Encountering Peace: Two states for two peoples

In his United Nations speech, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Security Council to “to urgently adopt a resolution comprising the basis and foundations for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that would serve as a binding reference and guide for all if the vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, is to survive and if peace is to prevail in the land of peace.” In November 2009 I drafted a proposal for a Security Council resolution which I shared with the leaders of Israel, the PLO and the United States. The following is that draft:

EXPRESSING ITS continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East, emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every state in the area can live in security, affirms that the fulfillment of UN Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, which should include the application of both the following principles:

1. The establishment of the state of Palestine on the basis of the June 4, 1967 borders, in the areas of the West Bank and Gaza including East Jerusalem.

2. Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of the State of Israel and the state of Palestine in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.

3. The governments of the State of Israel and the state of Palestine will enter into immediate negotiations between them on the exact borders between them based on the June 4, 1967 borders with agreed upon territorial exchanges of equal size and quality. The guiding principle in the determination of the borders is that the state of Palestine will be composed of 22 percent of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and the remaining 78% of the territory will be the State of Israel.

4. This settlement will establish Palestine as the Palestinian homeland, just as Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people. Both States are free to maintain their own immigration policies allowing for the return of nationals to each state respectively. The issue concerning the rights of Palestinian refugees will be dealt with in negotiations between the parties seeking to reach a just and agreed upon solution that will put an end to the decades of suffering of the Palestinian refugees.

5. The issue of the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab and Islamic countries will be dealt with in the framework of bilateral negotiations between Israel and the second parties directly involved.

6. Accepting this resolution: Israel must immediately demonstrate support for the creation of a prosperous and successful Palestinian state by removing unauthorized outposts, and ending settlement expansion. The government of the state of Palestine must demonstrate that their State will create opportunity for all its citizens and govern justly and must show that a Palestinian state will accept its responsibility and have the capability to be a source of stability and peace for its own citizens, for the people of Israel and for the whole region.

7. In Accordance with the Principles laid down in UN Resolution 181 from November 29, 1947, both states will respect the rights of national minorities within their borders and grant them full equality under the law and in practice.

9. The Security Council recognizes the city of Jerusalem as the capitals of both states and calls on the Governments of the two states to negotiate the modalities for application of such in the city.

10. The Security Council recognizes the importance of the holy sites in Jerusalem to all three religions and proposes that they be placed under an international guardianship guaranteeing free and open access to all people who respect the sanctity of the sites or any other acceptable arrangement reached by agreement of the parties.

11. The Security Council empowers the Quartet to work with the governments of the State of Israel and the state of Palestine to conclude negotiations on the permanent borders of the two states within one year, including the modalities for the city of Jerusalem. The Quartet will report back to the Security Council on progress of those negotiations on a quarterly basis.

12. In accordance with Chapter VI and Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council announces its readiness to deploy peace-keeping troops to the state of Palestine to assist and to facilitate the withdrawal of Israeli security forces from the territories of the state of Palestine.

The Security Council calls on the General Assembly to act in discharge of its functions under Article 4 of the Charter and rule 125 of its rules of procedure, to: decide that the state of Palestine is a peace-loving state which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and willing to carry out those obligations; and decide to admit the state of Palestine to membership in the United Nations.

THE TWO-states solution was determined by the United Nations in UNGA Resolution 181 from November 29, 1947. This proposed Security Council resolution aims to put the entire international community behind the path towards ending the conflict, ending the Israeli occupation and creating a peaceful Palestinian state next to Israel on 22% of the land between the River and the Sea (far less than proposed in 1947).

Israel will finally achieve permanent recognized borders on 78% of the land between the river and the sea.

Jerusalem will finally be recognized and accepted as the capital of Israel when it is also recognized and accepted as the capital of Palestine.

As Abbas said in his UN speech: “We continue to sincerely extend our hands to the Israeli people to make peace. We realize that ultimately the two peoples must live and co-exist, each in their respective State… The core components of a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict do not require effort to discover, but rather what is needed is the will to implement them. And marathon negotiations are not required to determine them, but rather what is needed is the sincere intention reach peace. And those components are by no means a mysterious puzzle or intractable riddle, but rather are the clearest and most logical in the world.”

The writer is the Co-Chairman of IPCRI, the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post, a radio host on All for Peace Radio and the initiator and negotiator of the secret back channel for the release of Gilad Schalit.