ICJ: blanket media coverage – Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine: Nil
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on emergency measures requested by South Africa in its genocide case against Israel has rightly received blanket media coverage – whilst the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) continues to receive virtually no media attention – notwithstanding its implementation could have avoided:
- Gaza’s invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023
- the ensuing Israel-Gaza War and
- the ICJ becoming involved at all
News is made by decisions taken by media outlets as to what events are deemed newsworthy to publish or not. Contributions by investigative journalists, independent analysts and think tanks keep their readers informed.
A Google News search of “International Court of Justice” shows 150,000 results headed by:
Not one article on HKOPS has seemingly been published in Al Jazeera, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC or the Guardian since HKOPS initial release in the Saudi-Government controlled Al Arabiya news on 8 June 2022.
The following Google News search of “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine” shows just 58 results – the first five of them articles written by myself – extending over a period covering 11 September 2023 to a few days ago. Not one reference to any other article anywhere in the media by anyone else during that period.
Newsmakers such as:
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and
- Tors Wennesland – UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority and the Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Quartet
have not raised HKOPS even once in their regular reports to the United Nations General Assembly or Security Council despite my many requests asking them to do so.
Prominent and influential op-ed writers such as:
- Thomas Friedman at the New York Times
- Graeme Wood at the Atlantic
- Lazar Berman at the Times of Israel
- Daniel Pipes at the Middle East Forum
have refused my requests to analyse HKOPS.
This blanket wall of media and UN silence is still being maintained despite HKOPS – authored by Ali Shihabi – an advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – promising to end the 100 years-old Jewish-Arab conflict with these outcomes:
- Trashing the two-state solution proposed by the failed 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334 – calling instead for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one single territorial entity to be called “The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine”
- Superseding two previous Saudi peace proposals in 1981 and 2002 that called for Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank
- Consigning to the diplomatic graveyard the creation of a separate Palestinian Arab State between Jordan and Israel – promoted unsuccessfully since 2002 by the Arab Peace Initiative
- Designating Amman – not Jerusalem – to become the capital of the proposed Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
- Abandoning any claimed right of return to Israel
- Granting Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and stateless refugees full citizenship in the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with all the elements of sovereignty applicable to those Territories that belong to a fully recognized state in the UN
We are now witnesses to:
- The ICJ embarking on a long journey over many years to decide whether Israel has breached the Genocide Convention and
- The United Nations continuing to remain silent on considering HKOPS as a replacement solution for its own failed two-state solution.
Whilst including Gaza in the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine is now problematic:
- Unifying Jordan and part of the West Bank can offer Gazans the opportunity to voluntarily resettle there
- Implementing HKOPS remains the best solution to prevent the region erupting into widespread warfare
Yet the media does not consider achieving these humanitarian outcomes newsworthy enough to report on.
Go figure.
Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”
Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
