Politics
Lib Dems call on government to recognise Palestinian State ‘immediately’
Israel’s Foreign Minister slams ICJ ruling as ‘warped’ and ‘one-sided’
July 19, 2024 16:56
Israel’s Foreign Minister slams ICJ ruling as ‘warped’ and ‘one-sided’
July 19, 2024 16:56The Liberal Democrats have called on the government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.
Responding to the Internation Court of Justice’s (ICJ) advisory ruling that Israel’s settlement regime in the West Bank is illegal under international law, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Layla Moran MP said: "This decision is a wake-up call. Liberal Democrats have always championed international law and the independence of the courts.”
She added: “The only way to give Palestinians and Israelis the security and dignity they deserve is through a peace process and a two-state solution.”
Moran, who is of Palestinian heritage, also said that “The UK should lead that push by immediately recognising the independent state of Palestine.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz described the ICJ’s ruling as “fundamentally warped, one-sided, and wrong.”
He added that, “The opinion ignores the past: the historical rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. It is detached from the present: from the reality on the ground; from the security threats to Israel; from the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust; from the attacks by Hamas, Iran, and other terrorist elements on seven fronts; and from the need for Israel to defend its territory and its citizens.
"It is also dangerous to the future: it plays into the hands of the extremists and it encourages the Palestinian Authority to continue on the path of defamation and baseless mud-slinging.”
During the general election, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey told the JC that he supported a two-state solution and that he considered former Israeli PM and Yesh Atid Party leader a “friend”.
However, he also supported an arms embargo against Israel and backed the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s decision to file for arrest warrants against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Sir Ed claimed denied his party had double standards towards Israel and said, “We have always been a party that believes in international law”.