Israel-Palestine: The Brief History of Two-State Solutions

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip has put renewed focus on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some countries recently decided to recognize Palestine as a state, including Spain, Ireland, and Norway.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation, welcomed the move, while Israel recalled its ambassadors in protest, saying such moves could jeopardize its sovereignty and security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not compromise on full Israeli security control west of Jordan and that this stands contrary to a sovereign Palestinian state, which he says would pose "an existential danger" to Israel.

Obstacles have long impeded the two-state solution, which envisages Israeli and Palestinian states alongside each other. The Israeli Knesset also recently voted against Palestinian statehood.

What is the origin of the two-state solutions?

The decades-long occupation could be traced back to British-ruled Palestine, where conflict occurred between Arabs and Jews who had migrated to the area, seeking a national home as they fled persecution in Europe and citing biblical ties to the land.

In 1947, the United Nations agreed to partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states with international rule over Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, which gave them 56 percent of the land. The Arab League rejected it.

The state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948. A day later, five Arab states attacked, and the war ended with Israel controlling 77 percent of the territory.

Some 700,000 Palestinians were displaced as a consequence of the creation of Israel, ending up in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria as well as in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

In a 1967 war, Israel captured the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt, securing control of all territory from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Valley.

The Palestinians remain stateless, with most living under Israeli occupation or as refugees in neighboring states. Some - mostly descendants of Palestinians who remained in Israel after its creation - have Israeli citizenship.

Has a deal ever been close?

The two-state solution was the bedrock of the US-backed peace process of the 1993 Oslo Accords, signed by Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The accords led the PLO to recognize Israel's right to exist and the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Palestinians hoped this would be a step towards an independent state, with East Jerusalem as the capital. The process was hit by rejection on both sides.

In 2000, US President Bill Clinton brought Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Camp David to clinch a deal, but the effort failed, as Jerusalem’s fate was the main obstacle.

US administrations sought to revive peacemaking - to no avail, with the last bid collapsing in 2014.

Israeli occupation since 1967 & expanding settlements in the West Bank jeopardizes a viable Palestinian state, hindering a two-state solution & escalating regional tensions.

What might Palestine look like?

Advocates of the two-state solution have envisaged a Palestine in the Gaza Strip and West Bank linked by a corridor through Israel. In 2003, details of how it might work were set out in a blueprint by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Known as The Geneva Accord, its principles include recognition of Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods as the Israeli capital, recognition of its Arab neighborhoods as the Palestinian capital, and a demilitarized Palestinian state.

Israel would annex big settlements and cede other land in a swap, resettling Jewish settlers in Palestinian sovereign territory outside there.

Is a two-state solution possible?

While Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza in 2005, settlements expanded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, their population rising from 250,000 in 1993 to 695,000 three decades later, according to the Israeli organization Peace Now. Palestinians say this undermines the basis of a viable state.

The PA led by President Mahmoud Abbas administers islands of West Bank land enveloped by a zone of Israeli control comprising 60 percent of the territory, including the Jordanian border and the settlements as set out in the Oslo Accords.

Internal politics have added to the complications, as Netanyahu’s far-right government draws support from settlers. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said last year there was no such thing as a Palestinian people.

Is there a way forward?

Gaza's fate is the immediate question.

Israel aims to annihilate the resistance group Hamas and says it will not agree to any deal that leaves it in power. Netanyahu said Gaza must be demilitarized and under Israel's full security control. Hamas says it expects to survive and has said any arrangements for Gaza that exclude it are an illusion.

And while Netanyahu has said he does not want Israel to govern Gaza or re-establish settlements there, a recent Knesset vote suggested otherwise as it rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood, which would include the Gaza Strip.

REUTERS

Editor’s Choice: Israel's Knesset Overwhelmingly Votes Against Palestinian Statehood     

Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News