Should France and the UK officially recognise the State of Palestine during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in the coming days, it will be the most momentous event of the week, and if their pledges are to be believed, that is what they will do, as might others.
Recognition of the State of Palestine by two permanent members of the UN Security Council and two G7 members is one of the fruits of a recent Saudi-French initiative to revive, sustain and support the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. A major conference on it is being held on 22 September, following an earlier conference at the UN’s headquarters in July, which rallied support for the two-state framework.
This diplomatic movement does not mean that the path to meaningful negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has become any smoother. On the contrary, members of Israel’s government want to annex nearly 80% of the West Bank, demolish yet more homes, build yet more settlements (between the Ma’ale Adumim and Giv’at Ze’ev) in Area C, and impose full Israeli military rule over Gaza.
Being cut in two
The Israeli plans include two new roads from which Palestinians will be barred. The first will connect the towns of Al-Eizariya and Az-Za’ayyem, while the second will bypass Al-Eizariya to link with the area near the village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of occupied Jerusalem. This would mean the forced displacement of Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley and the Khan al-Ahmar area, denying landowners access to property.
The most dangerous aspect of the plan is that it severs occupied Jerusalem from the West Bank and cuts off the northern city of Ramallah from Bethlehem in the south. This would fragment the remaining Palestinian territories into two non-contiguous zones, effectively destroying the geographic coherence necessary for any viable Palestinian state and dismantling what little remains of the Oslo Accords, which laid the foundation for statehood.
