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Boris Johnson urged to reject Crispin Blunt letter against annexation

Colonel Richard Kemp, the Marquess of Reading and film-maker Hugh Kitson call on the PM to recognise legal basis for Israeli plans in West Bank

June 2, 2020 15:31
Crispin Blunt
1 min read

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged to reject Conservative MP Crispin Blunt’s claim that Israel’s planned annexations in the West Bank would be a violation of international law.

Mr Blunt had written a letter to Mr Johnson – signed by 126 MPs and Peers as part of a campaign for the Council for Arab British Understanding (Caabu) – describing Israel’s plans  “as a mortal blow to the chances of peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on any viable two-state solution”.

But in a response from Colonel Richard Kemp, the Marquess of Reading and film-maker Hugh Kitson, the PM is urged to recognise ‘’the historical and legal facts pertaining to this matter that the signatories of Mr Blunt’s letter seem either to not understand or to reject”.

In their letter of June 1, the trio suggest: “Decades spent pursuing the received wisdom reflected in Mr Blunt’s letter have, as you know, proven not only fruitless but have also increased suffering for the Palestinian people and heightened danger for Israeli citizens and the Jewish diaspora.