Simon Wiesenthal Center Decries Recognition of Palestinian State by the UK, Canada and Others: ‘Rewarding the Terrorists’

Australia, Portugal and France also announced the official diplomatic decision to treat Palestine as a sovereign state

Palestinians, including children, who are struggling to access food due to Israel's blockade and ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip, wait in line to receive hot meals distributed by the charity organization at Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 23, 2025
Palestinians, including children, who are struggling to access food due to Israel's blockade and ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip, wait in line to receive hot meals distributed by the charity organization at Al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 23, 2025 (Credit: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading international Jewish human rights organization, on Sunday denounced the recognition of Palestinian statehood by the U.K., Canada, Australia, Portugal and France, calling it an act of appeasement that “normalizes terror and makes democracies everywhere more vulnerable.”

Those nations jointly announced that they had made the official diplomatic decision to treat Palestine as a sovereign state, a signal that they view it as a legitimate state alongside Israel – not merely as a future possibility dependent on negotiations.

Several board members and officers from the SWC have Hollywood connections, including CEO Jim Berk, Jeffrey Katzenberg an Rabbi Marvin Hier.

The entire statement from SWC is below:

Two weeks ahead of the second anniversary of Hamas’ savage October 7 massacre and on the eve of the most solemn Jewish holidays, Britain, Canada, Australia, Portugal, and France are rewarding the terrorists who carried out the bloodiest attack on Jews since the Holocaust by recognizing Palestinian statehood.

With 48 hostages still in the tunnels of Gaza, these governments have handed Hamas the greatest possible diplomatic gift — proving that mass murder, the slaughter of children, rape, and abduction pay. 

Just yesterday, Hamas broadcast its cruelty to the world yet again, releasing a poster of the hostages designed to inflict maximum psychological torment on the families of the captives. This is not the behavior of a society ready for statehood. It is the sadism of a death cult flaunting its inhumanity.

“If these governments truly cared about humanitarian crises, they would demand the immediate release of every last hostage before Hamas kills them all. Instead, they have abandoned the innocent men, women and children in Hamas’ brutal hands,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Director of Global Social Action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

Diplomatic recognition under these circumstances is not diplomacy; it is appeasement. It does not bring peace one step closer; it normalizes terror and makes democracies everywhere more vulnerable.

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