UN must urgently focus on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has falsely claimed there is no alternative solution to the creation of a Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan (two-state solution).
On 5 June Guterres was asked:
“Thank you so much, Secretary-General. This is Ephrem Kossaivy from Arab News Daily. There’s a summit coming up, a global summit on the implementation of the two-state solution. How significant is this event to you, amid what’s happening in Gaza today? And what is your message to world leaders and delegations who will be coming to New York?”
Guterres responded:
“My message to world leaders and delegations is that it is absolutely essential to keep alive the two-state solution perspective with all the terrible things we are witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. And for those that doubt about the two-state solution, I ask: What is the alternative? Is it a one-state solution in which either the Palestinians are expelled or the Palestinians will be forced to live in their land without rights? That would be totally unacceptable. I firmly believe that it is the duty of the international community to keep the two-state solution alive and then to materialize the conditions to make it happen.”
Secretary-General Guterres: The alternative solution is the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) that you and the Security Council have refused to acknowledge even exists since its publication in the Saudi Arabian Government-controlled Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022.
HKOPS calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into one new territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - to be governed by Jordan’s current Hashemite rulers – with its capital in Amman.
HKOPS is authored by Ali Shihabi - an advisor to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).
Publication of HKOPS in Al-Arabiya News – reversing 40 years of Saudi Arabian foreign policy and shredding the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - could not have possibly occurred without MBS’s approval.
The Security Council needs to explain why it has never considered HKOPS – whose implementation would involve drawing a new international boundary between Israel and Jordan in direct negotiations between two states enjoying a peace treaty since 1994.
Instead the Security Council has been pursuing:
· The two-state solution contained in Security Council Resolution 2334 adopted on 23 December 2016 - after not being vetoed by the outgoing Obama-Biden administration : Two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders
Until its replacement by:
· The two-state solution specified in the Biden-drafted Security Council Resolution 2735 adopted on 10 June 2024: Two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, consistent with international law and relevant UN resolutions, and in this regard stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority;
This latter solution flagrantly violates articles 6 and 25 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the 1945 UN Charter authorising the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home in any part of Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank).
President Trump trashed both these Security Council two-state solutions when declaring on 4 February 2025 that the US would take over the Gaza Strip.
Trump has yet to announce his policy on the future of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) – but his proposal will allocate sovereignty in at least part of Judea and Samaria to Israel – as happened in Trump’s 2020 Peace Plan.
The Security Council now needs to urgently focus on implementing HKOPS to end the 100-years old Jewish-Arab conflict.
David Singer is an Australian lawyer and political analyst.
