In a praiseworthy move the US House of Representatives on Friday threw its weight behind a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. This comes at a particularly crucial time as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been vocally expressing his desire to annex the West Bank. The resolution should act as a warning to Israel that the US may not be prepared to support all its moves. The American concern for the Palestinians has definitely been expressed in the resolution, which is in sharp contrast to Donald Trump led US administration that has often displayed alignment with the so-called greater Israel ideology of Israeli extreme right-wingers.

We believe that the world leaders should embrace and promote a plan that respects the basic principles of international law for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If Israel has the right to exist as a sovereign nation for Jews Palestine must have the same right. The Palestinians have been suffering immensely for over seven decades under Israeli occupation.

We have said repeatedly that a two-state solution is the only way for lasting peace in the conflict-ridden region. Since the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 an international consensus has emerged that the eventual solution would involve the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza existing in peace and security with Israel.  

It is vitally important that the international community actively ensure the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions – including consistent differentiation in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2334, between Israel in its recognised and legitimate borders, and its illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

In the West Bank and Gaza the situation is clear: Palestinians are disenfranchised, second-class subjects of the same sovereign government that rules over Israelis on both sides of the Green Line –even if in limited areas Israeli rule is mediated through a Palestinian Authority whose “authority” is ultimately subordinate to Israel. We believe that any plan that reduces Palestinian statehood to an entity devoid of sovereignty, territorial contiguity and economic viability would severely compound the failure of previous peace-making efforts.

Viable peace in the region requires the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel on borders based on the pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed, minimal and equal land swaps. If Israel has the right to exist as a sovereign nation for Jews Palestine must have the same right.