Palestinian diplomats in London raised their nation's flag on Monday to mark the UK's recognition of Palestine and declared it a crucial step on the "long march towards justice, liberation and sovereignty".
Government ministers, MPs and the capital's diplomatic corps gathered to congratulate the incumbent envoy Husam Zomlot, alongside members of the Palestinian community in London.
"In the same capital of the Balfour declaration, after more than a century of ongoing denial, dispossession and erasure, the UK government has finally taken the long overdue step of recognising the state of Palestine," he said, flanked by the UK's Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney.
"International recognition is more than just a diplomatic gesture. It is an acknowledgement that Palestine has always, always, been a land with a people," Mr Zomlot said. He thanked the "millions" in Britain who had been marching in the streets "who turned London into the epicentre of the movement for Palestine" and who "chose principles over politics".
"We will always remember how you stood by our side, on the right side of history," he said. "To my people, the great and proud Palestinian people in Gaza, in Jerusalem, in Jenin, in the refugee camps, in exile, this moment belongs to you."
He said the mission will be officially considered an embassy after some "legal and bureaucratic work" is completed. To cheers, he held aloft a plaque reading "The Embassy of the State of Palestine", which will be placed on the building.
Mr Falconer acknowledged that recognition would "not end the suffering" in Gaza. "This is not only an endorsement of the vision of two states, it is a rejection of extremism on both sides," he said.
It was also a "tool" to empower those negotiating for two states, he added. He called on Hamas to disarm. People shouted "shame on you" and "stop arming Israel" while Mr Falconer was speaking.
Mr Swinney agreed that further sanctions on Israel were needed. He also called for the UK to join South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and commit to executing International Criminal Court arrest warrants.
"I have been clear that the UK's recognition of the state of Palestine should have been unconditional, but this decision goes some way towards acknowledging the UK's solemn and historic responsibility towards all peoples of the region,” he said.
"While this announcement is welcome news, this is just the first step towards establishing the two-state solution,” he added. "I urge the UK government to take further action to accelerate peace including continuing to call for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of free-flowing aid.
"The international community must use all its energy to persuade and pressurise Israel to end the violence and return to a peace process. A two-state solution is the only option that can provide peace, prosperity and security for both the state of Palestine and the state of Israel. Hamas must play no role in the future of the Palestinian state."
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
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Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
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Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Brief scores:
Day 1
Toss: India, chose to bat
India (1st innings): 215-2 (89 ov)
Agarwal 76, Pujara 68 not out; Cummins 2-40
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Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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