Top lawyers warn Starmer recognising Palestine could breach international law
Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state could break international law, an influential group of peers has warned.
Some 38 members of the House of Lords, including some of the UK’s most eminent lawyers, have written to Attorney General Lord Hermer about the Prime Minister’s announcement.
As first reported by the Times newspaper, the peers warned that Sir Keir’s pledge to recognise Palestine may breach international law as the territory may not meet the criteria for statehood under the Montevideo Convention, a treaty signed in 1933.
On Tuesday, Sir Keir announced the UK could take the step of recognising statehood in September, ahead of a major UN gathering.
The UK will only refrain from doing so if Israel allows more aid into Gaza, stops annexing land in the West Bank, agrees to a ceasefire, and signs up to a long-term peace process over the next two months.
Hamas must immediately release all remaining Israeli hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and “accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza”, Sir Keir also said.
‘Defined territory’
In their letter to Lord Hermer, the peers said Palestine “does not meet the international law criteria for recognition of a state, namely, defined territory, a permanent population, an effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states”.
There is no certainty over the borders of Palestine they said, and no single government, as Hamas and Fatah are enemies.
Lord Hermer has previously insisted that a commitment to international law “goes absolutely to the heart” of the Government’s approach to foreign policy.
In their letter seen by the PA news agency, the peers added: “You have said that a selective, ‘pick and mix’ approach to international law will lead to its disintegration, and that the criteria set out in international law should not be manipulated for reasons of political expedience.
“Accordingly, we expect you to demonstrate this commitment by explaining to the public and to the Government that recognition of Palestine would be contrary to the principles governing recognition of states in international law.”
Among the respected lawyers to have signed the letter are Lord Pannick – who represented the previous government at the Supreme Court over its Rwanda scheme – as well as KCs Lord Verdirame and Lord Faulks.
Jewish voices
Some of Parliament’s most prominent Jewish voices, including crossbench peer Baroness Deech, Labour’s Lord Winston and the Conservatives’ Baroness Altmann, have also put their name to the letter.
Former Conservative cabinet ministers Lord Pickles and Lord Lansley have also supported it, as has Sir Michael Ellis KC, a former Conservative attorney general and the only non-peer whose name appears on the letter as seen by PA.
The peers’ intervention follows condemnation of Sir Keir’s announcement by Emily Damari, a British-Israeli women who was held captive by Hamas for more than a year.
The PM is “not standing on the right side of history” after his pledge to recognise a Palestinian state, she said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile claimed it “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”.
But ministers have insisted the step is important and is not an example of gesture politics.
“This is about the Palestinian people. It’s about getting aid in to those starving children,” Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Wednesday morning.
Asked directly whether the release of hostages by Hamas is an explicit condition of Palestinian recognition, Ms Alexander told BBC Radio 4: “We will be making an assessment in September and we expect Hamas to act in the same way as we expect Israel to act.”
She later added: “We’re giving Israel eight weeks to act. If they want to be sat at the table to shape that enduring peace in the region, they must act.”
Under pressure
Sir Keir had been coming under pressure from MPs to recognise statehood, and last week more than 250 cross-party members signed a letter calling on him to act.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Palestine Action’s co-founder won a bid to bring a High Court challenge over the group’s ban as a terror organisation.
Huda Ammori is challenging Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, announced after the group claimed responsibility for action in which two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton on June 20.
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Conservatives have already established the precedent of breaking international law in a “specific and limited way”.
I’m sceptical about this advice, given the considerable number of states across the world which have already ‘recognized’ Palestine. Given that international law applies to every country – at least to those which buy into it – how come that no other nation, at least that we know of, seems to have been deterred by these issues?
I think that I’d need to have a clear picture of the ideological inclinations of these ‘learned gentlemen’ before I’d be happy to take their sonorous reservations too seriously.
I hope this doesn’t come across as insulting. One aspect of social media that I find difficult to understand is how some of the most prominent legal minds in the countr, highly qualified professionals with years of experience and Oxbridge degrees etc, can offer well-informed legal advice, yet people with lesser legal background still feel compelled to challenge them simply. Quite possibly because the answer isn’t what they want to hear? At times, many of our citizens, especially on the left don’t realise how closely they mirror Brexit or Reform voters in their unwillingness to listen to experts. Don’t get… Read more »
It’s not insulting at all – it’s a perfectly reasonable and rational observation, and indeed reflects a position which in other contexts I’d probably be taking myself. My scepticism in this instance is based on the fact that, just among our near neighbours, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Iceland and Spain have already recognized Palestinian statehood and France has now announced an imminent intention to do so. These nations have exactly the same commitment to international law as does the UK, and while there may be other countries recognizing Palestine which – shall I say?! – sit more lightly to its principles,… Read more »
To be fair, John’s argument is that the 147 countries which have recognised Palestine also have highly qualified legal professionals, not that he has formed his own legal opinion.
I, for one, am glad that some of our most eminent legal minds have woken up to the idea of the UK respecting international law.
Israel has spent the past few decades illegally establishing settlements in Palestine, making the two state solution unviable. This is why the usual order of events won’t work.
That makes no sense. If the settlements are illegal, boot them out. What has that got to do the 2 state solution?
The only reason for Palestine not meeting these criteria is because the evil zionist government has decimated and ruined this semitic Palestinian population . With support from Sir Kier, the release of the hostages, Allah willing, they can rebuild and meet these requirements quickly.
Have we heard from these lawyers before regarding ‘international law’? What is ‘an effective government’ when it’s at home? Anyway, two criteria met for recognition are a ‘defined territory’ and a ‘permanent population’, the one suffering slaughter, displacement and attempted ejection from THEIR land. This is a transparently mischievous intervention by those of a one sided interest picking through international law selectively to suit.
It was always going to be a legal minefield – and he loves a legal minefield. With the arab states finally wading in and trying to kick out Hamas then a Palestinian state / two state solution finally has a glimmer of hope.
Allah willing, the 2 state solution will happen rapidly.