Death Knell for the Two-State Solution

AFP PHOTO/TED ALJIBE

Muslim activists hold mock US flags during a rally on May 17 supporting the Palestinian cause near the US Embassy in Manila, the Philippines. At least 2,400 Palestinians were injured and some 60 others, including children, were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers as they gathered to demonstrate along the borders of the Gaza Strip enclave to protest the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14 was said to be a historic event 70 years in the making by supporters of Israel and US President Donald Trump. Trump believes that this will be the right first step toward creating peace in Palestine. Jewish-Ethiopian female singer Hagit Yavo performed a song called “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu” (Peace is With Us) at the opening of the new embassy.

For Israel, the US Embassy relocation became a true celebration of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day). This was the day the Jewish people returned to the holy site in the Holy City in 1967, after the war ended. On the contrary, Palestine’s senior official Saeb Erakat might have expressed perfectly what the relocation meant for Palestinians: It was “a vicious act of enmity that violates international law” and proof that Trump is pushing for “international anarchy” and “a reaffirmation on Israel’s occupation and colonialism”.

The decision to relocate the embassy is a unilateral act and is invalid in the perspective of international law. It was as if Trump gave Israel a gift as the embassy relocation was done without any concession or prerequisites that Israel must comply with. Surely, this is an assault of the traditional neutrality principle that the US had promoted in relation to the status of Jerusalem.

Previous US Presidents – Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama – restrained themselves from taking any actions that were even close to what Trump has done. They believe that such actions will undermine the US’ role in the Israel-Palestine conflict resolution and may lead to violence, not only in the Middle East but also against the US.

It is understandable, then, that a majority of US allies in Europe, including the UK and France, and also in the Middle East – Egypt and Saudi Arabia – were not present in the new embassy’s inauguration. They remain in support of the UN resolution on the legal status of Jerusalem, which has yet to be finalized.

AP PHOTO/AMR NABIL

Delegates attend the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting on May 17 at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit called for an international probe into the alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians during this week’s deadly violence along the Gaza border.

Nevertheless, Trump said that his administration “would not take any stance on any issues of final status, including on special limitations of Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem”. This is despite the US’ acknowledgment of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Regardless of Trump’s statement, it is interesting to note that two key Middle-eastern states – Saudi Arabia and Egypt – are keeping mum on the embassy relocation. Saudi Arabia, in its rivalry with Iran in Syria and Yemen, should support Trump administration’s policies to maintain US support in facing Tehran.

Meanwhile, the administration of Gen. Abdel Fatah el-Sisi in Egypt is facing economic and political problems and is in dire need of international support. Sisi gains financial support from Gulf countries and political support from Washington. Therefore, Cairo may not be able to object Washington and Riyadh.

This is why Palestine feels as if it was left behind by the Arab world. This is despite that for Palestinians, Trump’s decision was so hurtful. Furthermore, the embassy relocation was done one day before the 70-year anniversary of the Nakba, which is the calamitous ethnic cleansing and a total destruction of the Palestinian society in 1948.

Therefore, it is understandable that a massive protest, reportedly involving 400,000 people, was held on the Gaza-Israel border on the Nakba commemoration day, as a form of resistance against Israel and Trump’s decision. The embassy relocation is like a hammer that strikes the bridge of peace and threatens the peace process and the two-state solution.

REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ

Demonstrators take part in a protest on May 16 in the Manhattan borough of New York City in the United States, urging freedom and dignity for Palestine.

Age of darkness

History is filled with efforts to resolve the Jerusalem issue, reaffirming that it has never been easy to achieve. The problem has remained unresolved since the internationalization of Jerusalem after the UN General Assembly issued Resolution 181 (the UN Partition Plan for Jerusalem) in 1948. Resolution 181 labels Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (separate entity). The city is neither part of Arab or Israel, despite the Palestine being split into two: the Arab part and the Israel part.

However, on July 30, 1980, the Israel Knesset (Parliament) unilaterally approved a law declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (Haaretz, May 15, 2018). Israel unites West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem (that it had seized in the 1967 War) under its control. This was a violation of international law.

Demographically and geographically, Jerusalem has been divided. Some regions are resided by Jews and other regions are resided by Palestinians. There are also Jewish, Christian and Islamic regions with their respective holy sites. It is important to note that the important and holy sites of the three religions are located close to one another. However, it will not be easy to transform such a demographic map into a political map (Alan Dershowitz: 2005).

Kompas/Handining

Trias Kuncahyono

In other words, there will never be a productive resolution to the Israel-Palestine or Israel-Arab conflict without a sensible and consensual solution on Jerusalem (Amnon Ramon, ed: 2010).

This means that the end of conflicts in the region will be highly dependent on resolving the Jerusalem issue. This reaffirms the central position of the Jerusalem issue in the resolution of the Arab-Israel or Palestine-Israel conflict.

Therefore, the US move to relocate its embassy in Israel will make the peace process even more difficult. It will not bring a new dawn for the peace process, but will instead lead it to darkness. Consequently, the fate of the two-state solution will be increasingly unclear.