Palestine Statehood (Recognition) Bill [HL]

Lord Stevens of Birmingham Excerpts

Friday 14th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stevens of Birmingham (CB)]

I shall try to take less than three minutes, then, taking the lead from the Government Front Bench.

There have been so many missed opportunities to have a secure, just and durable two-state solution. That has been made clear during this debate. President Clinton, for example, has said that there would have been an internationally supported Palestinian state in existence for over two decades if Yasser Arafat had not rejected that possibility in July 2000 at Camp David in the final settlement. But those of us who support the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis have to face up to the current realities, which, sadly, make the legally prescribed timetable set out in the Bill implausible.

First, that is because, instead of what is proposed in the Bill, the urgent need right now is the release of all remaining hostages, humanitarian aid, the full demilitarisation of Hamas and a start to the reconstruction of Gaza. Those are the immediate priorities for both Palestinians and Israelis. Secondly, painful as it is to admit, a Palestinian state conjured into existence right now in the rubble of Gaza, with the trauma of war and the continuing chokehold of Hamas, would, in all likelihood, immediately become a failed state. The institutions of legitimate government do not exist. The Palestinian Authority or the proposed committee of technocrats suggested by the Arab League would lack a monopoly of lawful force and, since 7 October, we have seen precisely what a Hamas exterminationist programme of government, if allowed to continue, would look like.

That points to a third fundamental truth, which is that, notwithstanding all our hopes, in the real world there is not going to be a viable and durable Palestinian state without peace and security guarantees from neighbouring Arab states, not least given that Iran continues to intensify its nuclear weapons programme. In other words, a two-state solution needs a 22-state solution and, rather than symbolic gestures, that is what our country’s practical diplomacy should now be directed towards.