Zwei-Staaten-Lösung Weg zum Frieden zwischen Israel und Palästina?

A historic meeting full of hope. In 1993, the Prime Minister of Israel and the head of the Palestinians promised real peace efforts. Let me say to you, the Palestinians, we are destined to live on the same soil, in the same land. It will require even more courage and determination to continue to build coexistence and peace between us. Thank you, Nana. But this handshake was not enough. Two states on the same soil. Today, this solution seems to be further than ever. The US President expresses his condolences to the Israeli Prime Minister. Since the terror attacks of Hamas against Israel on October 7, the Palestinian question is suddenly back in the focus of world politics. We must keep pursuing a path that allows Israel and the Palestinians a life of security, dignity and peace. For me, that means a two-state solution. And that is the mantra of the two-state solution of all diplomats. It remains the preferred option of the international state community. The only question is whether it is politically feasible, whether it can be implemented concretely. In fact, the two-state solution was already feasible at the time of the Oslo Accords. To understand the conflict between Israel and Palestine, we start with a look at the maps. The two-state solution is based on the so-called green line. It partly coincides with the demarcation line between Israel and the Arab countries from 1967. The Palestinian areas are the Gaza Strip and West Jordan. But the realities on site are complex. As part of the Oslo Accords, zones are negotiated. The A-zone is subject to the Palestinian Authority. In the B-zone, the Palestinians have administrative control and Israel has military control. The C-zone, 62% of West Jordan, is controlled by Israel and is already partially Jewish at this time. The priority of the Oslo Accords was the security issues. It was about how the security, especially that of the State of Israel, can be guaranteed. Other issues were too short for this. The sovereignty, the division of territories, the establishment of administrative structures and authorities. The Oslo Accords brought at least the recognition of the right to exist of each other. Territory and border issues, on the other hand, were negotiated and have not been resolved to this day. There is no agreement on the border between the two states. Instead, there are walls and fences, barriers and checkpoints that massively limit the freedom of movement in Gaza and in West Jordan. And, on the other hand, exclude a territorially connected Palestinian state. First, you would have to find a way to clean up the Palestinian areas. The Gaza Strip, for example, is completely separated from the rest. Ramallah is closed off by Israeli settlements and cut off from the main transport routes. In addition, the Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, the Palestinians in West Jordan, and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in very different worlds. The fragmentation of the Palestinian territories is still intensified by the Israeli settlements, which are becoming more and more numerous, although they are viewed by most countries as ethnically illegal. At the time of the Oslo Accords, 250,000 Jews lived in settlements in occupied territory. Today, there are more than 700,000. Entire cities were partly built without permission, but later legalized. 5% of the Israeli population now lives in these settlements. Only a few were cleared, because the political risk is high. It is difficult to imagine that Israel would accept a clearing of the settlements. In 2005, this happened in the course of the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but it was experienced as a legitimate national dream. And I think the Israeli government took the lesson from it that such a thing should not be repeated. The current government of Netanyahu has repeatedly named the number of one million settlers until 2030 as its goal. The settlers are now also present in East Jerusalem. Israel has even annexed the district. There is the Temple Mount, a holy site for the three monotheistic religions, with the wall of lamentation for the Jews and the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the Muslims. For Jerusalem, claimed by both parties as the capital, the UN sees a special status. Only Donald Trump, as President of the USA, has created facts. He recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in 2017. And thus indirectly also the annexation of East Jerusalem. What this means for the idea of ​​a Palestinian state, remained unknown. The Jerusalem issue and Israeli settlement policy are the main obstacles to a peace process. The last direct negotiations took place in 2013 and failed. Since Oslo, the fronts have hardened. The focus of Israeli domestic policy has been unceasingly shifted to the right and even to the far right. This has various reasons. One of them is the failure of the peace negotiations. In addition, there is the growing influence of religious Zionist rights. And with him, the idea of ​​a great Israel. The great Israeli ideology is located on the borders of the biblically praised country. Its supporters are also in the government coalition. Because Netanyahu is dependent on the support of right-wing radical parties, such as that of Ben-Gurion. He simply propagates the exclusion of all Palestinians. Radical voices, which rather preach hate than peace, are also found on the Palestinian side. The Hamas, which has been controlling the Gaza Strip since its election victory in 2007, propagates the armed struggle. It denies Israel's right to exist and is classified by the EU and the USA as a terrorist organization. It fights with the Fatah party for the political representation of the Palestinians. The Fatah and their boss Mahmoud Abbas, who is also president of the Palestinian Authority, manage the areas in West Jordan. But Abbas is old and without credibility. He has not been elected in West Jordan for 17 years. One of the great problems of the Palestinians is the fact that the generation of politicians of the Oslo Accords and even the epoch before it has not been resolved to this day. Because they still refuse to give way to a new, younger generation. The younger ones believe less and less in the two-state solution. According to current surveys, only one-third of the Palestinians and Arab Israelis support a two-state solution. A low point since the Oslo Accords. Even more disturbing, three-quarters of the Israelis and Palestinians no longer believe that the other side would ever accept an independent state. Accordingly, there was only one peace option, a single, binational state. The one-state solution is actually a possible variant, which more and more Palestinians demand. But with a look at the demographic development in Israel, it immediately becomes clear that such a state would mean the end of Israeli dominance in such a state. In a single state, the 5 million Palestinians of the occupied territories would live together with the 9 million Israeli citizens at the moment. Of these Israeli citizens there are already 1.9 million Arabs. In a binational state, Palestinians and Jewish Israelis would practically keep their distance. But the Knesset passed the controversial National State Act in 2018. It defines the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people. Many Israelis protested against this law, seeing it as a danger to democracy and freedom of religion. But the law passed and now even counts as the basic law, which represents a high hurdle for the one-state solution. So there would be a State of Israel, which is defined as Jewish, but in which Palestinian citizens also live. They already exist today, but they are officially called Arab Israelis. The reference to a Palestinian identity is therefore omitted. In addition, like today, the Arab Israelis would not have the same rights. And they would undoubtedly be limited to certain settlements and subject to a fairly repressive control. From the abolition of illegal Israeli settlements to the exchange of political rights, the hurdles for a sustainable solution are enormous. And yet it is probably the only way to enable a sovereign Palestinian state and at the same time ensure the security of Israel.