Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned in a meeting in Ramallah with European journalists, including EUROPE, on Wednesday 8 March, against a “one State reality”, while the international community continues to advocate a two State solution with Israel based on the 1967 borders.
“We are missing the opportunity of two States. We want two States. The Israelis do not want two States. They do not want one State. What Israel wants is to maintain the status quo. The status quo is not sustainable. The status quo is deteriorating reality”, warned the Palestinian Prime Minister.
According to him, “the creation of two States is in serious danger”.
“If you ask me is it doable, I say it is doable. If you ask me what about tomorrow, I will say tomorrow is too late for two States. We and the Israelis are slipping into a one State reality and the facts on the ground, they dictate themselves”, Mr Shtayyeh explained.
For the Prime Minister, the one State reality is not a one State solution, but a reality, where seven million Israelis would govern the affairs of 7.350 million Palestinians. “A State in which Israel will be neither Jewish nor democratic and the struggle for Palestine will take the shape of the South African model. The South Africanization of the Palestinian question explicitly means that Israel, as it has been described by international organizations has become a de facto apartheid State”, said Mr Shtayyeh.
Mustapha Barghouti, a politician and President of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), said on Monday 6 March that the Israelis did not want two States. There is a “clear policy of the Israeli State which is: ‘no Palestinian State’”, he explained.
“The Israelis want us to accept living in ghettos under apartheid where they control everything”, he added, adding that he believed Palestinians were already living in apartheid. “The time has come for the world to see all this”, he added.
Defending the two State solution
For Mr Shtayyeh and Mr Barghouti, if the international community believes in the two State solution, it must defend it. Members of the international community “pledge for the two State solution and they are doing nothing to protect it”, the latter denounced, adding that the international community had recognised Israel and not Palestine, while it is the Israeli settlements that are “killing” the two State solution.
According to the Palestinian Prime Minister, 751,000 settlers live in the occupied Palestinian territories, about 25% of the total population of the West Bank. The UN estimates that there are 600,000 settlers in over 150 settlements and 100 outposts.
Mr Shtayyeh stressed that those who believe in the existence of two States must take steps to protect both States.
The first option, the ‘stick’, would be sanctions against Israel “for its destruction of two States, settlements, violation of international law, violation of human rights, and the systematic killings of our people”, he explained.
The second option would be to recognise Palestine as a State. “It is very important that Europe should send a very clear message to this Israeli government: that at a time while you are destroying two States, our position is for two States and therefore here we take measures to protect the two States, including recognizing Palestine as a State according to the 1967 borders”, Mr Shtayyeh underscored.
Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Sweden recognise the State of Palestine and the European Parliament “supports in principle the recognition of the Palestinian State”.
The EU officially continues to advocate a two State solution. On Monday 13 March, High Representative of the Union Josep Borrell said it was the only “viable solution”. A solution in which many Palestinians no longer believe, as do some European diplomats who, on condition of anonymity, no longer hide their doubts about its viability.
The same applies to Mustapha Barghouti. “There are two alternatives: the world community tells Israel that enough is enough and allow Palestinians to have a State and bring NATO, the United States... to secure the borders. The alternative is one democratic State. I don’t think the first solution will happen, so we have to fight for the second”, he explained.
According to a European source, some young Palestinians also support a one State solution, as they want a fast track solution.
Filling the political vacuum
The Palestinian Prime Minister called for the Arab Peace Initiative. He expressed concern about the lack of an American peace plan and the death of the Quartet, due to Russia’s relations with the other members of the Quartet (UN, US and EU).
“The American President came here (in July 2022) empty-handed. He did not come up with a peace initiative and the administration did not appoint a peace envoy. So therefore, we are living in a political vacuum. And this political vacuum is extremely serious and dangerous and we need to fill it”, warned Mr Shtayyeh.
In order to fill this political vacuum, the Prime Minister and the European Foreign Ministers decided on 23 January in Brussels to unfreeze the Arab Peace Initiative. “We have to rekindle, we have to put the Arab Peace Initiative back on the table, based on a very simple formula, land for peace”, Mr Shtayyeh said.
On 13 February, Mr Borrell also agreed with the Secretary-General of the Arab League and the Saudi Foreign Minister to revitalise the Arab Peace Initiative (see EUROPE 13120/13). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)