Abu Dis, West Bank – With gloom deepening over prospects for peace, a leading Palestinian is suggesting they might drop the “two-state solution” that has underpinned two decades of negotiations, aiming for Israel and a Palestinian state next to each other.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Instead, Palestinians might seek a multi-ethnic state covering all of historic Palestine — including today’s Israel, said former Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in an interview at his office in this West Bank town.
Deriding what remains of the peace process as “no more than a waste of time,” Qureia condemned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for settling the occupied West Bank with Jews and blocking Palestinian access to their hoped-for capital in Jerusalem.
“If this is the policy, I think it is a big lie to talk about the two-state solution,” said Qureia. “They are killing the opportunity of two-state solution. If it dies … there are other choices.
“One state is one of the choices.”
Qureia is the highest ranking Palestinian to articulate a view that is increasingly heard behind closed Palestinian doors: despite the privations of the occupation, time is oddly on their side, and Israel is shooting itself in the foot with its settlements and stalling.
Netanyahu recently joined dovish Israelis who for years have advocated creating a Palestinian state precisely because the alternative of adding the occupied territories to Israel — effectively, the one-state solution — would flood the Jewish state with Arabs. Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 largely due to similar concerns.
I dis the dumb idea of mr. dis!
The article says Netanyahu also favors a “one-state” solution. I guess the only difference between Bibi and the PA (Qureia) position is how power would be shared in the new consolidated Jewish/Palestinian state. Clearly, the preferred option is one where Isrealis would control the key cabinent postions like the Lebanon one state/two religion situation.
Personally, I say let the arabs join Jordan.. Divide the west bank and give the palestinian areas to jordan and let israel keep the jewish areas. Whichever israeli arab citizen wants to still live in israel, they are welcome to stay under their current very good conditions.
Also we would not allow dual jordanian-israel citizenship they will have to choose. My great-grandparents were forced out of poland into galicia for citizenship reasons. They had no choice.
There’l be one state and one state only, ISRAEL. The palis have their state already, it’s called Jordan a country where over 75% of the population is of Palestinian descent. This Queera shouldn’t forget the Palis aren’t in any position to dictate their terms to Israel, it’s the other way around or else status quo.
One state Israel where non-Jewish residents can also live as long as they are peaceful and support the goals of the Jewish state. they can practice their religion, live in peace with civil rights, but the Constitution of the State must be one of Torah Judiaism.
One State under UN or hopefully Us Govt. Everyone can live peacefully like in the US, Canada, etc. More frumme yidden left Israel in the last 50 Years to the USA than American yidden to Israel. So why not.
The existence of a Palestinian Arab living peacefully with any Israeli Jew is a fantasy. These Palestinians, whether by their genetic background, or their brainwashing from the time of birth, are preoccupied with eliminating the State of Israel and Jews worldover. They believe that the nurder of any Jew is their right, and many engage in that. It is one of the beliefs of their worship. They are completely unable to take part in negotiation or other civil form of resolving any of the issues of conflict. It is foolish for Israel to engage in the doomed process. Meanwhile, the United States, the Quartet, and the UN are bluffing the world with their sanctimonious comments about a peace process to reconcile between a huge band of uncivilized, bloodthirsty savages and a democratic nation of civilized people. It’s high time we showed some intellect here.