Jordan-PLO-Hamas-UN-EU coy on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
Jordan, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas, United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) now have to choose between two very different two-state solutions to end the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict.
The first:
- Unsuccessfully pursued by the United Nations for the last 19 years – was renewed again at the sidelines of the 77thAnnual Meeting of the General Assembly on 21 September:
“The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan met in New York today in the presence of special guests Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process [UNSCMEP –ed] Tor Wennesland, to consult and coordinate their policies with a view to advancing the Middle East Peace Process towards a just, comprehensive and lasting peace on the basis of the two-state solution…”
…”We emphasize that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the two-state solution is indispensable for comprehensive peace in the region. We remain firmly committed to enabling and supporting all efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace in the Middle East based on international law, relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and agreed parameters, including the Arab Peace Initiative. We reiterate our conviction that only a negotiated two-state solution based on June 4, 1967 lines, and consistent with relevant UN Security Council resolution ensuring an independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel, can fulfil the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians.”
The second:
- Far murkier in its provenance – was published in Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022:
“The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world. Labor in this day and age is mobile and having citizenship in a country that facilitates such mobility is critical to human development.
The most logical vehicle for this redefinition and hence for the solution to the Palestine problem is the kingdom of Jordan. Over the last seventy-five years, Jordan has developed into a relatively well-governed state, although the impact of regional political turmoil has caused it to fail economically and become heavily reliant on foreign aid for its survival. It is this Jordanian governance infrastructure that needs to be captured and put to productive use in integrating the millions of Palestinians and Jordanians into a modern, reasonably well-functioning state that would, in an era of real peace and economic integration with Jordan’s neighbors, have a much higher chance of growth and prosperity.
This proposed enlarged kingdom would include present-day Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank (areas populated by Palestinians attached in a contiguous manner and physically connected to Jordan, i.e., not broken up into islands).”
The author Ali Shihabi is a close confidant of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Zalman – Saudi Arabia’s next King designate. Al Arabiya News is reportedly 60% owned by the Saudi Government. This plan shreds the 1981 and 2002 Saudi Peace Plans and 1980 EU Venice Declaration.
Jordan’s King Abdullah, PLO Leader Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and the EU have not uttered one word rejecting this Saudi alternative plan since its publication.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNSCMEP Tor Wennesland have refused to discuss or even acknowledge the Saudi Plan’s existence.
Israeli politicians: choose either – or neither.
Being coy is no longer an option.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
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.
