Lawyers warn British govenment over Palestnian state recognition plan

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More than 40 members of the House of Lords wrote the attorney-general, urging him to advise the British government to ditch a plan to recognize a Palestinian state in September because it would break international law. File Photo by Peter Foley/UPI. | License Photo
July 31 (UPI) -- British lawmakers warned Thursday that proposed recognition of a Palestinian state by the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer would breach international law because Palestine does not meet the legal threshold for statehood.
The 43 members of the House of Lords, Parliament's upper chamber, said in a letter that the plan to recognize Palestine unless Israel agreed to a cease-fire and resumed efforts toward a two-state solution violated the legal requirements of an Americas treaty from the 1930s.
The 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, signed by the United States, Brazil, Peru and 17 other Americas nations, stipulates that to be recognized as a defined territory in international law, a state must have a permanent population, an effective government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.
The bipartisan group of peers, among them some of Britain's top legal experts, wrote the attorney-general, Lord Hermer, urging him to advise Starmer against the move on the grounds that Palestine met only one of the criteria.
They said the lack of certainty over borders was obvious as was the absence of a "functioning single government," given the bitter power struggle between the two Palestinian factions -- Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
"The former has failed to hold elections for decades, and the latter is a terrorist organization, neither of which could enter into relations with other states," the group said.
The lords called Hermer on a previous claim that government foreign policy was guided entirely by its commitment to international law, saying that if that were true, Hermer should "explain to the public and to the government that recognition of Palestine would be contrary to the principles governing recognition of states in international law."
The government responded by pointing out that Britain was not a signatory to the Montevideo Convention and that the move was in line with the bulk of United Nations member-countries that had already taken the step to formally recognize a Palestinian state.
"We haven't signed up to the Montevideo Convention, but is there a clear population in Palestine? Yes, there is in Gaza and the West Bank," business minister Gareth Thomas told a radio station.
"We have made clear that we think you would recognize 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 prime minister 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."
However, Lady Deech, an academic lawyer and chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, said the Montevideo Convention was based on a pre-existing law and, since it had gone unchallenged for so long, was now considered customary law.
"This country is definitely bound by it, as the prime minister must know," she said.
Lady Deech also pointed out that Palestinians had rejected the offer of a Palestinian state no fewer than four times in the seven decades prior to 2008.
In his first comments since doubts over the legality of his policy emerged, Starmer avoided the issue, instead addressing widely reported criticism from British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari, held by Hamas for more than a year, who accused Starmer of "moral failure" and standing on the wrong side of history.
Starmer insisted he listened to the hostages and their families and continued as he had always done to push for the release of those still held.
But he said Britain also needed to do everything it could to "alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where we are seeing the children and babies starving for want of aid which could be delivered."