Dr. Aqel Taqaz, International Secretary of the Palestinian People’s Party, provided the following comments during a recent interview with International Magazine:
The possibility of a two-state solution is minimizing because of Israeli policy and behavior in the Palestinian territories. People have started to think about other solutions, about other possibilities. But unfortunately, with the current balance of powers in the region in general and in Palestine, any other solution will not be better than a two-state solution.
Someone is talking about a one-state solution. If you believe that a one-state solution now is possible, it will be an apartheid state, because Israel has all powers in its hand and they can control all Palestine as they are doing now. And they are committing discrimination policy even against Palestinians inside Israel who are citizens of Israel. You can imagine how they will treat Palestinians in West Bank or in Gaza under the Israeli occupation.
When someone is talking about one-state solution, they can imagine that it will be a democratic state with equal rights, with one vote for everyone and some kind of solutions, but it is not the case. The case is now, if we accept a one-state solution, it will be an apartheid state, which is not in favor of the Palestinian people.
And because of that, we can say, even with these difficulties for the two-state solution, if the international community and the United Nations has the power to force Israel to withdraw to the borders of 1967, a two-state solution can be achieved. But until now, the international community is not willing or cannot do this step, cannot go to this step to force Israel to accept the resolutions of the UN and to withdraw settlers and forces to the borders of 1967. And because of that, any other solution will not be in favor of the Palestinians if we talk under that reality, which is now.
But in the future and taking in consideration what is going around us in the world, maybe some kind of change will occur and we hope that it will be in favor of Palestinians. But the situation in the region is more negatively toward Palestinians, as you can see that some Arab countries are normalizing relations with Israel without any condition, without solving the Palestinian issue.
The Arab initiative from 2002 in Lebanon was saying that Arabs will normalize relations with Israel after solving the Palestinian issue with establishing the Palestinian state. But you can see now that four or five Arab countries are normalized without any condition. Now there is negotiations with Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. Until now, Saudi Arabia is saying that some kind of solution for the Palestinian issue must be before, but nobody can be sure that they will stay on this position.
The situation in the region is changing dramatically, in the world is changing dramatically. The internal Palestinian issue is not helping too much the supporters of the Palestinian issue. As you remember, the Oslo Agreement and all this situation happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was the supporter of the Palestinian struggle. And during the last 30 years, the United States was the only power deciding the future of the world. And they are not in favor of the legitimate rights of Palestinian people. They were supporting all kinds of terror crimes of Israeli governments during the last 70 years.
Editorial Note: As Comrade Aqel Taqaz’s comments clearly indicate here, the position of Palestinian Communists is clear: the two-state solution advanced by the United Nations is the best way forward for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.