Justice cannot be built on segregation

CALLS for a Palestinian state alongside an Israeli state are being heard worldwide once more. As if drawing lines on paper will end decades of dispossession, world leaders at the UN continue to talk about reinstating the “two-state solution”.

- DR FARHIN DELAWALA

However, history has repeatedly demonstrated that this vision is not just unrealistic but also unjust. Certainly, the call to go back to the 1967 borders is not something that can be revived, given the current facts on the ground.

The “two states” rhetoric has turned into a cruel mirage and painful fantasy for the Palestinians. Peace was promised through the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords but instead, there were more settlements, checkpoints, and daily humiliations. The UN has proclaimed Gaza to be in unliveable conditions, yet the settler colony of Israel has deepened its occupation. What sort of “state” is it if its territory is divided, its roads and borders are under foreign control, its religious sites are desecrated, its citizens are denied freedom of movement, and its sovereignty is essentially symbolic? While Israelis enjoy all the benefits of society and infrastructure, built on the funding from foreign nations, Palestinians to suffer the access to the most basic forms of survival, such as clean water.

The truth is obvious: inequality is strengthened by a Palestinian “mini-state” that exists alongside Israel. It formalises isolation rather than abolishing it thus, legitimising apartheid.