[News] Israel ambassador to UK says ‘absolutely no’ to two-state solution, Palestine statehood

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231214-israel-ambassador-to-uk-says-absolutely-no-to-two-state-solution-palestine-statehood/>
Israel ambassador to UK says ‘absolutely no’ to two-state solution,
Palestine statehood
Middle East Monitor - December 14, 2023
------------------------------

Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom has rejected the idea of an
independent Palestinian State and the two-state solution, as a whole, in
comments which further shed light on the Occupation’s intentions to avert
Palestinian statehood.

In an interview with *Sky News* yesterday, Israeli ambassador, Tzipi
Hotovely, stated that “I think it’s about time for the world to realise the
Oslo paradigm failed on October 7 and we need to build a new one”. When
asked if that new paradigm would include an independent State for
Palestinians, she replied “absolutely no”.

Calling the two-state solution “a formula that never worked, that created
this radical people on the other side”, Hotovely claimed that “the reason
the Oslo accords failed was because the Palestinians never wanted to have a
State next to Israel, they want to have a State from the river to the sea”.

The ambassador’s comments come at a time when the two-state solution has
come under intense scrutiny in recent years, primarily due to the fact that
Israel has actively allowed the  construction and establishment of
thousands of illegal settlements – and the immigration of tens of thousands
of illegal settlers – throughout the three decades since the 1993 Oslo
Accords, causing a major obstacle and impracticality to the territorial
integrity of a future Palestinian State in the West Bank, with East
Jerusalem as its capital.

The issue has only gained further attention amid the recent and ongoing
Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, with officials in the Israeli
government now openly stating their opposition to the idea of a two-state
solution. Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, told
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231128-netanyahu-only-i-can-block-a-palestinian-state/>
lawmakers in his party last month that only he can “prevent a Palestinian
State” after the war in Gaza, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231213-smotrich-bidens-call-for-two-state-solution-is-suicide/>
the enablement of the two-state solution “suicide”.

Most recently, Israel’s Communications Minister, Shlomo Karhi, stated
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231214-israel-minister-there-will-be-no-return-to-oslo-no-palestinian-state/>
that “There will be no Palestinian State here. We will never allow another
state to be established between the Jordan and the sea. We will never go
back to Oslo.” He also claimed that a “Palestinian State would endanger
them [Israelis]”.

Their comments are not only in direct opposition to the official stance of
most Western nations – especially Britain and the United States – but also
contradict President Joe Biden’s recent remarks
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-12/biden-pushes-netanyahu-to-change-stance-on-palestinian-statehood>
that Netanyahu and his government “cannot say there’s no Palestinian State
at all in the future. And that’s going to be the hard part”.

For many Palestinians, as well as critics of Israel and its crimes against
humanity, Hotovely’s and other Israeli officials’ open rejection of the
two-state solution only reveals the long-held policy of Tel Aviv and its
occupation of Palestinian Territories: to prevent the establishment of an
independent Palestinian State, while feigning its agreement to the idea to
the international community.

*READ: The Oslo Accords are the war Israel won without fighting
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230918-the-oslo-accords-are-the-war-israel-won-without-fighting/>*
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