Recognising Palestine
UK will comply with international law, attorney general says
The UK government’s senior law officer has said that recognition of Palestine, in the circumstances outlined by the prime minister last month, “would be entirely in accordance with international law”.
Lord Hermer KC was replying to a letter from two Conservative lawyers: the shadow attorney general Lord Wolfson of Tredegar KC and the former attorney general Sir Michael Ellis KBE KC.
While declining to say whether he had advised ministers on the question of Palestinian statehood — a question he was not specifically asked — Hermer confirmed that the “government intends to comply with international law in all its relevant dealings including in respect of the recognition of foreign states”.
Here’s the letter that was sent to him:
And here’s Hermer’s reply:
Wolfson said yesterday that this was not a response “except in the most formalistic sense”.
He added: “It does not address, let alone engage with, any of our points. You don’t uphold respect for international law by dodging questions, refusing to engage or taking refuge in platitudes.”
If Richard Hermer wants to do things by the book, then he will advise against recognition, as public international law, as it has developed through the Montevideo Convention (which has now been recognised as customary) effectively prevents recognition because Palestine does not meet the criteria for recognition as set out therein
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand how it's possible to recognise an undefined area as being a state. Where precisely - in terms of longitude and latitude - is this state?
It's all very well to agree in principle that Palestinians like Kews, and Kurds for that matter, deserve a place to call home. But if it means destroying the rights of the Jews who for thousands of years before the Islam ideology was dreamed up by someone (who in today's terms would be called a misogynist and a pedophile).