeat of Hamas, as the Government has today, risks delivering Hamas one of its strategic objectives of the horrific terrorism of October 7.”

The Australian Greens, the fourth-largest party in parliament, welcomed the move to recognise Palestine, but said the announcement did not meet the “overwhelming calls from the Australian public for the government to take material action”.

“Millions of Australians have taken to the streets, including 300,000 last weekend in Sydney alone, calling for sanctions and an end to the arms trade with Israel. The Albanese Government is still ignoring this call,” Senator David Shoebridge, the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, said in a statement.

The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) also criticised the announcement, describing it as a “political fig leaf, letting Israel’s genocide and apartheid continue unchallenged, and distracting from Australia’s complicity in Israeli war crimes via ongoing weapons and components trade”.

“Palestinian rights are not a gift to be granted by Western states. They are not dependent on negotiation with, or the behaviour or approval of their colonial oppressors,” APAN said in a statement.

According to Albanese, Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinians’ right to their own state will be “predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority (PA)”.

These “detailed and significant commitments” include the PA reaffirming it “recognises Israel’s right to exist in peace and security” and committing to “demilitarise and to hold general elections”, Albanese said while announcing the decision.

The PA is a governing body that has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-90s.

It has not held parliamentary elections since 2006 and has been criticised by some Palestinians for helping Israel to keep tight control over residents in the West Bank.

Albanese said the commitments secured by Australia were “an opportunity to deliver self-determination for the people of Palestine in a way that isolates Hamas, disarms it and drives it out of the region once and for all”.

Hamas has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it fought a brief war against forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

New Zealand to decide on recognition next month

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Monday that his country’s cabinet will make a formal decision on Palestinian statehood in September.

“Some of New Zealand’s close partners have opted to recognise a Palestinian state, and some have not,” Peters said in a statement.

“Ultimately, New Zealand has an independent foreign policy, and on this issue, we intend to weigh up the issue carefully and then act according to New Zealand’s principles, values and national interest.”

Peters said that while New Zealand has for some time considered the recognition of a Palestinian state a “matter of when, not if”, the issue is not “straightforward” or “clear-cut”.

“There are a broad range of strongly held views within our Government, Parliament and indeed New Zealand society over the question of recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“It is only right that this complicated issue be approached calmly, cautiously and judiciously. Over the next month, we look forward to canvassing this broad range of views before taking a proposal to Cabinet.”

Of the UN’s 193 member states, 147 already recognise Palestinian statehood, representing some three-quarters of the world’s countries and the vast majority of its population.

Under its 1947 plan to partition Palestine, the UNGA said it would grant 45 percent of the land to an Arab state, though this never eventuated.

The announcements by Australia and New Zealand on Monday came hours after an Israeli attack killed five Al Jazeera staff members in Gaza City, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a full-scale invasion of the city in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,430 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Close to 200 people, including 96 children, have died from starvation under Israel’s punishing siege, according to health authorities.