THE recognition of a Palestinian state by Britain, along with other Nato member states and others, is welcome.

It is a tribute to the heroism and resilience of the Palestinian people themselves in the face of unimaginable suffering. It is a testimony too to the extraordinary mass movement sustained on the streets of Britain and across the world over the last two years.

Recognition is also, for the British state above all, a move made more than a century too late. The people of Palestine had the right to expect self-determination after the end of the first world war and the dissolution of the Ottoman empire.

Instead, they endured the colonial rule — thinly disguised as a “mandate” — of the British state, protecting and reinforcing a programme of zionist colonisation. From 1948 Israel directly dispersed and oppressed Palestinian Arabs, a project both extended and intensified after 1967.

US imperialism increasingly took over the sponsorship of Israel from the failing British empire, something again stepped up after military victory in 1967 raised its value as a strategic asset in a key region.

Throughout, the Western imperialist states have held the Palestinians to be of little account, their position additionally weakened by the collapse of Soviet support and the weak and compromised leadership of the Arab states.

Today, Israel’s project is moving towards its genocidal conclusion, with the extermination or displacement of the population of Gaza joined by a rabidly aggressive programme of ethnic cleansing and Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are explicit that their recognition of Palestine now is to try and breathe life into the near-corpse of the “two-state solution.” Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has explicitly and categorically ruled it out and may now move to kill the idea altogether with annexation of all or much of the West Bank.

Israel’s far-right government will certainly have the backing of the US for such an outrage, but Starmer must stand up to Donald Trump without flinching.

So the British government must go much further, much faster, if this week’s announcement is to be more than a propaganda fig-leaf, a ministerial sop to troubled consciences and an even more troubled electorate, where opinion has moved sharply against Israel’s genocidal bomb-and-famine campaign.

Israel should now be met with an aggressive campaign of sanctions — the bare minimum that should be imposed on Israel if a Palestinian state is to become a reality.

A boycott of all Israeli goods and investments should be instituted, with travel restrictions too. And of course there must be a halt to all continuing arms sales.

The use of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus for spy overflights of Gaza to assist the Israeli military — spuriously presented as assisting in locating hostages — must immediately cease.

Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s extremist ambassador, is at long last going home. Netanyahu should be told not to bother sending a replacement.

The government should throw its full weight into the International Criminal Court investigations into Israeli war leaders, including Netanyahu, and unambiguously pledge to arrest anyone indicated if they arrive on these shores.

There should be no more red carpets for Israeli politicians, like that unrolled for President Herzog this month. Full diplomatic isolation is required.

Absent measures like these, recognition will look more like a performative gesture rather than a serious attempt to force the Israeli government to end its genocidal conduct.

The next demonstration for Palestine will be in London on October 11.  That is the time to give mass expression to these demands.