What chance for the state of Palestine?
When the UK and 11 other western countries announced their import ban on goods produced in West Bank settlements on September 8 they said the aim was to prevent “the Government of Israel … undermining the possibility of a two-state solution”.
They explained: “We are unequivocally committed to the two-state solution … that enables Israel and a sovereign, democratic and viable Palestinian state to live side by side in peace, security and mutual recognition…”
The economic measures against Israel might have been a case of ‘better late than never’. For the Palestinian state the current case is more likely to be ‘too late’, full stop. The chances are virtually zero and it’s about time politicians stopped pretending otherwise.
Israel is holding a national election on October 27. Whatever coalition emerges, it is a certainty that it will not move towards the two-state solution. Apart from tiny Arab or left-wing parties that currently have just 14 out of the 120 seats in the Knesset (Parliament), not one Israeli political party favours two states. Most are sworn to prevent it.
Opinion polls show that 70 to 80 per cent of Jewish Israelis, who make up 80 per cent of the population, are opposed to Palestinians having their own state. They claim it would put them at constant risk of attack – even though in truth it is Palestinians who must live in a state of perpetual insecurity.
It is a formal requirement for the existence of a state that it has control over its own borders and security. Palestine is nowhere near that, and Israel is not about to relinquish its control of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Palestinians in those areas have been denied their human rights and freedoms since Israel conquered their territory in the six-day war of 1967.
The settler onslaught on the West Bank is wrecking the chances of a Palestinian state, according to a top United Nations legal expert.
Special rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese said the expansion of settlements was part of Israel’s “extermination machinery” along with the genocide and apartheid laws.
Albanese has been calling for action against Israel for more than two years, and criticised governments and the UN itself for their inaction. “I have been shouting at the top of my lungs … this is the end of a Palestinian state,” she said. “Israel should be isolated and sanctioned.”
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was created under the Oslo Accords, a humiliating treaty foisted on the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993. It was trumpeted in the west as a breakthrough in nation building, though in fact it subjected Palestinians to almost complete Israeli control of their lives, even in areas nominally governed by the PA.
The PLO is a liberation organisation founded by the legendary Yasser Arafat, who died in 2006 amid claims he had been poisoned by the west. The PLO itself is led by Arafat’s political party Fatah (victory in Arabic). Arafat’s successor Mahmoud Abbas (known as Abu Mazen), now aged 90, is president of the PA.
Based in Ramallah in the West Bank, the PA is much criticised by Palestinians for corruption and its failure to protect the community. As far back as the year 2000, the people’s frustration burst out into a rebellion known as the Second Intifada (the first occurred before the Oslo Accords and helped bring them about). Hamas stepped into the vacuum of leadership and won national elections in 2006, emerging as the government in Gaza.
Twenty years on, national elections are set to take place on November 28 this year – just a month after Israel’s. It would be surprising if Fatah remained in power; the last elections in 2006 were won by Hamas, which has announced it will stand again. The western powers running the supposed ‘peace process’ for Gaza say they will prevent it doing so.
The forces preventing a Palestinian state come not only from Israel but from its western backers too. The inaction and hypocrisy of the so-called ‘international community’ – that is, the US and Europe – have allowed Israel to get away with murder – literally – for decades.
Some of these nations have made great play – as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer did – of formally recognising Palestine, then doing nothing. If they were to switch off arms supplies, stop trading with Israel and withdraw political support, then it would be forced to respond to calls for Palestinian rights and freedoms.
