Israel's deepening isolation: UK Parliament votes to symbolically recognize Palestine

© Reuters

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister

In the end, the result was emphatic. After three and a half hours of debate, MPs voted to recognise the state of Palestine by 274 votes to 12.

To be sure, the vote was non-binding and has no effect - for now - on government policy, as Israel's dwindling number of hardcore supporters will point out. And Israeli officials will affect unconcern, claiming that the emoting of MPs in a second-rate ex-imperialist power with delusions of grandeur means nothing.

Don't believe a word of it. As reports of last-minute lobbying from Jerusalem make clear, Israel knows it cannot afford to ignore this result - for two reasons. First, it provides a stark barometer reading of opinion in much of the Western world, where Israel craves respect and acceptance. Second, as a damning verdict on Israel's recent policies from an influential global power, the vote will contribute to its deepening international isolation and prompt other countries to press against the occupation.

If you need proof of just how friendless Israel's hard-Right government has become, consider the statements last night from MPs who would normally count themselves the country's natural allies. Arch-Tories such as Nicholas Soames (whose grandfather Winston Churchill is Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political hero) spoke eloquently in favour of Palestinian statehood. And Richard Ottoway, chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said that despite having been "a friend of Israel long before I became a Tory", its recent policies had "outraged me more than anything else in my political life", concluding: "If Israel is losing the support of people like me, it is losing a lot of people."

Not a single MP on either set of benches dared to express support for Israeli policies such as this summer's devastating assault on Gaza or the ever-expanding settlement project (which experts warn may be about to destroy any chance of dividing Jerusalem between the two sides as part of a future peace deal). And Israel was criticised in terms that until recent years were considered taboo: Labour MP Andy Slaughter's comparison of the West Bank occupation to South African apartheid drew only murmurs of assent around the chamber. Even most of those who expressed misgivings about the motion preferred to follow the Tory leadership and abstain rather than openly oppose it.

But - with Israel led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made his determination to resist Palestinian statehood clear, as well as a gaggle of ministers with even more hardline views - what practical effect can Parliament's decision have on the brute facts of the conflict?

Israel's government and its supporters are trying to have it both ways, calling the motion irrelevant while claiming simultaneously it will damage the "peace process". But, as several MPs pointed out last night, the peace process is a chimera - and even John Kerry's recent efforts to impose an unfair "solution" on the Palestinians were, as the US secretary of state openly stated, largely stymied by a diehard Israeli government opposed to any compromise whatsoever.

That's why, in the absence of any prospect of meaningful talks between the two sides, international pressure, combined with nonviolent ground-level resistance from Palestinians, may well be the only hope of bringing the century-old dispute to a resolution. And as a permanent UN security council member, a close ally of the United States, and a leading EU power the UK has more ability than most to add to the groundswell of global opposition to Israel's rampant occupation policies.

Of course, Israel will not be swayed by any mere act of parliament: ending the occupation would likely require sustained economic and diplomatic pressure from the international community. But, as an article in the has pointed out, the campaign for sanctions against Israel is gathering steam. Last night's vote will add weight to claims that Israel must change its ways or one day face harsh consequences.

No doubt Israel's increasingly reality-detached government will, for now, succeed in shutting its ears to the voices calling for a halt to its obstructionism and violence. But, as the House of Commons showed last night, the world is no longer shutting its eyes.