‘LONG-TERM SOLUTION’ NEEDED TO END CONFLICT IN GAZA
▶ To ensure lasting regional stability, peace efforts must ultimately lead to creation of Palestinian state, Norway’s Foreign Minister tells The National
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide is working with several Arab countries on a plan to transform the “false promise” of the Oslo Accords into a tangible solution that ends the war in Gaza and ultimately establishes a Palestinian state.
There is a growing consensus among European countries, despite discrepancies in their public positions, that progress towards such a state will be necessary in the near future.
Speaking to The National, Mr Eide said there is a need to invest, politically and economically, in the Palestinian Authority, but that it had to reform. Mr Eide was in Davos last week, attending the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, where Gaza and the wider regional dynamics were the focus of many of his meetings. He believes a two-state solution is “possible and necessary”, but needs much work.
Some Arabs and Palestinians believe it is not the time to work on a “day after” scenario for Gaza, and that the focus should be on securing a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war.
“To have a short-term solution, you need to be thinking about the long-term solution,” Mr Eide said, adding that “maybe from Israel, the thinking is just win the war and eliminate Hamas and then think of what to do; maybe from the other side, [the thinking is] just stop the war with the ceasefire; neither of those are solutions”. His strong belief is that the solution “is what comes later … which prevents the eternal return of fighting”.
Escaping that cycle “requires a political process and, so far, the best political process we know of is a process that can take us to Palestinian statehood, one [state] which is Gaza and West Bank, run by the Palestinian institutions, known as the PA”.
Recalling an interview with Reuters in which he suggested Norway supported a plan to help reform the Palestinian leadership, Mr Eide said: “It’s up to the Palestinians who they choose … we have never suggested that we pick anybody else’s government”.
However, he said, “we do think that it should be a unitary leadership of the entire Palestine. And that’s not going to happen overnight. But you need to think of how to get there.
“In order to get there, you need to maintain the authority, the credibility, the financial capacity, the political capacity of the PA we have today,” he said, adding that the PA was “struggling” in the West Bank.
“They have to survive, and we need to strengthen them, we need to use our donor co-ordination role to strengthen them,” Mr Eide said of the PA.
However, he said, there are extensive problems with the PA, and “we have also been very honest with our friends that they need to modernise, upgrade and prepare for a bigger role”.
The PA, he said, “needs to be a credible authority in the West Bank, in a situation where maybe some Israeli settlements have to be withdrawn, so that they will have a larger area in Gaza, that will be in the midst of reconstruction, psychologically and physically and the PA need to be prepared for that”.
The plan Mr Eide is working on is aimed in part to increase the credibility of the PA among Palestinians and to convince Israel that there is a “partner for peace, which can also provide security for the Israelis, and of course, also for the Palestinians”.
With the current deep divisions in both Palestine and Israel, it is a tall order, he said. “You have two highly polarised societies. And it would be far better if you create some institutional set-up that can bring the Palestinians closer together.”
He said a lot of Arab countries agree with this assessment, and there is an effort now to “invest on the Palestinian side”, both politically and economically.
Mr Eide declined to comment on who he believed could lead Palestine, saying the leadership of the Palestinian people must come from within. However, he added, there is a growing consensus among countries working on this issue that the PA in its current make-up cannot take on that role in the future or secure an independent state.
Behind closed doors, several names have been suggested of people who are credible among Palestinians, would be trusted by Arab and western countries, and with whom Israel would be willing to work. “When it comes to persons, I think they have to choose them themselves. But they have to reflect on that. And it has to have resonance in the Palestinian society … and there’s a generational issue there to be addressed.”
It will take time to rebuild the PA’s credibility, he said. Meanwhile, the war rages on, and more than two million Gazans continue to suffer, with concerns of famine and major illnesses spreading, as well as the lives lost to Israeli bombardment.
When pushed on the need to end the killing, Mr Eide defended his country’s track record. “Norway calls for stopping the killing … we were the first western country to speak about the humanitarian pause [and] use that framework that later would become a sustained humanitarian ceasefire.”
Norway voted for a ceasefire in the UN. “We were few Europeans then, and now we are many, because others came along,” Mr Eide said.
“We’re very clear: you’re not getting anywhere without stopping the killing.” However, he said, no political solution would emerge from a ceasefire alone. The circumstances before the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel no longer exist.
“Gaza is destroyed. And you cannot go back to October 7 in any sense. So you need to go towards something,” he said.
Mr Eide showed empathy and understanding for the Palestinian people, saying: “I understand that if you’re now a desperate family in Khan Younis, you need to know, can I go back to northern Gaza? My house is gone, I know that, but will there be a tent? Will there be water? So we need to deal with that.”
There are several phases ahead, he said. “There’s a ‘stop the killing’ phase, that’s immediate preferably; then there is an immediate humanitarian phase which is concerned with shelter, food, water; the doctors trying to restart the hospitals and so on.”
But there is a “paradox”, he said, in that Israel needs to be convinced to leave, but it will not “just leave and let’s see what happens; there must be some kind of answer”.
Efforts are continuing to ensure a peace that ensures security for Israel, while “we also need to tell the Palestinians that, you know, we’re not only trying to help you survive, we’re actually trying to help you get what you’ve been wanting all the time, which is a political entity”.
Part of the goal is to “reduce the attraction of the more extreme groups and strengthen the authority of the PA if it’s credible”, Mr Eide said. The PA was set up after the Oslo Accords, but “for Palestinians, this looked like a false promise, which I very much understand. For some Israelis, including people in the current government, this looked like a solution”.
Mr Eide said the “process” that was launched after Oslo “was either falsely understood as a solution … or it was interpreted as a false promise, which in a sense was true, because at the time, it was a false promise”.
He did not underestimate the enormity of the situation, but is looking at solutions to get out of it. “In this horrible mess, with all the killing and dying and tragedy spreading, the only good news I can see is that many more countries are now actively looking for a solution,” he said.
“Frankly, some of our good friends were more supportive in rhetoric than in reality. We believe that that has changed.”
Leading the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, set up after Oslo to co-ordinate the delivery of international aid to Palestinians, has given Norway both understanding and access to work on the Palestinian issue.
“Now there’s a real, serious commitment. Many of the Arab states are ready to follow the UAE’s example and establish relations. But now they are very aware that you can’t do that without the Palestinian settlement. And maybe part of the problem was that the perception among many Palestinians that they were forgotten, that suddenly Israel and the Arabs were dealing on their own, rightly or wrongly. And then the perception became a big problem,” Mr Eide said.
Arab countries that “haven’t yet normalised relations with Israel, will not do it without the Palestinian solution, but they are ready to do it if there is a
In this horrible mess, the only good news I can see is that many more countries are actively looking for a solution ESPEN BARTHE EIDE Norwegian Foreign Minister
Palestinian solution”, he said. “I agree with the Arab foreign ministers group that a regional peace provides an incentive to Israel, which is regional peace, combined with a guarantee to support the development of a Palestinian state not run by foreign-supported extremists, but by people who are ready to work with Israel.”
Mr Eide said former US president Bill Clinton was wrong not to include the Arabs in the peace process at Camp David, describing it as “one of the tragedies of the Middle East peace process”.
“If you’d had some kind of an Arab peace plan around that, we might have actually got the solution in Taba,” he said.
However, he added, the lack of Arab presence in the process was not the only issue. “Of course, we’ve had many years of governments in Israel that have not been very conducive to this. And we’ve seen this divide in Palestine, and the two are somewhat related, as they are not living separate lives and they fuel each other in a sense.”
While Mr Eide supports the creation of a Palestinian state, Norway has yet to recognise one. Asked why this is, Mr Eide said: “A very good day in my life as Foreign Minister would be the day when I recognise Palestine. And we have recognised Palestine’s right to have a state.
“Last time I was Foreign Minister, we were directly involved and worked very closely with Palestine, representing the UN, on shaping the situation that led to its upgraded status as a non-member observer state.”
However, he called for realism. “We’re very adamant that I don’t want the theoretical Palestinian state. I want to help create a Palestinian state, not the idea of a Palestinian state.
“The act of recognition – which is a big deal for countries like us, for Spain – is not something we just throw out as a solidarity message. It should be part of the plan.
“But we had a solid majority in Parliament saying [yes] when the government thinks the time is right, but not contingent on the final peace plan. So we can do it before the final peace plan, but it must be part of the process.
“There’s this idea that something magical happens if states acknowledge Palestine ... but it doesn’t really matter on the ground. But if it’s part of a process towards something, it can matter.”
Asked about the genocide charges brought against Israel by South Africa in the International Court of Justice, Mr Eide said: “These courts are for real and they are meant to be used.”
He refused to comment on Oslo’s position on the case, but said: “I welcome that Israel turns up to defend itself.
“The case already has an effect. And one of them is that [the Israeli government] will have to be much more careful about all these statements that have come out by individual members of the government, which can create trouble for Israel, maybe as much as actions on the ground, because genocide is about intent.
“It’s not the number of people, because you can kill a lot of people and not have it on the side of intent. And you can kill a few people with the genocide … so we’re following that with great interest.”
Mr Eide voiced concern over the escalation of tensions in the region, calling it “horrible”.
“This is exactly what we worried about three months ago ... and now it’s happening all around. You need to address these separate issues as well, like you need to stop the Houthis from attacking ships. But it is all related to the core problem of the non-solution of the Palestinian issue.”
Looking around the Middle East right now, there are few reasons for optimism, outside the Gulf region. The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli operation in Gaza has passed 25,000. More than 100 Israeli hostages, most of whom are civilians, remain in captivity. The Red Sea has become a no-go zone for much of international shipping, disrupting the global economy. Meanwhile, drone and missile strikes – part of a deadly and destabilising cycle of revenge killings and assassinations – are taking place in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
At the same time, however, a significant development is unfolding: more and more conversations are being had at a global level about the need for a political exit to a conflict in which too many – including Hamas and Israel’s leadership – have disappeared down the rabbit hole of militarism.
On Saturday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda that the right of the Palestinian people to build their own state “must be recognised by all”. In the UK, Keir Starmer, the country’s main opposition leader, described a Palestinian state as “the only way to a secure future”. Even Israel’s most important ally has been upfront about the necessity for Palestinian self-determination. Late last week, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said President Joe Biden would “not stop working” towards a two-state solution.
Sadly, this growing consensus does not seem to register with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has demanded security control over Gaza and the West Bank – “a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty”, his office said on Saturday. This led Mr Starmer to remark that Palestinian statehood was an “inalienable right” that is “not in the gift of a neighbour”.
There are real concerns about the direction Israel is taking politically, with some of the country’s most intransigent figures and dogmatic ideas having found a place in the highest levels of government. Equally, Hamas and most of its supporters see a militant course of action as the only viable path. Thankfully however, the current violence has not yet silenced all dialogue about ways to achieve this.
Plans like the Arab Peace Initiative, recently described in The National by former Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Musher as being “part of the Arab world’s efforts to facilitate the [peace] process”, offer valuable pathways to engagement. And in an interview with The National from Davos on Friday, Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, confirmed that a plan was being developed to invest in a reformed Palestinian Authority as a prelude to working towards achieving Palestinian statehood.
However, many parties to the current conflict are not in listening mode. This is understandable given the dreadful violence that has taken place and that is continuing. That should not mean those who value Palestinian freedom, Israeli security and peace across the Middle East should give up. On the contrary, they should redouble their efforts.