Like Ireland and more than 140 other countries, it is time the UK recognised the state of Palestine

Palestinian self-determination is the key to a just peace in the Middle East. The United Kingdom deprived Palestinians of that right, through its misconduct of the Palestine Mandate, before we cut and ran in 1948. It is 57 years since the Israeli occupation of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. It is only right that we should now recognise the state of Palestine on those lands.

Spain, Ireland and Norway are the latest to have done just that, last week announcing that, from tomorrow, they will join the long list of countries that formally recognise a Palestinian state. They have set the example that the United Kingdom should have provided for the so-called two-state solution – and which we must encourage others to follow.

First, some clarity is needed on what we should envisage as the Palestinian state: namely, pre-June 1967 borders, with full territorial sovereignty, the free movement of people and goods, and control of administrative matters (a registry of births, and so on).