Through recent history there have been several attempts for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, however all attempts have failed and been rejected by world organisation bodies and nations. I will attempt to identify what have been some of the reasons for this failure. These range from Border disputes to U.S. foreign policy. Many debates have been held by experts in this field, and I will attempt to narrow down the main aspects such as: the constant dispute of Borders, the Wall, who will get hold of East Jerusalem, the constant disagreements between Hamas and Fatah and the influence the Zionist lobby holds on American politics.
World renowned professor who has addressed this issue is Professor Norman Finkelstein he suggested that the sole reason for the failure for an independent Palestinian state is Israel’s refusal to collaborate with the Palestinian opposition or to follow the guidelines which the U.N. has provided. Finkelstein refutes Israel claim that before a Palestinian state is achieved, Palestinian authorities must accept peace. Finkelstein points out “each time Hamas agreed to a truce at some time Israel has sabotage the truce and instigate Hamas into retaliating. He gives the reason why Israel does that by Former Foreign Minister Zipni Lizni “When Israel accepted the truce, it wanted to create a temporary period of calm. A long term of calm harms Israelis strategic goal, in powers Hamas and gives the impression that Israel recognises the movement.”. Finkelstein expands by saying that Israel does not want a truce because it is fearful it may legitimate Hamas and give the impression that Israel recognises the movement. He identifies that that Israel refusal to recognise Palestinian authorities has an impact on the push for statehood. Finkelstein also suggests that Israel’s constant refusal to follow international law is virtually making an independent Palestinian state. For instance, he points out that that in Article 2 of the UN charter it is forbidden for countries to gain territory by war. This, however, is how Israel assumed control of the West Bank and the Gaza strip after winning the six day war in 1967. Even the International Criminal Court says that those are Occupied Palestinian Territories and not disputed land as Israel puts it. One of the other major obstacles for an independent Palestinian state is Israel refusal to remove Israeli settlements from the occupied West Bank.
Also one of the main obstacles for the achievement for an independent Palestinian state is the constant disagreement between the two parties representing Palestine and Israel refusal to recognise the democratically elected Hamas as being an legitimate representative of the Palestinian peoples in Gaza. On the one hand theirs Fatah led by Mahmoud Abbas which to some extent governs the West Bank and Hamas who governs the Gaza strip led by Khaled Mashal. Recently a unification deal was achieved and this was seen as a triumph by most governments while Israel and the U.S. saw this as a triumph for terrorism. Mark Regev Israeli spokesman said “that Hamas becoming into the Palestinian government was a victory for terrorism”. Chomsky says this statement it self-brought huge problems to an already problematic issue, it made Israel position clear saying that any peace deal agreement won’t be achieved until Hamas is represented in the Palestinian government. On the other side Hamas position is very clear, they don’t recognise Israel because till the right of return is achieved which Israel oppresses because it fears that a return of Palestinian refugees because it fears that if this is achieved the demographic nature of Israel will change and will result into a state which is inhabited mostly of Palestinians, that would make virtually the existence of Israel as a problematic one.
Israel internal political arena also causes issues for the achievement for an independent Palestinian state. El-Alami argues that the constant disagreements between the Labour (coalition) government and the Likout (coalition) government over the issue of the recognition of a Palestinian state. In the beginning of the millennium Israel and Palestine were in advanced talks in a peace deal at Taba an Egyptian resort town in January 2001. “At this meeting Israeli and Palestinian representatives agreed in accordance with the UN Security council resolution 242,” that the 4 June 1967 lines would be the borders between the state of Palestine and Israel. Both sides agreed to the principle of “land exchange and sovereignty for their respective areas”. Both sides accepted that Palestine should have sovereignty over Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and Israel should sovereignty over Jewish neighbourhoods. Israel and Palestine agreed that Jerusalem would be the capital of both Israel Palestine. However the agreement was scrapped as the government of Ehud Barack was thrown out of office and replaced and by the right wing government of Ariel Sharon. Since 2001 there have been several attempts for both sides to sit at the negotiations table but all previous agreements have scrapped. Tzipi Livni former Israeli foreign minister demands that Palestine will have to accept an Israeli military presence in the West Bank and supports Palestine as being a Police state but at no means would Palestine deploy a military (Aljazeera). However this proposal contradicts the idea of a sovereign state, Chris Brown defines a sovereign as “the principle that within its territorial boundaries the state is the supreme political authority, and that outside those boundaries the state recognises no higher political authority” Chris Brown also adds that in order for a state to be sovereign it must own a strong defence force something the Israeli government clearly objects. The constant change of positions in the Israeli government has caused problems in these fragile negations.
According to Grace Halsell The Zionist lobby holds an immense power over American politics which means the politically and economically strongest nation in the world sides with Israel, making it almost impossible for the Palestinian territories to become its own state. Grace Halsell argues that the American far right would never allow the state of Palestine to be created. In support, she states in her book ‘Prophecy and politics’ that the hidden agenda behind America far right policies is that it is trying to recreate bible prophecies that would initiate the Armageddon war which will eventually bring Jesus back on earth according to their beliefs. In order to achieve this, the children of Israel must return to biblical Palestine and establish the law of God. This results the creation of a Jewish homeland on biblical Palestine. In her book she also suggest due to the heavy funding the Zionist lobby run the senate resulting in all decisions for a pro-Palestinian state to be abandon as this would upset donors. This is also been suggested by Noam Chomsky and Ron David where they agree that American foreign policy has always and will always be influenced by Zionist lobby’s and Israelis interest.
The continuation of settler construction on occupied Palestinian territories has also been a major obstacle for an independent Palestinians state. Many diplomats and academics such as Jeremy Salt and Norman Finkelstein have agreed that this is one of the main issues blocking the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state. Finkelstein points out that in Article 49 of the fourth Genève convention “it is forbidden for an occupying power to transfer its population to occupied territories’”. Israel’s constant refusal to follow international law has resulted in confrontations between the Israeli defence force and Palestinian militant groups, hardening already cold relations. Also, Palestinian politicians have made it very clear that they will not sit at the ‘negotiating table’ until Israel removes all its settlers and settlements from the West Bank, which them makes the entire idea of a Palestinian state more problematic. The settlements are the basic barrier of a Palestinian state according to Finkelstein he says they separate Palestinian villages and also it forces Israel to deploy its military. He famously quotes former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon who famously said in 1998 “Everybody has to move; run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements, because everything we take now will stay ours. Everything we don’t grab will go to them.” This clearly shows figureheads of the Israeli government actually don’t approve oblige by international law according to Finkelstein and they don’t support the idea of an independent Palestinian state.
The construction of a Wall separating Israel from the West Bank is also an important reason why ‘efforts for an independent Palestine state appear to be continuously hampered’ as the wall has currently taken 21% of Palestinian occupied land directly into the absolute control of Israel authorities. This has been described as apartheid by Jeremy Salt and Tesmund Tutu. The wall also cuts thru east Jerusalem showing again Israel breaking of International Law.
Jeremy Salt suggest that Israel is above international law and the continuing Vetoes of the United States concerning the condemnation of illegal behaviour encourages the present behaviour which make the Palestinian to despair. The chairman of the PLO Mahmoud Abbas in these days is oriented to request the UN general assembly to give the Palestinian territory the status of a non-member state which it is hoped will boost its international status
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