Israel-Palestine Conflict Possible Solution
The two-state solution, first proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937, proposed the solution of Israel and Palestine becoming two separate independent states and coexisting in harmony. However, the proposal has not materialised over the decades despite support from world leaders including US President Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping and Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, this year Chinese President Xi Jinping called for granting Palestine “full membership in the United Nations” and said China “supports the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
- The best solution is a “two-state solution” that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel. Though the two-state plan is clear in theory, the two sides are still deeply divided over how to make it work in practice.
- One-state solution (only Palestine or only Israel) is not a viable option.
- Road Map for Peace: The European Union, UN, US, and Russia had released a road map in 2003, which outlined a clear timetable towards a Palestinian state.
- The democratization of the Palestinian society through which new credible leadership can emerge is necessary.
- The need of the hour is to treat this conflict as an Israeli-Arab conflict rather than Israel-Palestine. As we have seen, conflict is not only between Israel and Palestine but also with other Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Syria etc. All of them should participate in the negotiations and the final agreement should be recognized formally by each one of them along with UN General Assembly and Security Council.
- It is time for the international community to find a just and lasting peaceful solution to the World’s most intractable conflict soon.
Biden last year also said that the two-state solution is the best way to achieve “lasting negotiated peace between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people”.
The two-state solution is backed in the international community as the most feasible of all solutions, as other alternatives simply don’t work in the seven-decades-long controversy.
Two-State Solution to the Israel-Palestine Conflict
The fighting between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israeli Defence Forces entered its second day on Sunday as Israel claimed to have killed more than 400 militants of the Palestinian group after Hamas massive surprise attack.
The worst fighting in decades has killed more than 200 Israelis and wounded over 1,000, leaving bodies of civilians strewn on roads. On the Gaza side at least 313 have died and over 1,700 have been wounded.
The decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is rooted in competing claims to territory and includes border disputes and several wars. Several countries including the US have long sought a solution to the conflict that results in two states.
Most international diplomacy promotes a two-state solution favouring Israel’s reverting to a version of its pre-1967 borders.
TWO-STATE SOLUTION
The two-state solution, first proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937, proposed the solution of Israel and Palestine becoming two separate independent states and coexisting in harmony. However, the proposal has not materialised over the decades despite support from world leaders including US President Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping and Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, this year Chinese President Xi Jinping called for granting Palestine “full membership in the United Nations” and said China “supports the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
As heavy fighting continues between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups, here are the latest developments in the evolving situation.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s longest-running and most controversial conflicts. At its heart, it is a conflict between two self-determination movements — the Jewish Zionist project and the Palestinian nationalist project — that lay claim to the same territory. But it is so, so much more complicated than that, with seemingly every fact and historical detail small and large litigated by the two sides and their defenders.
The fighting
- Israeli warplanes destroyed a mosque in western Gaza city, bringing the total number of mosques ruined to five.
- Over 500 raids on targets were carried out by the Israeli army across the Gaza Strip overnight.
- The Israeli army called up around 100,000 reservists, says a military spokesman.
- Around 800 to 1,000 Palestinian gunmen infiltrated Israel through 80 gaps across the border with Gaza, says the Israeli army.
- Israeli army committed a ‘massacre’ against 15 Palestinian families by targeting their homes, according to a Palestinian official.
- Israeli fighter jets staged several strikes in northern Gaza.
- Hamas claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Israel’s international airport in Tel Aviv.
Conflict in numbers
- The death toll of Palestinians rose to 493 people, and over 2,700 injured.
- At least 700 Israelis have been killed and over 2,300 wounded.
- Over 120,000 Palestinians displaced in the Gaza Strip,
- More than 130 Israelis were held captive.
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement claims capturing 30 Israeli soldiers, and settlers.
The situation in the West Bank
- Israel imposes lockdown on West Bank.
- The military closes entrances to a number of towns and establishes checkpoints in several locations.
- Clashes were reported across the West Bank as Palestinians organized rallies to protest Israel’s attacks.
Tensions with Lebanon
- Four Israeli soldiers were injured in a friendly fire incident near the border with Lebanon.
- Possible evacuation of settlements near Lebanon announced by the Israeli defence minister.
- Israeli Druze citizens and conscripts on Sunday were urged not to participate in hostilities by Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Diplomatic front
- Iran and Iraq foreign ministers call for a special OIC session on Palestine.
- US verifying reports that Americans are being held hostage by Hamas, says Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
- Several Americans killed by Hamas, says US National Security Council.
- Qatari Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani urged restraint and cease-fire in a phone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
- Israel’s President Isaac Herzog says the war with Hamas will not “end in the blink of an eye.”
- International support for Israel encourages more crimes, Palestinian prime minister speaks by phone with British foreign secretary.
- Several countries, including the UK, issue travel advisories, warning against visiting Israel.
International reaction
- Scores of people stage a ‘Free Palestine’ protest in the southern UK, showing support for Palestine.
- A group of demonstrators gathered Swedish capital Stockholm to condemn the Israeli occupation.
- Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters rally in New York.
The Israel-Palestine conflict – often referred to as the ‘world’s most intractable conflict’ – is rooted in a dispute over land claimed by Jews as their biblical birthright and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination. Despite repeated attempts to end the conflict between the two countries, there is no peace settlement in sight.
The History of Israel – Palestine Conflict
- Jews have been persecuted throughout history due to their religious beliefs and foreign culture.
- In 1897, Jews started a movement called a Zionist movement, to escape persecution and establish their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel. The World Zionist Organisation was created to advocate for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
- As a result, a large number of Jews started flowing into Palestine and they bought land and started settling down there.
- By 1916, Palestine came under British control after the Sykes-Picot Agreement (a secret agreement between Great Britain and France). This led to the division of the old Ottoman Turkish Empire.
- Later through the Balfour Declaration, the British foreign secretary James Balfour agreed to the establishment of a Jewish homeland.
- After the Nazis gained power in Germany in the 1930s, the Jews influx to Palestine took a major turn with hundreds of thousands of them resettled from Europe to Palestine. Arabs saw this as a threat to their homeland and they fought bitterly with them. As the British Government remained a mute spectator, violence reached its peak.
- In 1947, the British Government referred the question of the future of Palestine to the United Nations. UN voted to split the land into two countries. Jewish people accepted the agreement and declared the independence of Israel.
Israel’s fight against the Arab countries
In 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and at the end of this Six-Day War, Israel captured:
- Golan Heights from Syria.
- West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.
- Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt. (Refer to the map above)
- The 1967 war is particularly important for today’s conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories home to a large number of Palestinians.
- Gaza and Westbank are together known as ‘Occupied Territories’, after the 1967 war.
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