Answering Adrian's innocent questions about recognition of the State of Palestine

A chap called Adrian Hilton, who appears to write for the Spectator and is also "Chairman of the Academic Council of the Margaret Thatcher Centre", has asked a series of eight questions about the UK's impending recognition of the State of Palestine (which will apparently take effect after a speech later today).  The questions are clearly supposed to be impossible to answer and yet most of them are actually extremely easy to answer.  I was going to reply to the questions directly on Twitter, but it would have taken quite a long thread, so I'll do it here instead.

"1. What are the borders of this Palestinian state?"

The pre-1967 borders of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

"2. What is the capital city?"

East Jerusalem, de jure.  Ramallah, de facto, due to the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine by a neighbouring state.

"3. What is its constitution or polity?"

A quick Google search suggests the Amended Basic Law of 2003 is the interim constitution of the State of Palestine.

"4. Who forms the government?"

Fatah.

"5. Who is its leader?"

Mahmoud Abbas is the President of the State of Palestine.

"6. How ‘sovereign’ will it be?"

In terms of constitutional theory, as sovereign as the UK or Germany or any other state with widespread international recognition.  But if you mean in terms of actual control on the ground, that obviously depends on whether or not Israel ends the illegal occupation of the State of Palestine's sovereign territory.

"7. How will this help ordinary Palestinians?"

Without a state, there will scarcely even be a Palestinian people left to help.  The Israeli government has made abundantly clear that any remaining Gazan Palestinians who have not yet been exterminated will be removed under duress from the territory of Palestine.  Refusing to recognise the State of Palestine would implicitly legitimise this act of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

"8. What about Israel's hostages?"

That is a completely unrelated issue, given that the hostages are held by Hamas, and not by the State of Palestine or by anyone in control of the State of Palestine.

Hope this helps, Adrian.

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