MCB Says UK Symbolic Recognition of Palestine is Not Enough; Demands Trade Embargo Against Israel

The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB) has issued a state­ment say­ing that the UK’s sym­bol­ic recog­ni­tion of Pales­tine marked a his­toric shift in UK pol­i­cy, yet failed to address the need for a trade embar­go against Israel, leav­ing Pales­tin­ian rights and human­i­tar­i­an needs unmet. In its 29 July 2025 state­ment, the MCB crit­i­cized that the Prime Minister’s state­ment con­tained no com­mit­ment to a trade embar­go or ceas­ing mil­i­tary sup­port to Israel. The MCB said this move fell short of the com­pre­hen­sive action need­ed to address the ongo­ing human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis and occu­pa­tion. The arti­cle begins:

After many decades of call­ing for the UK to recog­nise the State of Pales­tine, today’s announce­ment by Sir Keir Starmer is long over­due. How­ev­er, the con­di­tion­al nature of today’s announce­ment is at odds with the Government’s stat­ed posi­tion that “state­hood is the inalien­able right of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple.” “The rights of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple, both in Gaza and the West Bank, are not a bar­gain­ing chip,” said Dr Nao­mi Green, Assis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain. “The Prime Minister’s 500 word state­ment today remains sym­bol­ic only, mak­ing no men­tion of a trade embar­go or ceas­ing mil­i­tary sup­port to Israel.” She con­tin­ued, “Hav­ing been shamed into action by oth­er world lead­ers like Pres­i­dent Macron’s announce­ment last Fri­day that France will recog­nise Pales­tine with­out con­di­tions, and the hor­ri­fy­ing scenes of avoid­able and man-made star­va­tion in Gaza, mil­lions of Britons con­tin­ue to watch our Government’s emp­ty words and ask: ‘where is the tan­gi­ble action’?” Between Octo­ber 2023 and May 2025 alone, the UK has approved over 108 export licences to Israel, includ­ing 42 for mil­i­tary use, accord­ing to the Depart­ment for Busi­ness and Trade. In Q4 2024 alone, £127.6 mil­lion in mil­i­tary licences were approved, more than the com­bined total from 2020–2023.

Read more: https://mcb.org.uk/symbolic-recognition-of-palestine-is-long-overdue-but-not-a-replacement-for-trade-embargo-and-ceasing-military-support-to-israel/

Key Points

• The MCB said the UK’s poten­tial recog­ni­tion of Pales­tine, announced on 29 July 2025, was a sig­nif­i­cant diplo­mat­ic ges­ture but did not include com­mit­ments to cease arms exports or mil­i­tary sup­port to Israel.

• Accord­ing to the state­ment, between Octo­ber 2023 and May 2025, the UK approved over 108 export licences to Israel, includ­ing 42 for mil­i­tary use, with £127.6 mil­lion in mil­i­tary licences approved in Q4 2024 alone.

• The group argued that, with­out a trade embar­go or end­ing mil­i­tary sup­port, recog­ni­tion remained a large­ly sym­bol­ic act that does lit­tle to improve the dai­ly real­i­ties of Pales­tini­ans under occu­pa­tion.

• The MCB empha­sized that “true jus­tice” for Pales­tini­ans required both diplo­mat­ic recog­ni­tion and con­crete steps to end com­plic­i­ty in what it said were vio­lence and occu­pa­tion.

The MCB: An Important Node in the UK Palestine Advocacy Network

The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB), estab­lished in 1997, is an influ­en­tial UK umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion that has faced scruti­ny over its ide­o­log­i­cal align­ment with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. It seeks to influ­ence the UK gov­ern­ment through orga­nized civ­il soci­ety engage­ment and pub­lic advo­ca­cy. The MCB also lever­ages pub­lic state­ments and alliances with reli­gious schol­ars, as seen when it sided with schol­ars crit­i­ciz­ing the release of a movie depict­ing the life of Muhammed’s daugh­ter, to shape pub­lic dis­course and sig­nal its posi­tions to pol­i­cy­mak­ers. The MCB has also played an impor­tant role in the UK Pales­tine advo­ca­cy net­work, mobi­liz­ing Pales­tin­ian sol­i­dar­i­ty cam­paigns and coor­di­nat­ing with far-left MPs and activists to pres­sure gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy on Israel-Pales­tine issues. Recent­ly, it coor­di­nat­ed UK Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions to urge Pales­tin­ian state­hood recog­ni­tion in a high-pro­file cam­paign aimed at the Labour gov­ern­ment, reflect­ing a strate­gic align­ment with seg­ments of the British left that pri­or­i­tize Pales­tin­ian rights. While the MCB’s activism has ampli­fied calls for UK pol­i­cy shifts—particularly in Labour and left-wing circles—the council’s efforts are shad­owed by per­sis­tent ques­tions about its Islamist affil­i­a­tions and rep­re­sen­ta­tive­ness with­in the broad­er British Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty, as detailed in exter­nal analy­ses that high­light its long­stand­ing exclu­sion from gov­ern­ment dia­logues and debates about its legit­i­ma­cy. These cri­tiques often focus on the MCB’s his­tor­i­cal ties to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and its con­test­ed role as a nation­al Mus­lim voice.

Exter­nal References

• How the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain was left out in the cold

• British Mus­lims plan MCB alter­na­tives to rep­re­sent communities

• Out­go­ing Mus­lim Coun­cil leader crit­i­cis­es lack of gov­ern­ment contact

Dis­claimer:

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.