British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s proposal to recognize a Palestinian state would break established international law, a group of peers told the government.
July 31 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.
