Sir Keir Starmer‘s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state risks breaking international law, some of Britain’s top lawyers have warned.
A group of 38 members of the House of Lords, including some of the UK’s most eminent lawyers, issued the alert in a letter to Attorney General Lord Hermer.
They said the Prime Minister’s pledge to recognise Palestine within weeks, which he announced on Tuesday, may breach international law.
This is because the territory may not meet the criteria for statehood under the Montevideo Convention, a treaty signed in 1933.
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.
Sir Keir has sparked a furious backlash by saying Britain could recognise Palestinian statehood in September, ahead of the UN General Assembly.
Sir Keir Starmer ‘s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state risks breaking international law, some of Britain’s top lawyers have warned
Residents in the Al-Nasr neighborhood of western Gaza City receive sacks of flour following the arrival of humanitarian aid
Palestinians are pictured living in makeshift tents and cooking with discarded food in the Nuseirat refugee camp
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.
A British-Israeli woman, who was held hostage by Hamas for a year, yesterday blasted the PM for ’emboldening’ the terror group by moving to recognise Palestine.
Emily Damari, who spent 471 days in Hamas captivity, accused Sir Keir of ‘moral failure’ and claimed he is ‘not standing on the right side of history’.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the UK’s action ‘rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism’.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage this morning told LBC radio ‘it would be wrong’ for Britain to recognise a Palestinian state.
‘At this moment in time, while Hamas exists… it would be wrong,’ he said. ‘I do wonder sometimes if we have forgotten what happened on October 7.
‘Long term if we had an Israeli and Palestinian state co-existing and respecting the rights of the other to exist… then fine. But to do it now is wrong. It rewards terrorism.’
In their letter to Lord Hermer, first reported by The Times, 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.
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.
Government minister Gareth Thomas this morning insisted UK recognition of Palestine would be compliant with international law.
He told Times Radio: ‘We haven’t signed up to the Montevideo Convention, but is there a clear population in in Palestine? Yes, there is in Gaza and the West Bank.
‘We have made clear that we think you would recognise the state of Palestine, and that state of Palestine would be based on the 1967 borders.
‘Of course, there would have to be land swaps and there would be a shared capital of Jerusalem. They are well-regarded international views.
‘As I say, 140 other countries have already recognised the state of Palestine.
‘The PM was in talks this week with a series of countries, including Canada, and Canada have overnight, as you will have seen, taken the decision to recognise Palestine in September.’
Mr Thomas, a business minister, added the Government had ‘made clear that there needs to be reform to the Palestinian Authority, that Hamas can have no role in the future government of Gaza and Palestine more generally’.
