MIDDLE EAST CRISIS
Palestinian ambassador to SA believes two-state solution is dead but still the only option backed by global community
Palestinian ambassador to South Africa Hanan Jarrar said current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during more than 16 years in government, 'has systematically ruined every opportunity to materialise a viable Palestinian state'.
The Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, Hanan Jarrar, says that after the failure of the Oslo Accord, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) “is not a big fan of the two-state solution”. However, it has no choice but to pursue it because it is the only option that the international community supports.
She largely blamed Israel for killing the two-state solution because it failed to implement the 1993 Oslo Accord in which Israel and the PLO agreed to establish a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“For example, Israel has been grabbing the Palestinian land on a daily basis for the sake of expanding and constructing new settlements on the Palestinian land allocated for the Palestinian state,” she told Daily Maverick.
“This makes it difficult to establish a viable Palestinian state, geographically connected.”
She added that daily raids against Palestinian homes and cities and ongoing killings were destroying the notion of a two-state solution.
This coupled with Israel’s building of “the apartheid segregation wall” separating Palestine settlements on the West Bank had aggravated the matter even further.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War
“That’s why the two-state solution, in reality, is dead, but it is the only window that is backed by the international community.
“We don’t have any other choice that is internationally backed up by the international community … [other] than the two-state solution. That’s why the two-state solution is still the one and only window for the Palestinian people … to establish the Palestinian state. Because without the support of the international community, nothing will take place.”
Jarrar said since the assassination in 1995 of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had negotiated the Oslo Accord, Israel had not been committed to realising the two-state solution and a Palestinian state.
She said Palestinians had no choice but to support it until the international community forced Israel to sit down to negotiate the issues that would create a viable Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders.
She said current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during more than 16 years in government, “has systematically ruined every opportunity to materialise a viable Palestinian state”.
ANC meets Palestinian groups
The ANC and SA Communist Party met last week with the PLO, Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian groups at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg.
The ANC has been widely criticised for meeting with Hamas, including by some in the US Congress. The US and the European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Jarrar stressed that Fatah and Hamas had met with the ANC under the umbrella of the Palestinian embassy and the PLO, meeting the ANC as political parties and not as governmental organisations or official representatives of the Palestinian people.
She said the purpose of the meeting had been to discuss the mutual interest of political parties and to discuss ways of supporting the cause of Palestine and the Palestinian people.
Jarrar said the Palestinian Solidarity Forum, held in Johannesburg just before the meeting with the ANC, had drawn together Palestinians and political factions from other parts of the region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
They had shared ideas about how to use mass mobilisation to increase solidarity and to increase support for the Palestinian people, “especially in these difficult times where Gaza is facing a genocidal war by the Israelis”.
According to reports, by Monday Israel had killed more than 18,000 people in Gaza since it launched its retaliatory campaign following Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken captive.
ANC National Executive Committee International Relations Subcommittee deputy chair Obed Bapela told Daily Maverick that the ANC remained in favour of the two-state solution.
He said the ANC intended to campaign and push for the implementation of a two-state solution along the pre-1967 boundaries between Israel and Palestine
Bapela said Hamas had explained at the meeting why it did not support a two-state solution.
“Hamas said they had been disappointed by the lack of the implementation of the agreement. So as a result, their view is that the entire Palestine be liberated, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea. They can then look at modalities on how to accommodate who is there, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Palestinians.
“There is that view that Israel has put itself into a corner and should they have implemented the 1967 resolution we would not be where we are now.
“We did tell them about our recent decision as [the] ANC and government that we have approached the ICC [International Criminal Court] on the issuing of an indictment of Prime Minister Netanyahu to be charged for those three elements: genocide, violation of human rights and war crimes,” Bapela said.
The US reacts
US Republican Senator Jim Risch has sharply rebuked the ANC for meeting Hamas and criticised the Biden administration for its “appeasement” of the South African government despite its ties with Hamas.
Risch, the top Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, who has also been sharply critical of the ANC and the SA government for their warm ties with Russia, posted on the social media platform X questioning why the Biden administration “embraces” the ANC, which “stands in ‘solidarity’” with Hamas.
#SouthAfrica‘s ruling party stands in ‘solidarity’ w/ #Hamas – an Iranian-backed, U.S.-designated terror group.The Biden Admin, meanwhile, persists with its embrace of this same South African gov’t. What is the U.S. gaining from this policy of appeasement? https://t.co/ETPdpoCHf0
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) December 6, 2023
JT Tomaszewski, a senior member of the Senate foreign relations committee staff, posted on X: “Ranking Member Risch criticizes #SouthAfrica’s ruling party for openly supporting Hamas, an Iranian-backed terror group, and questions the effectiveness of the Biden Administration’s ‘policy of appeasement’ toward the political leadership of the current govt.” DM
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A few less suicide bombings and bit less terrorism and maybe the “palestinians” would have a state. Noteworthy that Hamas started this war and now they crying about it… Islam-facists organisation needs to be destroyed for the good of the world
To correct your statement this war began in 1967 if not earlier. Hamas escalated the situation on October 7 and began the latest phase of this war.
Actually both of you are wrong, it started in 1948 when the Arabs attacked the fledging Jewish state for absolutely no reason but the fact the Jews were setting up shop there. This resulted in the “nakbah” or catastrophe of huge numbers of Palestinian refugees fleeing the war because Israel completely routed the Arabs. The Arabs have never been able to shake off their shame at being defeated which has left their noses out of joint ever since. This coupled with Islams’s irrational and bloody antipathy towards the Jewish people has resulted in bloodshed from then to now.
You forgot that the “fledging Jewish state” was imposed on all the non-Jewish people already living there, but this thread seems to be a pro-Israeli echo chamber masquerading as debate, so I’m pretty sure my words are wasted.
just as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan . . .were imposed? All parts of the Ottoman Empire carved up after they were defeated in WW1.
It was their homeland though, others too!…..who were not Moslem back then two Millennia or soback.
It was their homeland though, others too!…..who were not Moslem back then two Millennia or soback.
Of course Hamas doesn’t want a two state solution, genocide is their ultimate aim
The ANC is funded by Iran and by Russia. They will say anything their paymasters want them to say, to the detriment of the people they supposedly represent. We already know that the EFF also gets funding from Russia, and it is highly likely they also get funding from Iran. That is why both of them are happy to entertain Hamas that is intent upon the destruction of Israel. And as quoted above Hamas said after they have rid Israel of the state of Israel then “they will see what to do with the Jews, Christians and Muslims who live there”. We all know what they intend to do with the Jews and Christians who live there, once they annihilate the state of Israel, we saw that on 7 October.
As usual doublespeak is prevalent. Any organization that is against US and Israeli interests is called terrorists, and dehumanized. For all intents and purposes, Hamas is a liberation organization, and on Oct 7 they responded to massive arrests of Palestinians in thousands, even Palestinian children and women could be arrested and held indefinitely, and devised a plan how to get them freed by seizing hostages and exchanging them for Palestinian prisoners. Except that this plan was very naive, as Israel in the first prisoner exchange arrested more Palestinians than it released as part of exchange. Israel always have an unlimited pool of new hostages as it can arrest new Palestians at will in thousands, whereas any hostages Hamas released are irreplaceable. Once Palestinians realized they are being defrauded, no more hostage were released and the war resumed, but how naive was the whole plan!
Israel war plan in Gaza is borrowed from Nazi playbook. If there was an attack against Nazi occupation forces , Nazis retaliated by massacring the population centers where guerillas were based, and this was quite effective in deterring future resistance attacks. Israel is doing exactly the same thing in Gaza, it is attacking Gaza civilian center as a deterrent to resistance attacks. Attacks on hospitals, mosques and schools were deliberate, and their goal was to deter any future resistance attacks, exactly like it was Nazi strategy during WWII.
Israel is the master of propaganda, labelling anyone who questions them anti-semitic, loudly proclaim their “rights” (repeated by commentators in this forum without actually questioning what that means). Did the west and Jews, whether already in Israel or making their way from Europe really have the right to proclaim a Jewish state? Where do these rights come from? Who decided on that, and when they did, did they think about the rights of other non-Jews?
Ken you seem to know a lot about the Nazi playbook.
The blunt reality in this situation is in my opinion three-fold
1. Israel is legitimately here to stay, and she and her people have the right to a secure and maintain a peaceful existence. No amount of terror campaigns or international propaganda is going to change that.
2. Hamas is also here to stay and is unlikely to be eradicated and so all proclamations of their eradication are understandable at an emotional level, but practically virtually impossible. The fact that the Palestinian people allow them to control their agenda speaks to the fact that they have given Hamas some level of mandate.
3. Both the Israeli and Palestinian people need to find peace with one another but in order to do so, the ideology of external forces which fuel both Hamas and call for the eradication of Israel must be disempowered from the conversation or nothing will change. Peace will inevitably happen, it always does but it will be hollow if the fundamental hatred and distrust is not dealt with.
A very sensible post, with which I concur fully. You also state (which demostrates your humility) that this is your opinion; you do not “shout from the rooftop). I’m a bit more pessimistic than you; will peace inevitably happen? It would, literally, require a miracle- a change in men’s hearts, not just their mindsets.
Summed up perfectly
Does the Israeli ambassador get a right of reply to this article?
There is only one Ambassador of a legitimate, sovereign state – and that’s not the one being given column space on Daily Maverick. This person is a political lackey, without any credibility. She says what the PLO says (whoever they are these days).
“She says what the PLO says”. That is to be expected, the Israeli Ambassador also says what the Israeli Government says, that’s their job.
When was the last time the PA held elections John?
We should not allow ourselves to be intimidated by statements of individual congressmen, that may be used by US as instruments of pressure. US can ill afford to be hostile to South Africa, as it is already losing Africa to Chinese and Russian influence, and has to use carrots not sticks to maintain its influence in Africa. US is no longer viewed in Africa as benign but rather as a bully intent on dominating the world, specially now under so called “democratic” Biden regime. South Africa is far from unique on the continent to move away from US influence, but it is skillfully balancing between two hostile camps, US on one side and China and Russia on the other. Should US show itself more hostile to South Africa, South Africa can move decisively to China and Russia and give the rest of the continent an example of doing that. Being on the side of Palestinians and against Israel is definitely the safe thing to do , as it is siding with overwhelming majority of the world to oppose Israel’s war on Gaza and it is always safe to be with the majority as US cannot retaliate against the whole world with its sanctions it is already losing its positions regardless and have the rest of the world unite to confront them.
The USA couldn’t care less about South Africa thinks. Our GDP is $384.31 billion pa while the USA is $15.68 trillion. This means their economy is 41 times bigger than South Africa. That’s all you need to know to reconnect yourself to reality. They need, and care about South Africa, like a hole in their heads.
That’s some good stuff you’re smoking there!
Correct, the two-state solution is dead. Israel, on the other hand, is going nowhere. Hamas has been thumped in this war, as have most of the armchair critics, and this ambassador is of a state that does not exist.
Regretfully the civilians of Gaza have “been thumped in this war” as well. Many thousands have lost their lives and many hundreds of thousands have had their lives turned upside down.
Regretfully civilians are a casualty of war John. Every war in history.
Mordechai that is such a throwaway statement that shows no concern for the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people.
I’m not getting drawn into a tit-for-tat debate with you John. In war the objective is defeat the enemy, as quickly, resoundingly, deeply and thoroughly as possible. There will unfortunately always be civilian casualties, which is as inevitable as it is regrettable, and no civilised person should (or does) take delight in this. I have compassion for the innocent lives that the enemy has chosen to take, use and sacrifice – however, I will celebrate the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. I’m done here.
In WW2 67,000 British civilians were killed from military action on Britian compared to 3 Million German civilian deaths. Were the allies wrong?
The Palestinian civilians and infrastructure has been thumped so far .Hamas still a work in progress. Israel is fighting a war that they did not prepare for. After the 1973 war and the high death toll by soldiers. The focus in their armed forces changed in the 90’s from focus on infantry and armor to Airforce, Navy ,Special Forces and intelligence services which they excel at. The 2006 Lebanon War exposed those shortcomings but since then no money was put into rectifying i think only the Golani Brigade was resourced and retrained . So now you got the bulk of troops trained as a occupation force going into combat in a urban setting who never trained in combined arms warfare . Maybe a professional military officer can answer how this plays out , i have no idea. Things have not gone to plan so far.
I’m not sure any human being could have expected the atrocities of Hamas Oct 7, so barbaric that they suspend belief and are still incomprehensible by most. Then again – who would have conceived of gas chambers to kill human beings en-masse either? Also remember that Israel didn’t go into Gaza and engage with Hamas until several days later. I don’t underestimate your own resources, but you would be underestimating the IDF’s warfare readiness and capability to meet (and thump) an enemy in urban warfare. Golani is one of five infantry units, and they aren’t even urban special forces (let alone Gaza specialists, Nahal is mostly active in Gaza). IDF may not win the war of public opinion (or be trying to do so), but on the battlefield (where it counts) it’s not even close.
She says the two state solution is dead, but does not suggest any workable alternative.
The blame for this mess lies with the western powers who created the state of Israel in 1948 without adequately catering for the Palestinian people. Now we have an impossible situation where neither side accepts the rights of the other to self determination.
One state . equal rights for all.
Except the Palestinians and Hamas in particular don’t want that
To understand why the US wants Hamas Gaza leadership destroyed .Wanting the PA to run Gaza after war . Also why the Ambassador is stating the 2 state solution in current modalities is dead. US also leaking stories that Netanyahu’s days are over after war. Read articles in US council of Foreign Relations publication 1. Hama’s Goal in Gaza – Strategy that lead to the war and what it means for the Future 2. Israel won’t change – Tilt to the right will accelerate after war . Both are nightmare scenarios for US and western powers . The foreign policy that they practiced in the middle east since the 40’s goes up in smoke. And with near peer powers China and India waiting in the wings to take advantage for any misstep
Just in statement from Israeli Communications minister . there will never be a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the sea . So we now have the official position of Israel to the Ambassador’s statement . Though it was to commenting to comments made by US President Biden.
Hahahaha