‘Israeli rejection of 2-state solution unacceptable’
UNITED NATIONS: Israel’s rejection of the idea of a two-state solution with the Palestinians is unacceptable and could prolong the war in Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
“Last week’s clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable,” Guterres told a meeting of the UN Security Council.
“This refusal, and the denial of the right to statehood to the Palestinian people, would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security,” he said, adding that such an outcome “would exacerbate polarization and embolden extremists everywhere.”
Guterres called for the universal recognition of the “right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn global condemnation in recent days — and defied the United States, which provides his country with billions of dollars in military aid — by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state.
That rejection has come as Israel pounds Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the death toll reached nearly 25,500 on Tuesday, with about 70 percent of the dead women, children and teenager, the territory’s Health Ministry said.
The offensive began in response to the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented cross-border raids into southern Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally based on official Israeli figures.
The group also seized about 250 hostages during the attack, with about 132 still in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office last week said Israel “must retain security control over Gaza,” even after “Hamas is destroyed,” days after he had also rejected Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.
He proclaimed Israel’s need to have “security control over all the territory west of the (River) Jordan.”
Israel’s allies have criticized its comments, though few seem prepared to seriously walk back support.
“We must have a Palestinian state,” said French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, who led Tuesday’s Security Council meeting.
And even as Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden directly that he rejects Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza, Washington has maintained that it can still work with Israel on the issue.
“It’s President Biden’s firm conviction that two states, with Israeli security guaranteed, are the only path to durable peace,” Uzra Zeya, US undersecretary for human rights, said on Tuesday.
Calling for a cease-fire, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki said the “disregard for Palestinian life” should no longer be tolerated, while Russian top diplomat Sergey Lavrov said the US had blocked “all efforts and initiatives geared toward ending the bloodshed.”
Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said that while “it is important” to provide aid to Gaza, Iran is “the root of the dire threat to the Middle East and the world.”
Guterres demanded that “Israel’s occupation must end.”
“The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history,” he said, also calling for the establishment of new humanitarian crossing points and the resumption of aid operations at the Israel port of Ashdod.
International organizations have warned that after threeand-a-half months of relentless airstrikes and a ground invasion, the tiny land strip’s 2 million occupants face an acute humanitarian crisis, including the threat of famine and disease.