The ‘Two-State Solution’ Colonial Fantasy for Palestine

News:

While Gaza continues to burn, while dozens are slaughtered in the Strip each day, while its population continue to starve to death, and while violence escalates in the West Bank at the hands of the barbaric Zionist occupation, there has been a renewed push, particularly by certain Western countries, for the ‘Two-State Solution’ for Palestine which they argue would lay the path to resolving the decades long conflict in the region. France, Britain and Canada amongst other nations have announced their intention to recognize a Palestinian state, if particular conditions are met. A high-level international conference at the UN Headquarters in New York in July, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, also discussed the urgency of laying down concrete steps to realize the two-state solution. It resulted in a 7-page declaration supporting this aim which was also endorsed by the member states of the Arab League and the European Union.

Comment:

The so-called ‘Two-State Solution’ for Palestine is a Western colonial illusionary concept which raises its ugly head every time various colonial states wish to distract international attention from their role in supporting and strengthening the blood-thirsty Jewish occupation, and to appear as if they are peace-makers in the conflict – which is far from the truth. In this instance, calls for the recognition of a Palestinian state by colonial powers is nothing but a smokescreen to try and divert domestic and international anger away from their continuing complicity in this genocide in Gaza through their provision of weaponry to the occupation and their failure to stop this mass slaughter and starvation. It is nothing but ‘diplomatic theatre’ that changes nothing on the ground!

Such colonial governments know very well that the implementation of a ‘two-state solution’, where a Palestinian state supposedly lives side-by-side in peace with the Zionist one, is an utterly impractical ‘pie-in-the-sky’ idea, detached from reality. Indeed, it has become an open joke amongst their diplomatic circles, who understand that there is no way to make a state from the West Bank and East Jerusalem that contains over 200 Jewish settlements and around 700,000 Jewish settlers, and which is separated from the Gaza Strip by occupied land which has been utterly decimated by the occupation. And yet they continue to brandish around the idea of a ‘Two-State solution’ like it’s some kind of magic wand that can erase away decades of injustice, dispossession of land, and mass slaughter, imprisonment and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Jewish occupation.

Furthermore, calls for the two-state solution will not end the Jewish entity’s continuing grievous crimes against the Palestinians or stop its expansionist goal to create a ‘Greater Israel’ and take over the whole of the Blessed Land. This is the clear trajectory of Zionist politics. Indeed, Jewish authorities are discussing plans to build thousands of new housing units in the E1 area, east of East Jerusalem, which would link the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement with Jerusalem. This would result in nearly 3000 acres of Palestinian land being stolen to build more than 4000 settlement units, and would effectively bisect the West Bank and fragment and isolate Palestinian communities further. Netanyahu has also announced plans to occupy the Gaza Strip. It is clear therefore that the two-state solution for Palestine is pure fantasy! Human rights lawyer, Rabea Eghbariah, writes, “The truth is that the two-state solution has become a delusion – a mantra repeated to mask an entrenched one-state reality. From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, Israel controls the lives of all Palestinians, without equal rights, without equal representation and a system built to preserve Jewish supremacy.”

Moreover, what will a Palestinian state look like? It would be a state with no real sovereignty, no coherent territory, no economic viability, no control of its borders, water and airspace, and no military to defend it from its enemies – surrounded by a criminal occupation entity that has demonstrated to the world that it cares nothing about any international law or agreement, moral norm, or sovereignty of countries! In other words, it would be a meaningless state! Furthermore, accepting the two-state solution would mean accepting a Palestinian state that exists on 20% or less of the Blessed Land. This would mean accepting the occupation’s theft of Palestinian land, its ethnic cleansing and mass displacement of people of Palestine from their homes, its use of terror, slaughter, imprisonment and bulldozing of homes to expand its land-grab, and the right for the criminal occupation to exist through the recognition of permanent borders. How can this ever be just, moral or right?!! The two-state solution is therefore nothing but a cynical means employed by colonial powers to get Muslims to accept the existence of the Jewish entity, to give up occupied Muslim land and to look beyond decades of heinous crimes by the occupation!

Palestinians do deserve a state, but one that encompasses the whole of the Blessed Land of Palestine – every single inch, for this is the land of Islam, of Al-Aqsa, of the Masra (night journey) of our beloved Prophet (saw) and came under the rule of Islam and remained so for centuries and belongs to this Ummah till the day of Judgement! To accept anything less than the entire liberation of Palestine is a betrayal of Allah (swt), His Messenger(saw) and our Deen. It should also be a state that unifies the Blessed Land with the rest of the Muslim world and that rules by the Shariah and System of Allah (swt). This state is the Khilafah (Caliphate) based upon the method of the Prophethood. It is this state alone that can ensure justice, and secure the rights and dignity of all its citizens regardless of their faith, and establish peace and security for all under its rule, as it did for centuries across the Muslim lands. So, as Muslims, we should reject any colonial-inspired fantasies and embrace the call to establish the Khilafah state with urgency that will end this genocide, bring justice to the Palestinians and liberate all our lands!

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَجِيبُوا للهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ]

“O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life.” [Surah Al-Anfal: 24]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Asma Siddiq
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir