Tag: two-State solution

Palestinian statehood key to post-war Gaza rebuilding plans of Arab nations

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Palestinians carry mock large keys during a mass ceremony to commemorate the Nakba Day, Arabic for catastrophe, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

As Israel keeps up its campaign against Hamas, Arab leaders are mapping out ways to support post-war Gaza, placing one major condition on their involvement: a pathway to Palestinian statehood.

Major obstacles lie ahead in gaining the support of both U.S. President Joe Biden and the Israeli government, which is currently led by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch opponent of the two-state solution.


Also read: Israel’s Netanyahu rejects UN backing of Palestinian statehood bid

But the Arab quintet of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt have made clear that their financial and political support, which would be crucial to the future of the shattered Gaza Strip, comes at a cost.

“We have coordinated on this closely with the Palestinians. It needs to be truly a pathway to a Palestinian state,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh last month.

“Without a real political pathway… it would be very difficult for Arab countries to discuss how we are going to govern.”

It is not the first time Arab leaders have come together to chart a path towards a two-state solution, the cherished goal that they believe could defuse tensions in West Asia and help usher in a period of prosperity.

But with the Israel-Hamas war hobbling regional economies and spilling over into neighbouring countries, there is both urgency and opportunity.

Last month, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, European and Arab Foreign Ministers met to discuss how to advance the two-state solution.

Gaza will also be top of the agenda when leaders from the 22-member Arab League meet in Bahrain on Thursday.

Two goals

Arab countries are “pressuring the United States to achieve two things: establish a Palestinian state and recognising it in the United Nations”, said an Arab diplomat who is familiar with the talks.

“What is currently hindering these intensive efforts is the continuation of the war and Netanyahu’s intransigent rejection,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Arab leaders “have been trying to work with the Biden administration to mutually support the so-called day after” plan, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Britain’s Chatham House think tank.

Central to their plan is the reform of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to clear the way for a reunified administration in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PA has had almost no influence over Gaza since Hamas militants wrestled control of the territory from the Fatah movement of President Mahmud Abbas in 2007.

Six months of Israel-Hamas war: revisiting 10 key moments in pictures

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“We believe in one Palestinian government that should be in charge of the West Bank and Gaza,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Tuesday.

The transition should “not affect the Palestinian cause” or “undermine the Palestinian Authority”, he told the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.

In March, the Palestinian President approved a government led by newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, who wants it to play a role in post-war Gaza. However, the biggest roadblock, according to Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati analyst, is the Israeli government. He noted that Arab outreach efforts have also included the Israeli opposition.

Earlier this month, the UAE’s Foreign Minister met Israeli Opposition leader Yair Lapid in Abu Dhabi. They discussed the need for negotiations on a two-state solution, according to a statement from the UAE Foreign Ministry. “There are promises that if the Israeli opposition prevails in (early) elections it may be more amenable and more cooperative,” Mr. Abdulla said. Arab leaders have largely ruled out taking part in the governance of Gaza or sending security forces under current conditions.

On Saturday, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said the country “refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip”.

Last month, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi said Arab states would not send troops to Gaza to avoid being associated with the “misery that this war has created”.

“As Arab countries, we have a plan. We know what we want. We want peace on the basis of the two-state solution,” he said in Riyadh. Oil-rich Gulf states Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also hesitant to cover the reconstruction costs without guarantees. “They certainly don’t want to just be a piggy bank. They’re not willing to just clean up Israel’s mess and just pour money into it,” said Bernard Haykel, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Princeton University.

The UAE’s ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibeh, said in February: “We cannot keep refunding and then seeing everything that we have built destroyed.”

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Fraternal ties and humanitarian gestures go hand in hand for the UAE in support of Gaza

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The war-weary world, especially the Arabian Peninsula, can heave a sigh of relief that Israel and Gaza-based militant group Hamas have reached a six-day truce for the exchange of detainees as well as delivery of relief aid and humanitarian assistance for Gazans, who have borne the brunt of an Israeli onslaught since the October 7 Hamas attack that reportedly killed 1200 Israelis and abducted another 240.

The directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, UAE President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, to airlift 1,000 injured Gazan children and 1,000 cancer patients and treat them prior to their safe return home has offered a reprieve for Palestinians caught in the quagmire that is the Israel- Hamas conflict.

Ever since Israel began its military retaliation on Hamas in Gaza, the UAE has been vocal about the rights of civilians in the war zone. Apart from persistent pleas to stop the bombardment, the UAE, which established full diplomatic relations with the Jewish nation in September 2020 through the Abraham Accords, made an entreaty in the UN Security Council through its ambassador Lana Nousseibeh. “Access to fuel, food, water, medical aid, and other basic necessities must be fully restored. We must create a framework for rapid, unimpeded, and safe humanitarian access for the brave workers who are risking their lives today on the ground.” She expressed her nation’s disappointment at the vetoing of draft resolutions seeking a respite for Gaza, which has seen the death of over 14,000 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air and ground raids.

The UAE, like other Arab nations in the region, does not intent to upset the applecart that is regional peace and stability, and propel West Asia into a full-fledged war. It has instead opened humanitarian corridors, sending flights of aid through the Egyptian city of Arish and pledging funds to the tune of US$ 20 million. According to Dr Maha Barakat, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Health, the UAE has dispatched 51 planes carrying 1,400 tonne of food, medical, and relief supplies in coordination with international organisations such as the UN World Food Programme.

Individual brands and companies in the country chipped in with their profits and earnings not to mention young school children, who contributed their savings or cancelled Deepawali celebrations in solidarity with the suffering millions in the Palestinian enclave.

The Tarahum for Gaza (Compassion for Gaza) campaigns in late October saw residents and citizens turn up in large numbers in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to pack relief material as well as make donations in cash and kind for the war victims.

For Indian expatriates Owais Asgar Bade and Ashwin Mathew, university students who took part in the Sharjah drive on October 22, volunteering for the cause was the least they could do for the people of Gaza. “I was driven by a desire to make a tangible impact and support those in need, and it turned out to be a profound experience. It showcased the power of collective efforts in providing essential aid to those going through challenging circumstances,” said Mr. Bade. “In fact, the campaign brought to the venue such large numbers of people that the packing was over much earlier than anticipated,” noted Mr. Mathew who had helped pack groceries.

From despair to hope

On November 18, the first plane carrying 15 Palestinians including children and their guardians – most often one parent, with the other staying behind to tend to their remaining children – and medical volunteers landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport from Al Arish airport in Egypt. Pregnant women as well as children in need of urgent medical assistance, such as those suffering from severe injuries, burns and cancer, had reached Arish through the Rafah crossing in an operation that takes 15 hours. The second and thirds flights landed on November 21 and 28 respectively, and more such missions are on the anvil.

The UAE President also ordered the establishment of an integrated field hospital and three desalination plants in Gaza as part of the “Gallant Knight 3” operation. The 150-bed hospital, to be built in stages, will include the departments of general surgery, orthopaedics, paediatrics, dentistry, psychiatry and gynaecology, in addition to anaesthesia and intensive care units for both children and adults. Moreover, 31 premature babies shifted from Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza are being cared at the UAE-run Al Helal Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah.

Truce and two-state solution

Since the war began, Abu Dhabi saw visits from the King of Jordan and the Emir of Qatar for a collaborative action, which reached fruition with the Qatar-brokered truce on November 24. The UAE, which condemned the Hamas attack as “a grave and serious escalation”, was also critical of Israel’s ground operations in Gaza that compounded the humanitarian tragedy. At the Cairo Peace Summit on October 21 attended by the UAE and 30 other regional and international players, the UAE President appealed to the international community to “work together to avert further violence and wider instability”.

At a November 21 virtual summit of BRICS countries addressing the situation in West Asia, Sheikh Mohammed reiterated that the only way to address the crisis is to revive the peace process and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Soon after the escalation of war in October, UAE carriers had cancelled flights to Tel Aviv due to safety concerns. However, according to media reports, UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani al Zeyoudi stated that trade with Israel will remain unaffected as “we don’t mix the economy and trade with politics”. Since 2022, the Arab nation has a free trade pact with Israel that removed or reduced tariffs on 96% of goods traded between the two nations, and this has seen a boom in bilateral trade to the tune of US$ 2.56 billion in 2022 and $3 billion by the end of 2023. Visa-free entry for citizens of both countries had ensured a surge in tourist arrivals, with 1,50,000 Israelis having visited the UAE in 2022.

(Roshin Mary George is an independent journalist based in the UAE.

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The Israel-Palestine conflict is at bend point

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In this picture from Israel’s southern city of Sderot, Israeli forces drop flares above the north of the Gaza Strip
| Photo Credit: AFP

As I watch the television and see Gaza being pulverised, I am informed that the apartment building I had lived in for two years in Gaza, between 1996-98, was bombed and brought down two weeks earlier. It was one of the taller buildings and I knew it did not stand a chance anyway. I keep wondering what has happened to my friends in Gaza, especially my landlord, Abu Zakary, and his lovely family and children, who made my life so much easier in a non-family posting. Are they still alive?

What Hamas did to Israel on October 7, 2023, was unacceptable. It was a brutal terror act. When I chaired the Counterterrorism Committee in the United Nations Security Council in 2022, one thing we all agreed on is that there can be no justification for terror. So, nothing should justify October 7 as well.

But does this make the Palestinian cause or the Palestinian fight against occupation by Israel for several decades any less justified? No, it does not. The UN Security Council’s resolutions 242 and 338 embodied the principle of “Land For Peace”. Israel should have ideally withdrawn from occupied land in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in return for peace, which is security, recognition, normalcy and peace for the peoples of the two States of Israel and Palestine. Interestingly, the revised 2017 Charter of Hamas too accepted a two-State solution based on the 1967 borders. Let us face it. The two-State solution alone can bring peace. A one State solution is a no-State non-solution.

Israel, understandably, cannot let Hamas terror go unchallenged. The infrastructure built by Hamas in Gaza needs to be dismantled. And the Israeli hostages released. For Israel, every Israeli life counts. But how much does a Palestinian life count for? Does it justify the killing of 8,000-plus Palestinian civilians in a mere 22 days, with children making up 40% (not counting hundreds under the rubble) vis-à-vis 9,600 casualties in 20 months of the Ukraine conflict? How many Palestinian lives are “acceptable” collateral damage?

A dehumanisation

To make such a pounding of Gaza “acceptable”, we have seen the West and their media equate Hamas with all 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, so that they can be de-humanised and shown to be equally culpable. De-humanisation makes it easier to accept indiscriminate bombings without an outcry. But the West has also tried to equate the fight for Palestinian statehood with this fight against Hamas, to discredit the larger cause. This is dangerous.

Another western euphemism is the word “humanitarian” issues. Humanitarian assistance is to meet basic needs when for example faced with collective punishment by Israel on the Gazans through a blockade of water, food, medicines and electricity. But what is unfolding is a human tragedy — the killing of thousands of innocent lives and the mass displacement of 1.2 million Palestinians. There is not a humanitarian question here but a question of humanity itself.

On the Arab world

While one can accuse the West of hypocrisy and double standards, what about the Arabs? Have they not been equally responsible for sidelining Palestine? In their race for normalisation with Israel, the Arab countries talked about the Palestinian issue and even said that Israel has agreed to stop further annexation (while Israel did the exact opposite by expanding settlements). Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually said that ‘land for peace’ has now been substituted by ‘peace for peace’ and was of the opinion that the real issue in West Asia was now Iran and not Palestine. While Palestine statehood was a footnote in their normalisation agreements with Israel, it is in danger of being reduced to a footnote to history. Even the present reaction of the Arab countries is to contain the popular support in their streets. Could not the Gulf countries have put their “oil clout” to better effect before the Israeli ground operations started? Normalising relations with Israel while ignoring the Palestinian issue will not give them security, especially when they are moving toward a more liberal governance in the Gulf.

Israel is no less complicit in this of course. Successive governments have strived to make the two-State solution more and more difficult. The current ultra-nationalist government of Israel is only an extreme manifestation since it has openly declared its opposition to a two-State solution. How else can one explain the fact that 250 Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank alone before October 7, where no Hamas is present? How else can one explain the untrammelled expansion of settlements and creating facts on the ground, with everyone watching helplessly this transgression of UN Security Council Resolution 2334? And, even more fundamentally, was it not Israel that nurtured Hamas to undercut the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fateh, and later President Yasser Arafat himself (including by releasing the jailed spiritual founder of Hamas, Sheikh Yassin to Gaza)?

The irony of Israel-Palestine history is that it is only when there is a major violent conflagration that the Palestinian issue receives attention. Then comes agreement followed by non-implementation. Violence begins again and then agreement, and so the ‘kalachakra’ moves on. The Yom Kippur war of 1973 led to the Israel-Egypt Camp David Accords in 1978 with the promise of Palestinian self-rule. When nothing happened, intifada came in 1987. Hamas came into existence. The intifada led to the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995, with more promise of self-rule through the Palestinian Authority. Another round of backsliding, violence (even an election in between) and broken promises. Gaza is now widely acknowledged as the largest open-air prison.

So, here we are. Condemning Hamas — and rightly so — for this terror act but not acknowledging the omission and commission of the past is why the UN Secretary General warned that such incidents do not occur in a “vacuum”.

As the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, said in an interview, the Gaza ground operations will throw up issues such as the retrieving of hostages, potential violations of international law by Israel, mounting civilian casualties and erosion of international support, possible regional flare-up, and, finally, identifying who to pass the baton to when the operations are complete. If operations prolong — and all indicators point to it dragging on — and civilian casualties mount and Gaza gets depopulated as refugees flow out, it will be an even bigger human disaster. It will potentially kill Palestinian statehood unless the ‘kalachakra’ brings about something more tangible than false promises.

India’s stand

While we have always stood for a two-state solution, India has rightly been wary of the fallout of terror acts in Israel on its neighbourhood. India is in sync with the Arab world in its normalisation with Israel, with groupings such as the I2U2 (India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States). While we do not have a direct role yet, since it is time the U.S. and the West and the Gulf and the Arab world showed leadership first, any regional fall-out will affect us. Therefore, going forward, it is important for India to come out not just against terrorism but also more forcefully against the human tragedy playing out in Gaza. In this, its proximity with Israel and the U.S. will only be an asset.

T.S. Tirumurti was Ambassador/ Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations (2020-22) and the first Indian Representative to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza (1996-98)

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