Arab Summit Endorses Two-state Solution in “One Voice”

March 30, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Thursday, 30 March 2017 | Twenty-one Arab kings, presidents and leaders from across the region gathered at the King Hussein bin Talal Convention Center at the Dead Sea in Jordan on Wednesday for the 28th Arab League Summit. The confab came to an end with a closing statement which highlighted the participants’ unwavering stance on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

“We affirm that we will continue to work to relaunch serious Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations…that take place within a set period of time based on the two-state solution,” the closing statement read. The document added that the solution should be based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative—without any amendments.

This initiative, which was first introduced 15 years ago, demands that Israel withdraw from Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem land which the Jewish state liberated during the defensive Six Day War in 1967. These areas, the plan proposes, should then become the Palestinian state. In exchange for giving up the land, Israel is promised normalization of ties with Arab and Muslim countries.

Addressing the audience during the summit’s opening session, King Abdullah II of Jordan said that peace and stability in the Middle East would remain an impossibility without the establishment of a Palestinian state to coexist side-by-side with Israel.

The summit’s strong focus on a two-state solution arguably comes after American President Donald Trump said during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America did not view the two-state solution as the sole path to peace in the Middle East.

“I am looking at two-state or one-state; I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” Trump said at the time.

According to The Times of Israel, yesterday’s statement is intended to communicate to Trump that “a deal on Palestinian statehood must precede any Israeli-Arab normalization.”

A number of leaders who were present at the summit, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will meet in the coming weeks.

Commenting on the summit itself, Abbas hailed it as a “success” and boasted that the Arab leaders would convey the “clear” and “specific” conclusions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict to Trump in “one voice.”

Participants also spent a good amount of time during the summit condemning the Jewish state for all hosts of evil. Condemning Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria proved high on the Israel-bashing agenda with Abbas calling it an attempt to “wreck the two-state solution,” and Abdullah accusing Jerusalem of “undermining” the peace process.

The final statement released on Friday also appealed to countries to refrain from relocating their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Over the past few decades, Israel has been on the receiving end of numerous suggested plans, accords, initiatives and summits aimed at brokering peace between the Jewish state and the Palestinians. Some plans had merit to establish a framework for further negotiations between the two sides. Others simply did not. The Arab Peace Initiative falls into the latter category.

The ten-sentence proposal, unveiled and adopted by the Arab League in 2002, demands that Israel withdraw to pre-1967 borders, evacuate all Jews living in Judea and Samaria, divide Jerusalem and welcome an influx of “Palestinian refugees.” In exchange, the Jewish state will receive the promise of normalization of ties with Arab countries. The Arab League accepted the plan. Israel politely declined.

Posted on March 30, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 30 March 2017)

Photo Credit: Sebastian Derungs/ World Economic Forum/ swiss-image.ch/ Wikipedia

Photo License: Wikimedia