Palestinians cannot be left out

International diplomacy, particularly US diplomacy, has been leaving the root causes of instability and flares of violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians improperly addressed. Although the geopolitical alliances in the region have changed due to the change in the perception of threat, injustice toward the Palestinians remains and must be addressed fairly. اضافة اعلان

While the Palestinians are to blame for their internal differences and disputes, they need help to agree on a national goal. Otherwise, they will continue to sustain more losses. The disputed legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Liberation Organization, and Hamas makes it easier for Israel to claim that there is no peace partner among the Palestinians. This means the Palestinians must get their act together. 


Palestinians face up to Israeli soldiers on June 17, 2022, in the Masafer Yatta area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Photo: AFP) 

The same argument holds true for the Israelis. Since the mid-1990s, there has not been a credible peace partner willing to accommodate very reasonable Palestinian demands. Today, the two parties are at a standstill and the region sees the emergence of new states aspiring to take matters into their own hands. All the while, while Israel’s economy has been growing, the Palestinians are not making significant headway in any direction.

While Israel is thriving economically, the Palestinians are suffering because of the occupation and the restrictions on their lives.

Israelis’ and Palestinians’ contradictory positions and vagueness are not conducive to reaching an agreement. The fact that Israel is going for the 5th election round in four years means that the internal political disputes are deeply rooted. The Israeli society is divided and it shows, with clarity, in the elections they held over the past three years.

The Palestinians are in a much more difficult position. They have not held national elections since 2006 and they are paying the price for that.

While Israel is thriving economically, the Palestinians are suffering because of the occupation and the restrictions on their lives. Israel’s GDP increased from $250 billion in 2012 to nearly over (expected) $400 billion in 2022. The Palestinian economy grew from $12 billion in 2012 to nearly (expected) $16 billion in 2022.

Under such circumstances, there are two good reasons for the Palestinians to demand total integration with Israel. One would be political, whereby they could demand equal political rights and civil liberties, as people under occupation or as part of Israel. The other, economic, would see an integration in the Israeli economy to address the Palestinians’ daily economic tribulations. These two reasons make sense for international public opinion, as we witness a growing global discourse of rights-based approach to the conflict. 

The moral argument for the above approaches has been gaining recognition in the international legal discourse regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli reliance on power alone is not accepted by billions of people who are pro peace and do not want to justify or turn a blind eye to the continuous injustices against the Palestinians and illegal occupation of Arab land.   


The writer is chairman of NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions [email protected].


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