Why the “two-state” solution is ineffective in Palestine

Mehr News Agency, Bin Group Al-Mallam: Al-Aqsa storm has brought many changes to the equations in the Palestinian issue and even in the region. One of these transformations is the re-emergence of the Palestinian solution. It seems that after many years, Westerners and Europeans have remembered that there is an unsolved problem somewhere in the world that needs to be solved because otherwise, its developments and effects on the whole world will affect them. After 20 years, the October 7 operation of Hamas revived the issue of the Palestinian state and the ideas of the solution to the Palestinian issue in the media. But are these ideas, which are all based on two governments, feasible and possible?

Where does the story begin?

One ​​of the topics that is not well explained is the two-state plan and what it is. The origin of the two-state plan can be found in the famous UN resolution recognizing the Zionist regime. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations approved the international plan to divide the Palestinian land into two states, Israel and Palestine. This plan somehow divided the land of Palestine into two new states or countries.

Although the Zionist regime based its fake existence on a distorted legal and political resolution, it never accepted the Palestinian state at that time and in future wars Especially in the war of 1967, it occupied lands beyond the borders of 1947. Therefore, the origin of the two-state plan can be seen in the famous UN resolution on the recognition of the Zionist regime, in which 55% of the Palestinian lands were considered for the Jewish state and 44% for the Palestinian state. One percent of the land was placed under international administration. Of course, these percentages remained on paper because the Zionist government was formed, but the Palestinian government was not formed. In the same year, the Zionist government occupied 77% of Palestine.

The Oslo Promise 1993

40 years have passed since the resolution of the partition of Palestine by the United Nations and not only the plan was not implemented, but due to the subsequent wars of the Zionists, the whole of Palestine, including the city of Quds, the Gaza Strip And they occupied the West Bank. After the first intifada, the Zionists and the Americans put the most important plan of the two governments on the table. By promising the formation of a Palestinian state in only 22% of the Palestinian territory, they brought Arafat, the Palestinian leader at that time, to the table for negotiation and agreement. An agreement that became known as Oslo. Based on that, it was decided that the Palestinians would have a government in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In the agreement that was signed on September 13, 1993, it was agreed that the details of the formation of the Palestinian government and the borders of the Palestinian government along with the Israeli government will be determined within a maximum of 5 years of negotiations.

Arafat returned to Palestine after 27 years of exile due to Oslo and the preparations for the formation of the Palestinian state in 1994. But in November 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by radical Zionist movements, and despite successive negotiations, the Zionists did not adhere to their commitments in Oslo. Of course, other detailed agreements were signed along this path, including the Cairo Agreement in 1994, the Taba Agreement in 1995, and the Sharm El Sheikh Agreement in 1999.

These agreements and negotiations did not bring the Palestinians to any of their dreams, namely the formation of a Palestinian state and the evacuation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from the Zionists. In the Oslo agreement, Arafat and PLO, in addition to ignoring other Palestinian currents in this issue, made several big mistakes; The mistakes that turned Oslo into a bitter historical experience for Arafat.

The PLO authorities recognized the existence of the Zionist regime and considered this regime’s action in occupying 77% of the occupied lands in 1948 as legitimate and considered it as an impossible problem. They accepted the discussion. Also, in Oslo, the most important issues were not discussed and the decision about them was postponed to the stage of final negotiations; It means a promise for the future. Arafat pledged to never resort to the use of force and military power and to control the currents of resistance.

At the same time as the beginning of the second intifada after Sharon entered Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Oslo agreement went into a coma and Arafat returned to his former path of struggle; A return which, of course, led to his siege and finally his suspicious death in 2004, and somehow the Oslo agreement was forgotten.

Arab Peace Plan 2002

With the failure of the Oslo plan and the beginning of the second intifada in 2000, the Arab countries of the Saudi-led Arab League unveiled a plan in 2002 that became known as the Arab Peace Plan. . Saudi Arabia’s plan was written based on resolutions 242 and 338, and it called for the withdrawal of the Zionists from the occupied territories.

In the various and numerous plans that have been put forward as peace between the Arabs and Israel in the past years, the plan that was put forward in 2013 by the ministerial delegation of the Arab League, Perhaps the most shameful of them is the amount of concessions given to the Zionist regime. This plan, which is a continuation of Saudi Arabia’s 2002 plan, has undergone some modifications to increase the possibility of its acceptance by Israel. In the disgraceful 2002 peace plan of Saudi Arabia, which was approved by the Arab League, Israel’s withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967, including the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, and the acceptance of the formation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, as well as finding a solution for the return of Palestinian refugees, were emphasized. have been. On the other hand, in exchange for the acceptance of these conditions by the Zionist regime, the Arab League countries pledged to end their conflict with Israel and establish normal relations between them and this regime.

The Saudi foreign minister at the time, Adel al-Jubeir, said in an interview with French television that all Arab and Islamic countries will recognize Israel as soon as a permanent solution to the Palestinian issue is reached. They recognize and normalize their relationships! However, this plan was never welcomed by the Zionists due to the request of the Zionists to return to the lands before the 1967 occupation and the return of the refugees. On the other hand, it was not accepted by the Palestinians due to the withdrawal of the right of the capital of the whole of Jerusalem for the Palestinians. This plan was actually the beginning of the normalization of Saudi Arabia with the Zionist regime.

John Kerry Peace Plan 2014

Years passed and the issue of the Palestinian state and the two-state plan were forgotten until 2014 when the Obama State Department proposed a plan that became known as the John Kerry plan. . That plan had chosen Quds as the international capital and the joint capital of the two sides, and to solve the problem of Zionist settlements, it would hand over the entire Ghor Jordan region in the West Bank bordering with Jordan to the Zionist regime. A plan that, of course, was abandoned very soon.

Trump’s Deal of the Century 2020

In 2020, Donald Trump presented a plan for the Palestinian issue, which became known as the deal of the century; A plan whose main basis was giving economic bribes to the Palestinians and handing over the settlements built in the West Bank to the Zionists. This plan ignored Palestinian rights more than all the previous plans. In this plan, it was stated that Jerusalem will be the capital of the Jewish state, Palestinian refugees will no longer have the right to return to Palestine, and Hamas will have all its weapons. It was stated in this plan that the new Palestine should not have an army and the only weapon that the new Palestine will be allowed to have is Police light weapons.

Summary; Why two governments have not reached the result?

Talking about the plan of two governments now is nonsense. The main obstacle to the success of this plan is the will of the Zionists. They have proven for 75 years that they will never allow the formation of an independent Palestinian state. Now the two-state solution is facing a serious obstacle, and that is the Zionists’ endless colonial settlements. If until 2013, about 200,000 Jews lived in the West Bank, now more than 750,000 Jews are present in dozens of settlements in the West Bank and have turned this region into a collection of islands of Palestinian cities.

The results of the Ramallah Political Research Center Institute poll, which was conducted two weeks before the Al-Aqsa storm and is close to Mahmoud Abbas, show that the majority of Palestinians support the “Oslo” solution, i.e. They do not see the two-state solution as a good path for Palestine. 68% considered Oslo to be negative for Palestinian interests, 17% considered this agreement to be an agreement that did not serve the Palestinians, and only 11% considered it useful for the interests of dignity.

Mohsen Faezi; Palestinian issues expert