By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--September 5, 2023
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The rapid deterioration in the security situation in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza requires the UN Security Council to take urgent steps to abandon its failed two-state solution expressed in Resolution 2334 passed on December 23, 2016 and adopt the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) published on June 8, 2022 as subsequently amended.
Article 24(1) of the United Nations Charter provides:
“In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, its members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf.”
The maintenance of international peace and security is being seriously threatened by events in the Middle East that could see a break out of hostilities at any time against Israel emanating from Iran, Lebanon or Syria.
Closer to Israel: In the first six months of this year, according to data compiled by the Rescuers without Borders organization there were 3,640 Palestinian terror attacks, which included 2,118 incidents of rock-throwing, 799 Molotov cocktail assaults, 18 attempted stabbings, 6 car rammings, and 101 shootings--culminating in a two-day-long Israeli military assault on the Jenin refugee camp.
The response by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on July 6, 2023 was pathetic:
“Mr. Guterres said he understood Israel’s legitimate concerns over its security, “but escalation is not the answer; it simply bolsters radicalization and leads to a deepening cycle of violence and bloodshed.”
He said it was in Israel’s long-term interest to abide by the two-State solution, which envisages an independent Palestine next door.
“Restoring the hope of the Palestinian people in a meaningful political process, leading to a two-State solution and the end of the occupation, is an essential contribution by Israel to its own security.”
Guterres’s “independent Palestine next door” has been unsuccessfully pursued by the United Nations since 29 November 1947 in 22% of Palestine west of the Jordan River--after 78% of Palestine east of the Jordan River--today called Jordan--had already been granted independence in 1946.
HKOPS proposes a different two-state solution between:
HKOPS offers:
HKOPS unravels decades of UN attempts to treat Arabs living West of the Jordan River as being different to Arabs living East of the Jordan River:
“Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighborhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines.”
Adoption by the Security Council of a policy calling for negotiations to implement HKOPS will certainly involve the Security Council in a major change of direction.
Can the Security Council afford to remain silent and just wring its hands at the rapidly-increasing violence happening before its very eyes as it sits in its ivory tower in New York?
Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”
Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.
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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com