Sir Michael Ellis has said Sir Keir Starmer is "rewarding the acts of October 7" in his statement on Palestine.
Speaking to GB News, the Former Attorney General said the Prime Minister's actions are "weak" and the decision to recognise Palestine as a state has been "forced on him".
Addressing the nation, Starmer said: "I’ve always said that we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution.
"With that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act."
GB News / PA
|Sir Michael Ellis has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for his 'weak actions' over Palestine's recognition
Responding to the Prime Minister, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it "rejects the statement" by Starmer.
Discussing the decision on GB News, Ellis told host Nigel Farage: "I think we have a Prime Minister who is inherently weak. This is not the action of a strong Prime Minister, this is being forced on him.
"After all, this is the same prime minister who was bullied by Mauritius, a country with a population of 200,000 people. And frankly, this is not a position of strength, this is a reward for terrorism."
Comparing the recognition of Palestine to how countries have been recognised in the past, Ellis explained that the pressure Starmer has caved into has stemmed from a "murderous act".
PA |
Sir Keir Starmer has addressed the nation about recognising Palestine
Ellis said: "If you look at how countries have been recognised in the past, and then make this comparison, this comparison will show for the record that the pressure to recognise this entity now stems from October 7.
"A murderous act where people were savagely butchered, babies put in ovens and people raped in front of their family members. That's the legacy that this Government will impose on history."
Criticising the "one-sided" set of conditions in recognising the state, Ellis added: "But there's another aspect to this. How can you have a one-sided set of conditions? I come from a legal background, so normally, if you are going to set a set of conditions you'll impose conditions on both sides.
"I only hear conditions on one side, Israel must do this, Israel must do that. Israel would say that we have said we will abide by ceasefire, but Hamas has rejected those ceasefires.
GB News
|Ellis told GB News that the move is a 'reward for terrorism'
"And of course, they would do that because they don't care about their own people. How about imposing some conditions on Hamas to stop throwing gay people off tall buildings?"
Highlighting that Starmer's decision is a "reward for terrorism", Ellis concluded: "For a Government to say that they want to abide by every iota of international law, this wouldn't do that. But the main thing is, it's a reward for terrorism.
"There’s another point, the Montevideo convention of 1933. There's a set of principles about when you recognise states. This Government pretends that it is interested in international law. Well, under that convention, the Palestinian entity does not meet the criteria for recognition of a state.
"It just doesn't, because one of the criteria is it has to have defined borders, and there isn't a recognition of defined borders. It has to be a stable Government, which there isn't. So the conditions are not met under that convention."