Security Council must adopt Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
The rapid deterioration in the security situation in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza requires the UN Security Council to take urgent steps to abandon its failed two-state solution expressed in Resolution 2334 passed on 23 December 2016 and adopt the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) published on 8 June 2022 as subsequently amended.
Article 24(1) of the United Nations Charter provides:
“In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, its members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf.”
The maintenance of international peace and security is being seriously threatened by events in the Middle East that could see a break out of hostilities at any time against Israel emanating from Iran, Lebanon or Syria.
Closer to Israel: In the first six months of this year, according to data compiled by the Rescuers without Borders organization there were 3,640 Palestinian terror attacks, which included 2,118 incidents of rock-throwing, 799 Molotov cocktail assaults, 18 attempted stabbings, 6 car rammings, and 101 shootings – culminating in a two-day-long Israeli military assault on the Jenin refugee camp.
The response by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 6 July was pathetic:
“Mr. Guterres said he understood Israel’s legitimate concerns over its security, “but escalation is not the answer; it simply bolsters radicalization and leads to a deepening cycle of violence and bloodshed.”
He said it was in Israel’s long-term interest to abide by the two-state solution, which envisages an independent Palestine next door.
“Restoring the hope of the Palestinian people in a meaningful political process, leading to a two-State solution and the end of the occupation, is an essential contribution by Israel to its own security.”
Guterres’s “independent Palestine next door” has been unsuccessfully pursued by the United Nations since 29 November 1947 in 22% of Palestine west of the Jordan River – after 78% of Palestine east of the Jordan River – today called Jordan – had already been granted independence in 1946.
HKOPS proposes a different two-state solution between:
- Israel and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and
- Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.
HKOPS offers:
- Israel sovereignty in an agreed area of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) for the first time in 3000 years – ending the United Nations false claim that Jews have no legal right to live in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) – specifically authorised under articles 6 and 25 of the Mandate for Palestine and preserved by article 80 of the UN Charter.
- An “ end of the occupation” and citizenship for current and future Arab residents of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza in the newly-created Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
- Jerusalem becoming the sole capital of Israel with Arab control of the Islamic Holy sites continuing to be maintained.
HKOPS unravels decades of UN attempts to treat Arabs living West of the Jordan River as being different to Arabs living East of the Jordan River:
“Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighborhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines.”
Adoption by the Security Council of a policy calling for negotiations to implement HKOPS will certainly involve the Security Council in a major change of direction.
Can the Security Council afford to remain silent and just wring its hands at the rapidly-increasing violence happening before its very eyes as it sits in its ivory tower in New York?
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
