Time to recognise a Palestinian state is now
Today’s Paris conference should develop a wider consensus based on UN Security Council resolution 2334. Palestinian right to self-determination must be upheld
srael’s 50-year military occupation of Occupied Territories harms us all. The British minister for the Middle East, Tobias Ellwood, has deemed it “unacceptable and unsustainable”. Hope of change came when the United Nations Security Council, after eight years of silence, adopted a resolution with strong support from the United Kingdom, once more condemning Israeli illegal colonies in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, and when the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, set out his framework for a just peace.
Today, France will host an international conference seeking an equitable basis for ending the occupation. British Prime Minister Theresa May is a firm friend of Israel. Friends should tell each other the truth. Already, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the resolution, bizarrely accused Kerry of anti-Israel bias and dismissed the Paris conference without bothering to await its outcome. In truth, this is disregard for the law and the express will of the international community. So systematic colony expansion, demolition of Palestinian homes and the closure of Gaza are set to continue in this low-intensity, asymmetrical Israel-Palestine war.
The world is weary of this unending occupation and of entrenched, callous disregard and hatred. The status quo is anything but static. It is going wrong fast — increasing injustice for the Palestinians, storing up trouble for Israel’s children and causing grave concern in Britain among those responsible for Britain’s national security. Netanyahu has ignored the advice of his own law officer by supporting unprecedented Knesset legislation, which would legalise most of the 100 colony outposts in the Palestinian West Bank, hitherto illegal even under Israeli law. If that bill passes, Britain and its partners will need to respond decisively to an act designed to prevent the solution of two states long espoused by both peoples — Israeli and Palestinian — and by Britain.
The Palestinians should be pressed to reunite on the basis of Palestine Liberation Organisation principles, professed by late Yasser Arafat in 1993 and reaffirmed by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian National Authority President. Elections are overdue in Gaza, the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, the Occupied Territories recognised as the state of Palestine by more than 130 countries — although not yet by the UK.
‘Perpetual occupation’
This conflict is emphatically not between equals, but between the occupier and the occupied. Israel is creating new facts on the ground “leading towards one state and perpetual occupation”, as Kerry warned. Before asking what Britain can do now to promote a just peace, it is worth saying what won’t work. Quiet diplomacy, for one. Britain has tried that. Quiet diplomats get ignored. Second, US-led shuttle diplomacy, such as the one that Kerry has conducted for nine months. The US is necessary, but not sufficient to resolve this conflict. And while no one can be sure what hand America’s incoming President Donald Trump will play, the omens are bad.
The Middle East peace process became just that — a process. Direct unconditional negotiations between the strong and the weak only leave the weak, weaker. That’s not how to end the occupation. It will need an initiative by the international community, shaping the outcome, providing security guarantees, upholding the law, ensuring a better tomorrow for both peoples.
The Paris conference should develop a wider consensus based on UN Security Council resolution 2334. It is not enough to offer more carrots to both parties, hoping that both will bite. Israel has had a surfeit of carrots over the decades. Incentives to the Palestinians are contingent on ending the occupation — which only Israel can do. So there are two things Britain should do. They go together. First, recognise the state of Palestine on 1967 borders now, or as soon as the Knesset “legalises” outposts, in breach of international humanitarian law. Secondly, uphold that law without fear or favour. British recognition of Palestine acknowledges the Palestinian right to self-determination, affirmed by the UK, 18 years ago at the Berlin European Council. I commend a petition asking the British government to recognise Palestine. If Britain means what it says about two states, then it needs to will the means. By recognising both states in the twostate solution, we legitimise both. Affirming the equal rights of both people is consistent with British values and in Britain’s national interest. One state — separate and unequal — will be unjust, unstable and violently divisive: An avoidable disaster for all.
Five years ago, the then British foreign secretary William Hague had said: “We reserve the right to recognise a Palestinian state bilaterally at a moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace”. I’ve said it before, but never has it been more true — now is the time.
Sir Vincent Fean served as British Consul-General in Jerusalem from 2010 to 2014. He was the British Ambassador to Libya (2006-10).