Right now, with Israel about to bomb Rafah to smithereens, world leaders including our own are chorusing—as they have repeatedly done for decades—that ‘We support a two-state solution’. And what has that chorus achieved over the years? Other than making the people saying it feel good, nothing!
The death count of Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October is approaching 33,000. If Israel has its way and completes its genocide, adding in the more than 8000 missing whose bodies are yet to be recovered from the rubble, the real figure may well prove to be close to 50,000 dead. There are 75,000 injured and that number too will increase. In the West Bank 450 have thus far been killed, with close to 5,000 injured.
Each of the dead and injured has surviving relatives be they children, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts grandmothers and grandfathers. Not one of them will be thankful to Israel for what it has done. Of the injured, the thousands who have lost limbs will not be grateful either, nor will those who have been blinded, deafened or scarred—physically and/or mentally. They will have no NDIS to help them pick up the pieces. Being ungrateful would be the most benign outcome for Israel.
Until 1947 when the United Nations ‘gave’ land to the Jewish people to create the state of Israel, this was the land of the Palestinian people and had been for centuries. Despite repeated colonisation from Babylonians, Christian crusaders from Europe and the Ottomans (to name a few) the Palestinians have maintained and even prospered their culture in this land.
Regardless of any protestations by Netanyahu to the contrary, the Palestinians will not be going anywhere else to establish a stand-alone state. So, if it was even possible to bring it about, the two-state ‘solution’ would see these two antagonistic states located side by side, resulting in the perpetuation of the current situation, but on a larger scale with all those angry survivors wanting to exact some justice, if not retribution. It doesn’t bear contemplation. The two-state solution cannot be a recipe for peace.
If peace is truly desired by the world—and surely it must be—there is only one way out of this quagmire and that is to create a single state. it will require the best endeavours of world leaders and the active involvement of politicians and diplomats from states, such as South Africa and Ireland, which have come through on the other side after decades of conflict.
It cannot happen overnight, but commitment must be made to bring into existence a new nation of Palestinians and Israelis living together, with equal human rights, equal voting rights, equal access to health and education, even the right to drive on the same roads. It will not be easy, but it can and must be done, urgently, for all our sakes.
Sandra Kanck
Sandra Kanck was a member of the South Australian Legislative Council where she represented the Australian Democrats for 15 years, retiring in early 2009. She has continued her activism on numerous fronts, including voluntary assisted dying and heading the state branch of ABC Friends. However, her continuing focus has been on two issues, one being the need for Australia to have population numbers in keeping with the environment’s capacity to sustain them, and Palestinian human rights. In relation to Palestine, Sandra has been active in the BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement for more than 13 years.