Why is there no Palestinian state? The answer lies in decades of failed opportunities - opinion
Palestinians cannot repeatedly pass up opportunities, embrace or tolerate violence instead, and then insist that someone else is solely responsible for the consequences.
The debate online sparked by the question of why there is no Palestinian state today reveals a glaring lack of understanding about the conflict's history. Throughout the centuries, the land of Palestine was governed by various empires such as the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans, and the British, but never by an independent Palestinian Arab country with its own administration, army, currency, or capital.
Even the term "Palestine" is notably absent from historical texts like the Hebrew Bible, Christian New Testament, and the Quran. It was only after the Romans quashed the Bar-Kochba revolt in the 2nd century CE that the Romans renamed Judea as Syria Palaestina to dissociate the land from Jewish sovereignty.
Over the years, Palestine was proposed to be split into two states - one Jewish and one Arab - multiple times. In 1937, the British Peel Commission recommended partition, but Arab leaders turned it down. In 1947, the UN proposed the same plan, which again was rejected by the Arab leadership. Despite this, no Palestinian state was created during the 19 years of Jordanian control over Judea and Samaria and Egyptian control of Gaza following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), founded in 1964, never focused its demands on Judea and Samaria and Gaza but instead demanded the entirety of Israel. Similarly, after Israel's 1967 Six-Day War victory, the Arab League at Khartoum articulated its "Three Nos": no peace, no recognition, no negotiations with Israel.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords provided a new opportunity. Israel recognized the PLO, withdrew from Palestinian population centers, and helped establish the Palestinian Authority, hoping for negotiations leading to a permanent settlement. However, the PLO did not focus on Judea and Samaria and Gaza, and instead demanded the whole of Israel. When Israel presented a broader set of terms in December 2000, Yasser Arafat rejected them. Since then, there has been no new diplomatic effort from the Palestinians.
The Second Intifada erupted after the collapse of the Oslo process, with Palestinian terrorists attacking Israeli civilians. The subsequent withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 allowed Hamas to seize control, turning the territory into a base for terrorism.
Despite these failures, Israel continued to pursue peace efforts. In 2008, Ehud Olmert proposed a deal that would have given the Palestinians the majority of Judea and Samaria, shared sovereignty in Jerusalem, and a tunnel linking the two territories. However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the plan, citing various reasons.
The current situation underscores the repeated missed opportunities for a Palestinian state, highlighting the need to learn from past mistakes and pursue a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
