A prominent Palestinian leader since the days of the late President Yasser Arafat, Jibril Rajoub has enjoyed an illustrious career. He has held several critical security and political positions, culminating in his appointment as Lieutenant-General of Palestinian Security. He currently serves as the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement.
He has also spent around 17 years, on and off, in Israeli prison, having been arrested multiple times until he was released in a 1985 prisoner exchange deal.
In a wide-ranging interview with Al Majalla conducted in his Ramallah office, Rajoub laid out his blueprint for establishing an independent Palestinian state after the war in Gaza.
He says Israel’s current war on Gaza has been a wake-up call to the US and Western nations about the dangers of the Israeli far right, which he views as detrimental to their interests, as well as to regional stability and global peace.
"This is clearly a war on the Palestinian people, not Hamas,” he says.
He talks about the renewed global focus on Palestine—a nation practically forgotten by the world—and argues that any resolution must incorporate Hamas because its ideological and resistance roots resonate deeply within the fabric of Palestinian society.
However, Rajoub says that Hamas needs to adopt a political strategy that can bridge the Palestinian divide and better align with the international community.
Rajoub says he considers Hamas to be a political adversary in the struggle over the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people and that ending Palestinian division requires more than good intentions and popular rhetoric—it will take hard work.
Below is the complete transcript of the interview.
Do the Oslo Accords still have legs, given the fact that the Israeli government is ruled by the far right and Netanyahu has vowed to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state?
No. They are null at this point. Since 1996, Netanyahu's strategy—and that of the Israeli right—has focused on two main objectives. Firstly, not to acknowledge the Palestinian people and their rights, even nominally. And secondly, to establish facts on the ground that make a Palestinian state impossible.
It has successfully done this through settlement expansion and the Judaisation of Palestinian territories, particularly in occupied Jerusalem, aimed at erasing Palestinian identity.
But two positive developments have taken place since 7 October. The first is a clear shift in international public opinion against Israel, largely due to its genocidal war in Gaza and the intensification of its ethnic cleansing campaign across the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Secondly, international leaders, including those in the United States, have increasingly recognised that the actions of Israel’s far right do not serve its interests and threaten regional stability and global peace.
There has been a renewed push to resolve the conflict through the establishment of a Palestinian state within internationally-recognised borders—the 1967 borders. They believe this is crucial to Israel’s existence and integration into the Middle East.
The Oslo Accords laid the foundations for a future Palestinian state, including international recognition and the establishment of Palestinian embassies; so do people say it intended to kill the prospect of such a state?
The idea that the Oslo Accords have buried the possibility of a Palestinian state overlooks their significant impact. The accords tied the establishment of a state as a necessary component to resolving the conflict.
It also established the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority provided essential services to Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem and gave them autonomy in their decisions and ambitions. This helped bring about an international consensus on the legitimacy of Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
According to Yair Lapid, who spoke with Al Majalla in December, the idea of a Palestinian state has not been completely ruled out in Israeli society. But he said it could be significantly postponed until after the events of 7 October.
What are the obstacles today to establishing a Palestinian state? Is it the current government led by Netanyahu, or is Israeli society at large fundamentally opposed to it?
I think the issue is bigger than individual leadership or political ideologies within Israel. One of the biggest obstacles, I believe, is the lack of international resolve—particularly from America and Europe—to confront and actively oppose Israeli settlement policies and its broader agenda aimed at eroding the Palestinian presence and heritage.
The absence of decisive action has led to a tacit acceptance of right-wing Israeli policies, which are increasingly seen as fascistic.
Secondly, internal division hugely undermines Palestinian efforts to achieve statehood.
Finally, geopolitical shifts over the past 15 years have also diminished the Arab world's influence on the Israeli occupation, allowing Israel to act with impunity despite the demographic reality that the population— from the river to the sea— is almost evenly split between Jews and non-Jews, with over 50% being Palestinian.
Despite the longstanding presence of Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza since 1967, the international community's response to Israeli policies has been tepid at best.
Yair Lapid's comments on the feasibility of a Palestinian state, while seemingly open to the idea, do not necessarily reflect a commitment to addressing the underlying issues. Instead, they appear to serve as a superficial acknowledgement aimed at placating global public opinion, which is increasingly critical of Israeli actions and the lack of a meaningful path toward Palestinian statehood.
This global sentiment, fuelled by recent events in Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank, has been a wake-up call to the international community. Lapid's statements are a reaction to this growing global movement that is urging governments—even those that are staunch allies of Israel like the United States—to reconsider their positions.
