30 years ago, Norway played a central role in the preparation of the Oslo agreements. Peace in the Middle East was finally to be achieved. The plan, a two-state solution, was for Israel and Palestine to each have their own state. It has never been like this. On Tuesday 7 November at the latest, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) was out and defended the two-state solution in a statement on Al Jazeera. But that is just deception, says former president of the Norwegian Red Cross, Robert Mood. – International political leaders have now known for almost 20 years that it is practically and politically impossible to realize a two-state solution, he says to news. It has had unfortunate consequences, Mood believes. – By refusing to realize that the two-state solution is impossible, they have facilitated more settlements and the strengthening of Hamas, he says. – What is the reason for that? – Norwegian politicians mislead and point to the two-state solution because they do not want to address the fundamental problem in the Middle East: that Palestinians and Israelis must have equal rights, says Mood. Israel’s current security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is carried by settlers in the city of Hebron in the West Bank in 2019. Ben-Gvir is the leader of the far-right party Jødisk Makt, and is considered by many to be the very symbol that the two-state solution is not possible. Photo: HAZEM BADER / AFP 700,000 settlers who cannot be moved Mood has direct experience from several missions in the Middle East. Among other things, he was chief of staff for the UN organization for monitoring ceasefires, UNTSO. He has seen with his own eyes what he believes to be an insurmountable obstacle in the way of two states. – In the West Bank and East Jerusalem today, there are approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers. The vast majority of them have the right to vote, and this means that they are a powerful factor in Israeli politics. If there are to be two states, many of these settlers will have to be moved against their will. That is not possible, Mood asserts. Robert Mood has a long career behind him in the Norwegian Armed Forces, and between 2009 and 2011 was stationed in Jerusalem as head of the UN observer corps in the Middle East. Photo: Philippe Bédos Ulvin / news According to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior and the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, there are 683,553 Israeli settlers, of which 463,000 are in the West Bank and 220,000 in East Jerusalem. Mood tells news that Norway and countries such as the USA, France and Great Britain have deliberately argued for a two-state solution in order to give the false impression that the conflict has not been as acute as it was, and that there is a solution. – They must stop using the two-state solution as a smokescreen over the conflict, because by having it as a smokescreen, the tension only increases, says Mood. Believes that the solution must be based on equal rights Mood believes that the premise of the two-state solution, that there should be two states, is the wrong starting point for peace talks. – What is needed is that all actors enter into this with the starting point that all people in the area should have equal rights. Then you can discuss how to achieve it, says Mood. A Palestinian village on the left and a Jewish settlement on the right are separated by bars and a concrete wall. On the West Bank, such sharp contrasts are widespread. Photo: LEFTERIS PITARAKIS / AP He believes one of the problems with the two-state solution was that it did not recognize the bias in the conflict. – The idea that the two-state solution rests on, that Palestinians should have fewer rights than Israelis, we must now kill it. We have to think outside the box. Here, the USA, France, Great Britain and not least Norway have an important role, says Mood. Five Middle Eastern experts: – Mood obviously receives support in its assessment from five prominent Middle Eastern experts news has contacted. Jørgen Jensehaugen is one of them. He also believes that a two-state solution is impossible. Jørgen Jensehaugen is a senior researcher at PRIO with the Middle East as a special area. Photo: Høyskolen Innlandet – It has become obvious, at least in the last 10-15 years, says Jensehaugen to news. The Prio researcher believes that it does more harm than good to only continue to work towards two states: – The problem is that the two-state solution is the only thing that is being worked towards, while at the same time that solution has become impossible. That means we have nothing else on the drawing board. Whether it is on purpose or not, the result of Norway sticking to the two-state solution is a misleading situation. – It is enough to take a hard look at the fact that the government is actively using the two-state solution as a smokescreen, but the consequence is that it will be a smokescreen. People insist that there is a process and a will, and for that reason there are a number of measures we do not use, such as pressuring Israel not to build more settlements. – A diplomatic impasse The rest of the experts are not sympathetic to the two-state solution either. Nils Butenschøn is a researcher and professor. He was involved in the early phases of work on the Oslo Accords, and has worked with Israel and Palestine for five decades. Nils Butenschøn withdrew from the work on the Oslo agreement as he felt that the work was going in the wrong direction. Photo: Hans Erik Weiby / news Butenschøn believes the government is working for a two-state solution because it is the only diplomatic track the Western allies and the US allow: – Unfortunately, there are a lot of guidelines against sound professional advice being used as a basis. Erik Skare at the University of Oslo has researched Palestinian resistance movements and state building. – We can talk about the facts on the ground. We have a Palestinian territory that is divided in two, with no direct connections. We have a de facto Swiss cheese on the West Bank, divided by a number of settlements. And there is little political will on the part of both Hamas and the far-right Israeli government, says Skare. Senior researcher Kjetil Selvik at Nupi believes that the most likely outcome is that there will be no solution to the conflict in the near future. Senior lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at UiO, Dag henrik Thuestad, says there is no academic disagreement about the two-state solution. He asks himself how far the government is unaware that they are misleading or whether they are doing it deliberately. Foreign Ministry: There is no alternative The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been presented with Mood’s claims about deception and facilitation of a strengthened Hamas and more settlements, but has not responded to these. In its response, the ministry acknowledges that a two-state solution is now becoming more difficult. – Getting there becomes more difficult every day with bombs, blockades, rocket attacks and hostages, says State Secretary Andreas Kravik (Ap) to news. State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andreas Kravik (Ap). Photo: news Already in 2014, Espen Barth Eide, then head of the donor country group for Palestine, said that there was a need to discuss whether the two-state solution was dead. Nevertheless, the government now believes that it is the only solution. – Like most other important players, we believe that the war between Israel and Hamas has shown that there is no alternative to a peace process and a two-state solution, says Kravik. He also believes that a one-state solution will prove difficult. – For many people in Israel, the one-state solution will probably mean that you will eventually lose your identity as a Jewish state. Very few Israelis actually want that. It is also unlikely that the Palestinians, after everything that has happened, are ready to live in a common state with those who now live in Israel, says Kravik. – One day the war between Israel and Hamas will be over, and when that happens, Israelis and Palestinians must return to the process towards a two-state solution, writes Barth Eide in his statement to Al-Jazeera.
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Believes Norway has facilitated a strengthened Hamas and more settlements – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
