Multiple countries, the UN and the European Union (EU) announced the recognition of Palestine and their support for “two states” solution. What does this decision imply, why now, and is it the way out to achieve a just and lasting peace? Here’s what we revolutionary socialists have to say.

By Ruben Tzanoff

Recognition of Palestine and rejection by Israel

The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal announced their recognition of Palestine, as France and other European countries did during the UN General Assembly. The recognition is due to increasing social pressure around the world, with massive protests, rejection by human rights organizations and accusations of genocide. All of this is fueled by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, famine, displacement and criminal bombings.

This is what has generated political attrition for governments historically allied to Israel, pushing them to make diplomatic gestures and take measures that, although partial, seemed impossible until now.

Netanyahu and his government rejected the recognitions and described them as a “reward for terrorism”. They insisted that “Israel must keep full security control over all territories west of the Jordan River,” including the West Bank, and that there will be no Palestinian state as internationally proposed.

Let’s multiply joint actions for Palestine.

The multiplication of actions, strikes and joint mobilizations to stop the genocide, the ethnic cleansing, the occupation of Palestine and to demand the rupture of the governments with Israel; are the main immediate tasks of the revolutionaries. It is also important to demand the protection of the Global Sumud Flotilla on its way to Gaza to try to break the blockade of humanitarian aid.

However, as the imperialists foresee that the occupation could become a “total occupation” with the Zionist offensive underway, they insist on putting their proposals for the future of Palestine on the table. This makes it urgent to intervene in the debate with revolutionary socialist proposals.

Two-States: already applied and failed

In line with statements by the European Union and some of its governments, the British justify their decision as a step to “advance towards the possibility of a two-state solution.”

The “two-state” solution was already implemented with the Oslo Accords of 1993-1995, when Yasser Arafat and the PLO and Israel signed the mutual recognition of their States. What was the result? Limited self-rule of the Palestinian Authority under occupation, while Israel kept military control, borders, water resources and settlement expansion.

Reaffirmed recognition of the genocidal state

“Two states” also reaffirms the existence of the artificial colonial enclave, and gendarme of imperialism against the Arab peoples, imposed as the State of Israel in 1948. History has shown that it is impossible for the Palestinian people to coexist with a genocidal state which aim is to exterminate them and keep their territories for itself.

Imperialisms project an unfair and oppressive future

Besides, what Palestinian state do they refer to? Everything indicates that they mean a handful of square kilometers in Gaza and some others in the West Bank, separated from each other, taking for granted the new occupations of the last period. With what power? They want to impose a puppet government, weak and controlled, which has nothing to do with the decision of Palestinians.

US imperialism puts forward the idea of a reduced “transitional” state, demilitarized, with fragmented borders, without full control of its territories, with limited control of the Palestinian Authority and under external supervision. Trump also wants to impose a “real estate business”, the Gaza Tourist Riviera, to be applied to legitimize territorial control with settlements, colonies, land grabs, expropriated real estate, population expulsions and internal displacement.

Beyond words and cynical lamentations, all imperialist proposals point to an unfair and oppressive future for what is left of Palestine.

Consolidation of Israel as a colonial enclave

A placebo distracts a patient from the real cause of the disease and delays an effective intervention, since it does not attack its origin. This is a useful metaphor to express the pleasant feeling Palestine recognition, but it turns into poison when the “two-state” policy proposed by imperialisms and their governments is digested.

Three decades after the legitimization of the “two-state” agreements, it is evident that they gave Zionism time to deepen colonization, reinforce the blockade of Gaza, advance in de facto annexations and go for the total occupation of Palestine. It is a policy that does not question the colonial power structure, nor the racial logic that underlies the Zionist project in its most aggressive form, but rather consolidates it. Nor is it a way out to impose a reactionary Islamic fundamentalist state as Hamas is trying to do.

Regional governments that are capitulating

The advance of the Zionist project would not have been possible without the support of the imperialisms and the complicity of the Arab governments, dictatorships and monarchies which, with their claudications and deceitful pacts, recognized the State of Israel and normalized its existence. The solution for Palestine and the region is indissolubly linked to promoting the mobilization, actions and strikes of the workers and peoples against their treacherous governments.

The “Arab Springs” left two conclusions: that it is possible to rebel for the needs and heroism of the mobilized working people and that, in order to succeed, new consistent leaderships are needed and strong revolutionary socialist organizations must be built, both nationally and internationally.

For a single, secular, non-racist, democratic and socialist Palestine

The only way to guarantee that a Palestinian state exists and that its people are not exterminated is the defeat of the Zionist state. Regardless of the conditions imposed by powerful Zionism, it is essential not to abandon the strategy of a single, secular, non-racist, democratic and socialist Palestine.

A single democratic state would imply dismantling apartheid structures, eliminating settlements, annulling discriminatory laws, guaranteeing the return of refugees and restitution of expropriated lands, among other indispensable measures. With socialism as the axis, as a system that aims at public collective property, democratic control of resources, the end of the exploitation of both imperialist capital and local capital.

A free Palestine from the river to the sea, in a region with just and lasting peace, with democratic and social rights; can only be achieved with the triumph of the Socialist Revolution in the entire Middle East.