UN (AP) – After decades of inaction and freeze negotiations, the issue of an independent Palestinian state living in peace with Israel has returned to the spotlight at a high-level UN conference.
However, the hurdles for the two states’ solutions that see Israel live alongside independent Palestine are very high.
The war in Gaza, an important part of the hoped Palestinian state, continues to drag into another major component of the escalating violence in the West Bank. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government say that Israeli leaders will be rewarded for terrorism on October 7, 2023, following the attack on Hamas’ country.
Nevertheless, after 80 years of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, pressure on two state solutions has risen, like last week’s high-level UN conference. France is co-chaired And Saudi Arabia demonstrated – even if it was boycotted by Israel and its close ally, the United States.
The conference shows that many believe that political solutions are possible
In an interview with the Associated Press, France’s UN ambassador, Jerome Bonafont, confirmed that without the Gaza ceasefire and massive humanitarian aid, more than two million Palestinians would slip towards hunger.
However, the conference demonstrated that the majority of the 193 members of the United Nations “confident there is a potential political solution,” he said, which is “what that follow-up continues to encourage.”
Approximately 160 people from 193 members of the United Nations participated, 125 people supported the solution for the two states (forcing the meeting on an unexpected third day), and 40-50 people were represented by government ministers.
Palestinian independent states have been recognized in more than 145 countries, and the conference, as has three of three members of a seven-strong group of seven strong members of France, the UK and Canada, and Malta, sparked a new pledge of recognition. Seven other statements, including Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Portugal, expressed “positive considerations” in the following lawsuit:
French Foreign Minister Jeannoel Barott and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farham are determined to keep the spotlight from fading. They are planning a “event” during the annual world leaders’ meeting at the general meeting starting September 23rd, when the new pledge is expected to be officially announced.
The conference was notable for establishing eight working groups with diverse chairs to co-chair by Arab and Western states and propose important issues of Israeli-independent Palestinian security, political reform, legal issues, humanitarian aid, economic development and the reconstruction of Gaza.
As a result, the 7-page “The New York Declaration” was created. Foreign Ministers of France and Saudi Arabia have declared long recommendations from the working group to all 193 UN members, asking them to support it before world leaders gather by early September. The declaration, approved by the European Union and the Arab Federation, also urges Israel to commit to the Palestinian state and further recognition as “an essential and essential component of achieving solutions for the two states.”
The declaration contains some more powerful languages
The 22 member states of the Arab League condemned the “attacks of Hamas committed by Hamas on civilians” in southern Israel on October 7th, agreeing that “Hamas must end its control in Gaza and hand over arms to Palestinian authority.”
It sets out plans to move to independent, unarmed Palestine, including the deployment of a “temporary international stabilization mission” mandated by the UN Security Council, supported by Palestinian authorities. It would protect civilians, help build support for the Palestinian state and its security forces, and provide “Palestine and Israel’s security guarantees.”
Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group, helped French President Emmanuel Macron to “enhance the level of conference ambitions” and “make it more symbolically more important than many diplomats.”
The conference gives heavy states, including France, the UK and Canada the opportunity to “show their dissatisfaction with Israeli policy,” which calls for Palestinians a peaceful path to “political ammunition.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who hosted Hamas delegation in Istanbul last week, discussed Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, noting that it had told him that it had grown global support for Palestinians and the Palestinian state and increased Israeli isolation.
The French ambassador, Bonafont, had a message for Israeli enemies and the Israelis to seek more territory.
“We are the ones who are hostile to Israel, and the path to peace is certainly not to deny Israel’s right to existence. This is the lasting way of war,” Bonafont said. “And the real way to defend the Palestinians is to give them a state, and the only way to give them a state is a two-state solution. And we have specifically demonstrated that this solution exists and is viable.”
