Gershon Baskin
July 30, 2025
International recognition by individual countries of the State of Palestine is an important step and something that I have been calling for and supporting for many years. I have told Heads of State and Ambassadors from countries that claim to support the two-states solution but only recognize one of them, that they need to “put up or shut up”. We have had enough duplicity in the dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by countries that consider themselves friends of Israel and/or Palestine. If the two-states solution is back on the table, as it seems to be, and if it is the only solution to this conflict that enables the two peoples living on the Land between the River and the Sea (7 million Israeli Jews and 7 million Palestinian Arabs) to achieve a territorial expression of their identity, then recognition by all countries of the world of both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine is essential.
The upcoming (hopeful) recognition of the State of Palestine by France, the UK, Malta, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Portugal is very welcome. In reality, this will not change anything for the Palestinian people who will remain under Israeli occupation, but nonetheless it is very important. If 192 Member States of the United Nations recognize the State of Palestine, but Israel continues to refuse to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the occupation will continue. Nonetheless, the recognition of the State of Palestine by those countries that consider themselves allies and supporters of Israel, of Israel’s right to defend itself, of Israel’s right to exist, sends a very important message to the people of Israel (probably not to the present government of Israel which is a disaster for the people of Israel). The message is that the two-states solution is alive and well and while these countries are recognizing the State of Palestine and the right of the people of Palestine to self-determination, it is also a reaffirmation of the two-states solution that grants the same legitimacy for the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in a democratic state (with full equality for all of its citizens) to live in peace with their Palestinian neighbors.
The recognition of the State of Palestine by these countries and others that will follow should also be clear in pointing out the damaging message (to the Palestinian people) of the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” because that slogan is against the two-states solution and negates the existence of Israel and the right of Israel to exist. This slogan is in fact an anti-Palestinian slogan because it enables the imagination of a reality in which Israel no longer exists and it is therefore, an anti-peace, anti-two-states solution slogan. There is no one state solution, even if it is offered as the utopian reality of a truly democratic state where Jews, Christians and Muslims live in peace and equality. The conflict between the two peoples living on the land in almost equal numbers has never been about creating the United States of Israel-Palestine. The two people living on the Land have been willing to fight, to die and to kill for more than 100 years for a territorial expression of their identity. They want a solution that recognizes both peoples’ claim that they give their identity to the Land and take their identity from it. Only the two-states solution enables both people the right of self-determination.
The reluctance of both peoples to accept the legitimacy of the claim for the recognition of their national rights and self-determination of the other side is understandable. However, it is time to get beyond that demand for legitimacy of national rights and to finally understand that both people are there, both people have an historical connection to the land, and both people intend to stay on the land as a national entity for a long time to come. This in itself would be a step in the right direction. After October 7 and every day since, the futility of continuing this conflict should be apparent to both peoples and to the entire world. The war in Gaza must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war and from it must emerge the two-states solution with the recognition of both states by the entire international community.
Along with recognition of the State of Palestine, it is time to adopt a new political slogan offered by the Alliance for Two States: From the River to the Sea, on Two States We Agree!
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From the River to the Sea, on Two States We Agree!