Is Israel serious about the two-state solution?

Yes. Israel has repeatedly tried to make peace with its neighbours based on the principle of ‘land for peace.’

• In 1937, the Zionist movement accepted two states for two peoples when it was proposed by the British Peel Commission, but the Arabs rejected it.

• In 1947 the Zionist movement accepted the United Nations Partition Plan, but the Arabs rejected it.

• In 1967, in the immediate aftermath of the defensive Six Day War, Israel hoped that the Arab states would seek peace in return for Israeli withdrawal from territory it had captured. But in September 1967, at a conference in Khartoum, the Arab League made its famous ‘three no’s’ declaration: no peace, no recognition and no negotiation with Israel.

• In 1979, Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt. Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula and to evacuate settlements and oil fields developed in the Sinai to implement the agreement. • In 1993 Israel withdrew from Palestinian population centres in Gaza and the West Bank as part of the Oslo Accords signed with the PLO.

• In 1994 Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. Israel made territorial concessions to Jordan as part of the deal. • In December 2000, after a period of negotiations, US President Bill Clinton presented both sides with a proposal. It gave the Palestinians a state in 94 per cent of the West Bank plus an additional swap of land, and a sovereign capital in East Jerusalem. Israel broadly accepted this proposal but it was rejected by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

• In 2000, Israel complied with Security Council resolutions relating to Lebanon by withdrawing all its forces from south Lebanon. • In 2005, Israel withdrew unilaterally from all of the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank.

• In 2008, after the Annapolis Conference, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, made the most generous proposal of any Israeli leader to date. He proposed a Palestinian state in 93.7 per cent of the West Bank and the whole of Gaza (with a road across Israel connecting one to the other), and offered to give Israeli land – equivalent to 5.8 per cent of the West Bank – to a new Palestinian state. The Palestinian capital would be in East Jerusalem, and there would be international consortium of countries, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, that would work with the sides to address future arrangement for the Old City and its holy sites. This amounted to a serious, comprehensive offer from the Israeli side to make peace. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, did not respond.

• In 2009 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a speech at Bar Ilan University in Israel, in which he endorsed the two state solution. He said ‘In my vision of peace, there are two free peoples living side by side in this small land, with good neighbourly relations and mutual respect, each with its flag, anthem and government, with neither one threatening its neighbour’s security and existence.

Every Israeli government since 2000 has endorsed the two state solution. The Israeli people back the two state solution by a two-thirds majority. While some – including in Israel – may feel that Israel could do even more to promote peace, laying the responsibility for the failure to reach a peace agreement solely at Israel’s feet shows a disregard for the history of the conflict.