Palestinian statehood and starvation - World - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

3 days ago

The push for wider international recognition of a Palestinian state is being overshadowed by aggressive Israeli policies against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The countdown is on for Palestinians to hear the world show more support for their right to their own state. According to a joint press conference of the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and France on Monday, on 21 September, during the launch of the UN General Assembly in New York, France along with several other states will be officially recognising Palestinian statehood.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that several European states will join France, whose President Emmanuel Macron announced the plan to recognise a Palestinian state during the annual UN General Assembly meetings in September. Other European and non-European countries, Barrot added, will join later in a process that should allow for the fulfilment of the two-state solution.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said that both Saudi Arabia and France are working to encourage more countries around the world to join the momentum for the 'overdue' recognition of a Palestinian state.
'Already, there are 129 [UN member] states that recognise Palestinian statehood, and we are working to get others to join the momentum,' he said.
Barrot and Bin Farhan were speaking at the New York headquarters of the UN on the sidelines of an international meeting headed by France and Saudi Arabia to promote Middle East peace.
The conference opened on Monday, after a few weeks of delay due to the Israeli strikes against Iran, and it is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday.
It is expected to issue a document, qualified by an informed diplomatic source in New York, as 'very detailed and quite clear in language', about what needs to be done for the fulfilment of the two-state solution, 'which remains at least in diplomatic quarters the only option for the management of the Palestinian cause.'
According to this source, there are three key documents that have acted as guidelines for the document that will be adopted by the around 70 UN member states attending the conference in New York: the 1947 UN Partition Plan of Palestine; the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative; and the Arab-Islamic Plan for the Reconstruction of Gaza.
'Every single line in the new document is in line with these three documents,' he said.
However, he explained that 'nobody is suggesting that Israel would withdraw to the lines of the 1947 Partition Plan. The objective is to the lines of 4 June 1967, with some inevitable adjustments.'
The source added that there are some 'general timelines' included in the document with regards to 'the process that should lead to the fulfillment of the two-state solution.' However, he added that these were not mandatory.
The document, the same source said, would include very clear language on five points: the need to pursue the diplomatic path to resolve the conflict; that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is the only representative of the Palestinian people and the body in charge of the launch of a Palestinian state; full respect for Israeli security 'including a monopoly of arms by the PA'; the expansion of Arab-Israeli peace; and financial support for a future Palestinian state.
In the press conference on Monday, Bin Farhan said that 'the recognition of a Palestinian state should not be subject to an Israeli veto.' He added that Saudi normalisation with Israel 'depends to a great extent' on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The push for international recognition of a Palestinian state 'as a base for Middle East peace' started during the UN General Assembly meetings last year on a Saudi initiative that was later joined by France under the banner of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.
It was only this month, against the backdrop of an international outcry against the Israeli war on Gaza, which has evolved into a war of starvation, that Macron announced the French commitment to recognise a Palestinian state.
Currently, Palestine has a non-member observer status at the UN, secured in a General Assembly vote in November 2012. However, according to Palestinian assessments over the years, both from the PA and from the resistance movements in Gaza, this status has not secured Palestinian rights on the ground.
On Monday, Barrot said he expected Israel to release the European financial aid directed to the PA and to allow a prompt humanitarian aid mission for Gaza.
Barrot and Bin Farhan spoke hours after President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, in a special televised statement, appealed to US President Donald Trump to act promptly to end the 'tragedy in Gaza' and to allow for the entry of sufficient aid to starving Gazans.
Al-Sisi said that Gaza needs no fewer than 600 to 700 trucks of aid per day to overcome the severe starvation it has been facing.
In a counter statement to that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has claimed that there is no starvation in Gaza, Trump said on Monday that it is hard to fake the pictures reflecting the acute hunger of the Gazans.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told the conference on the Palestinian cause this week that Egypt is heavily engaged in the push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Cairo and Doha are committed to working for a ceasefire in Gaza despite growing pessimism over the chances for a deal implementing a two-month truce that would allow for the release of a significant number of the surviving Israeli hostages in Gaza, the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid for Gazans, and the start of a process of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
An Egyptian source said on Monday evening that there are crucial problems hampering the chances for a ceasefire.
'Netanyahu is stalling,' the source said. He added that it was only under firm international pressure that he had agreed to allow some aid trucks in from Egypt and for air-drops of aid to be administered by Jordan and the UAE.
Addressing the UN conference in New York, Barrot said that the current US-operated aid operation for Gaza had led to a blood bath. Since the beginning of the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in May, over 900 Palestinian civilians have died trying to access the distributed food, many shot by Israeli soldiers positioned near the hand-out points.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israel has continued to annex homes and evict Palestinians. The operations have been coupled with attacks from armed Israeli settlers against Palestinians, both Muslims and Christians.
Last week, the Israeli Knesset voted in favour of the Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The non-binding vote that saw a majority of 71 against 13 called for the imposition of 'Israeli sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.'
The PA strongly denounced the decision, describing it as a 'declaration of war' against Palestinian rights and the effective end of any political horizon based on a two-state solution. 'This resolution reveals the true face of the occupation government,' said Palestinian Presidential Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
Hamas also condemned the move as a 'direct assault' on Palestinian land and called for increased resistance against what it labelled as 'creeping annexation'.
In his statement before the UN conference on the Palestinian cause, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the conference was being held while Israel was dismantling the two-state solution.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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