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The war between the Israeli Army and Hamas increased doubts about how alive the two-state proposal to resolve the long-standing conflict is, an idea initially raised by the United Nations in 1947 that was that the British mandate in Palestinian territories would end up creating two independent States: one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, while Jerusalem would be considered an international city, since it would be shared by both States. However, the approach was not completely fulfilled. We address it in this debate.
Only Israel became a State since 1948 and has expanded its borders beyond what was agreed upon at the UN and in the different treaties that have existed since then. Additionally, borders have changed amid multiple conflicts. In 1967 they were redrawn after the Six-Day War with which Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and most of the Syrian Golan Heights. Those limits have been moved even further with the annexations made by Israeli settlers, financed by the State of Israel.
Only after the Oslo Accords, in 1993, was the Palestinian National Authority created with the mandate to have political control in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem; the territories that the Palestinians consider as their own. But this has not been fulfilled either.
Although the Oslo peace was intended to be the beginning of a possible solution, it was partially diluted by the death of Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which fought for the creation of two States, and by the rejection of some Palestinian sectors such as Hamas or ultra-orthodox Israelis and the extreme right, such as the one that today governs with Benjamin Netanyahu. With this panorama, is the two-state solution still alive? We analyze it with the help of our guests:
– Lucas d’Auria, professor of International Relations at the Universidad de La Salle in Bogotá. He has a master’s degree in international relations theory from the London School of Economics and his areas of interest are critical international security studies.
– Ariel Goldgewicht, executive director of the Youth Leadership department of the World Zionist Organization and former officer in the Israeli Army’s elite special forces unit ‘Duvdeban’.
– Xavier Abu Eid, political scientist and former advisor to the Negotiations Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
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