Zaha Hassan
The Middle East Program in Washington combines in-depth regional knowledge with incisive comparative analysis to provide deeply informed recommendations. With expertise in the Gulf, North Africa, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, we examine crosscutting themes of political, economic, and social change in both English and Arabic.Learn More
As the war in Gaza enters its third year, the United Nations marked its eightieth anniversary by hosting a conference on the two-state solution. The New York meeting—officially known as the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution—aimed to build momentum for collective and individual state actions in support of both a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Palestinian self-determination. A slew of countries recognized Palestinian statehood before and during the UN conference—nearly 160 states now recognize Palestine, including four of the five permanent members of the Security Council—and others announced various economic sanctions and restrictions on arms transfers to Israel. In addition, right before the conference, a UN commission confirmed that Israel is responsible for an ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
Days later, however, international attention shifted to a new twenty-point peace plan for Gaza, announced jointly by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting in Washington. The UN secretary general and most Arab countries, including the Palestinian Authority, welcomed the president’s efforts without embracing the plans specific terms.
Their unequivocal endorsement would have been problematic. The UN and the conference aim to advance Palestinian sovereignty consistent with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion and international law. In contrast, the U.S. plan reframes the problem as Palestinian radicalization, which it says requires a third party to take over the management of affairs in Gaza, at least for an indeterminate transitional period, until Palestinian institutional reform is possible. If a permanent ceasefire and the two-state solution are to have a chance, the UN and key stakeholders will have to work with the United States to significantly revise the plan toward greater alignment with international law. Failure to do so will prolong the suffering in Gaza, condemn the region to further conflict and instability, and indefinitely preoccupy the United States and other stakeholders with the Middle East.
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