British columnist Melanie Phillips slammed for Palestinian 'final solution' comments Submitted by Imran Mulla on Wed, 01/07/2026 - 11:07 The Times columnist and ardent pro-Israel activist said Palestinians are a 'non-people' Melanie Phillips speaking at the 'Rage Against the Hate' conference at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, on 27 October 2025 (Screengrab/X) Off Prominent British columnist and broadcaster Melanie Phillips has been criticised for claiming the inauguration of Palestine's embassy in London is an "important moment in the UK's shameful connivance with the Palestinian Arabs' final solution". In a post on X on Tuesday, Phillips, who writes for The Times , also described the Palestinian embassy as a "non-embassy for a non-state for a non-people". Scottish historian William Dalrymple responded by saying : "Pure projection by Melanie Phillips, whose anti-Palestinian rants are growing increasingly unhinged of late." Dalrymple added: "There is only one people who are being ethnically cleansed and driven to the edge of extinction in Israel-Palestine. And it isn't the Israelis." The phrase "final solution" is a euphemism used by Nazi Germany to describe the genocide of Jews during the Holocaust. Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), denounced Phillips for what he called the "racism of denying a people's very existence, their national rights and of apologising for a state, Israel, that is perpetrating a genocide right now and committing the crime of apartheid". Palestine's embassy was inaugurated in London on Monday, after Britain recognised Palestinian statehood last September. The Palestinian ambassador, Husam Zomlot, hailed the inauguration as "proof that our identity cannot be denied". On Monday, he said: "It is a change of direction, reflecting the reality we are living today, a reality that unequivocally recognises, at long last, our inalienable right to sovereign statehood." 'No such thing as Palestine' Phillips has often been criticised for lashing out at Palestinians in public appearances. During a 29-minute speech at the "Rage Against the Hate" conference at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City in October, Phillips claimed the "West" is facing a "death cult" in the "forces of Islam". She said that "there is no such thing as Palestine. There is no such thing as the Palestinian people". 'Home truths' from Melanie Phillips convey one message: Israel will always be at war Read More » Phillips added that "the Jews are the only people who have any entitlement to any of this land, an entitlement based in law, in history and morality. "And they are the only people who have an entitlement to all of it." She said: "The West has bought into the agenda for its own destruction at the hands of Islam." Phillips also mocked Christianity, remarking that "one could say Christianity was a Jewish sect that got slightly out of hand". Both Muslim and Christian Palestinians have been violently targeted by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, as well as by the Israeli army in Gaza. Phillips drew criticism in 2019 for writing that claims of Islamophobia were inherently antisemitic in an article for the Jewish Chronicle entitled, "Don't fall for bogus claims of 'Islamophobia'". "The Palestinians constantly spew out medieval and Nazi-themed hatred of Jews, presenting them as the source of all evil in the world," she wrote in the piece, which was criticised as an "error" by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. UK Politics Trending Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0