Jordan’s prime minister says the kingdom would look “positively” at creating a binational state that guarantees equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians if Israel’s proposed annexation of illegally occupied parts of the West Bank closes the door on a solution to two states.
The international community and the Palestinian leadership remain committed to a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict. Israel rejects the idea of a binational state, fearing that an eventual Palestinian majority would jeopardize its existence as a Jewish state.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to annex up to a third of the occupied West Bank in accordance with United States President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan would make it virtually impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state.
Critics say that would force Israel to choose between being an “apartheid state” or granting equal rights to all.
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Why does Israel want to annex the West Bank? The | Start here |
“If you close the door to the two-state solution, I could see this in a positive light, if we are clearly opening the door to a democratic one-state solution,” Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz told the Guardian newspaper of the UK. in an interview published Tuesday.
“But no one in Israel is talking about it, so we cannot just sweeten what they are doing. Who is talking about the one-state solution in Israel? They are talking about apartheid in every way,” he added.
“I challenge any of Israel to say yes, let’s finish the two-state solution, it is not feasible,” he said.
“But let’s work together on a one-state democratic solution. I think we will see that very favorably. But closing one and thinking about the other is only self-deception.”
Jordan, a close ally of the West and one of the two Arab states that have made peace with Israel, strongly opposes annexation. Along with most Arab and Western countries, it supports Palestinian demands for a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
Support for a democratic binational state is still largely limited to a small group of intellectuals on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No major party or faction in Israel or the Palestinian territories supports it.
While the two-state solution is still widely seen as the only way to resolve the conflict, the two sides remain deeply divided on the core issues and have not had substantive talks in over a decade.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership met on Tuesday and stressed the importance of carrying out popular activities in the occupied Palestinian territories against the Israeli annexation plan.
“We reject any violation of Palestinian rights, which are supported by decisions of international law, and affirm our continued march for the fight for freedom and independence,” said the leadership.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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