The international movement led by Saudi Arabia and France represents a politically significant step, and the fruit of decades of extended Palestinian political, diplomatic, and popular struggle, which included all forms of resistance. It is also a result of the crimes committed by the occupation since October 7th, including genocide and starvation, which shocked the conscience of the world.
However, this movement will not achieve its goal of ending the occupation and achieving freedom and independence unless it is coupled with a set of basic requirements:
1. Actual Link to Stopping the Genocide and Reconstruction:
Recognition of the Palestinian state must be linked to stopping the crime of genocide and widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, and to immediate relief and reconstruction, and to confronting attempts to liquidate the issue through annexation, Judaization, settlement, and displacement.
There is no meaning to recognizing a state after the genocide and displacement of its people, and after the settlement in the West Bank swells to one or even two million settlers. Therefore, recognition must be accompanied by serious and immediate sanctions on the Israeli government, similar to what happened with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
2. Refusal to Turn Recognition into an End to the Palestinian Cause:
Recognition should not be presented as a final solution, because the Palestinian cause is broader than establishing a state on a part of Palestine. The Palestinian people are not confined to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the refugee issue is the core of the conflict.
It must be emphasized that recognition does not close the door to demanding the full rights of the Palestinian people.
3. Ending the Occupation and Defining the State's Borders:
There is no meaning to recognizing a Palestinian state if it is not coupled with ending the occupation and establishing the state on the June 4, 1967 borders, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, with full sovereignty and complete independence guaranteed.
4. Rejection of Unjust and Preconditions:
Any conditions for the establishment of the state or its recognition must be rejected, such as it being demilitarized, or excluding political forces like Hamas from governance, or condemning what happened on October 7th, or conditioning the normalization of Arab and Islamic countries with Israel, or making changes that affect the essence of national identity such as curriculum modification, or stopping support for prisoners and families of martyrs, or imposing reforms from abroad on the Authority.
Comprehensive reform and change in the Authority and the organization is an internal national demand that must serve Palestinian interests, not the dictates of the occupation or donors.
5. Recognition is an Important but Insufficient Step:
Nevertheless, the recognition of the Palestinian state is an important and historic step that should not be underestimated or exaggerated. It is a delayed step, but it will not be effective unless it is accompanied by sanctions and boycotts of Israel and imposing international isolation on it, especially under an extremist Israeli government that is doing everything in its power - with American support - to prevent the establishment of this state.
6. A Call to Revolutionary Positions and Those Rejecting Interim Solutions:
I call upon those who advocate for the complete liberation of Palestine or a single state to see reality as it is. The current battle is over the fate of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: will they be annexed and their residents displaced, or will a Palestinian entity be established on them?
Today, we are facing a de facto racist single state that seeks to complete its components by annexing land, displacing its residents, and imposing political and legal realities that make the "one Jewish state" a forced option for everyone.
No one is asked to change their convictions or recognize Israel, especially since the official Palestinian leadership previously made this historical mistake by recognizing Israel and other mistakes and concessions. Rather, they should contribute to supporting the chances of establishing the Palestinian state or not hindering it as a stage on the path to a comprehensive democratic solution, which will only be achieved by defeating the settlement project and dismantling the apartheid system.
7. Adherence to the Right of Return and Refusal to Compromise on Rights:
Any solution does not mean waiving other rights, especially the right of return. What is required is to work according to the principle of achieving the maximum possible in each stage without compromising the ultimate goal and legal, political, and historical rights.
8. Between Revolutionary Realism and the Danger of Surrender or Adventure:
The revolutionary realistic national option is the alternative to the option of excessive realism that lacks dreams and imagination, and the option of wishful thinking that flies far from reality.
There are indeed real existential dangers to the cause, and in return there are limited opportunities that must be invested. Israel is experiencing a deep and multifaceted internal crisis and has many significant weaknesses, but it has not yet approached collapse as some imagine. Rather, it possesses strengths that should not be underestimated, and it is linked by organic strategic relations with the United States of America, where it plays an important role in embodying the colonial project aimed at dominating the entire region.
9. The Possibility of Statehood and its Potential Crises:
It is not guaranteed, nor even likely, that a free and independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders will succeed in the near future. This requires a radical change in Israel as a result of internal and external pressure and struggle, and Israel may go through an internal civil war before it accepts such a qualitative change in its nature, function, and regional role. However, it is possible to succeed in thwarting the plan to liquidate the Palestinian issue and all its components, especially genocide, annexation, and displacement.
10. The Potential Alternative and the Danger of Hybrid Solutions:
If the Palestinian leadership does not unite its efforts and seek to unite all Palestinian forces, and if the forces, especially Hamas, do not respond to this endeavor and all Palestinians do not seize this moment, the liquidation plan may succeed, or a settlement may be imposed in the form of a "compromise" between the American-Israeli project and the global front for the establishment of what was called the two-state solution, represented by a Palestinian entity on a part of the West Bank and Gaza, stripped of sovereignty and components, used only to ease the Western conscience and record a historical position.
What is required is to prevent that through the steadfastness of the international front supporting the Palestinian state and its insistence on implementing its resolutions, not just contenting itself with formal statements of support or easing conscience or recording a position for history.
