A New Era of Peace for Palestine is Scheduled to Take Shape in June 2025 under Saudi-French Leadership
Dr. Devender Kumar
France and Saudi Arabia have been designated by the United Nations (UN) to convene a “high-level international conference on the peaceful resolution of the Palestinian cause and the implementation of the two-state solution” in June 2025. The permanent representatives of France (Jérôme Bonnafont) and Saudi Arabia (Abdulaziz Al-Wasel) co-chaired a session for the same at the UN Headquarters.
The move may lead to Palestine being recognized by France, as the country has not recognized it to date. The French President has hinted at providing recognition to the Palestinian state during the conference in June and stated that “we must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months”. The Palestinian Foreign Minister considers this French move as “a step in the right direction in line with safeguarding the rights of the Palestinian people and the two-state solution”.
The Palestinian issue has dominated the global discussion since 1945. The newly created UN was tasked to provide a solution to this problem. In the meantime, the country witnessed bloodshed starting from Arab Revolt 1936 (for Palestinian independence and imposed a ban on land transfers to Jews), Peel Commission 1937 (recommended partition of territory), White Papers of 1939 (ignored the Peel Commission Report), the Second World War, the establishment of UN and the British Withdrawal from Palestine.
The UN created the “United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)” to suggest a solution to the issue. Its report called for “a two-state solution” and paved the way for “resolution 181” of the UN, which made two states out of the Palestinian territories. The Arabs rejected this resolution, but the Jews accepted.
Following this, the Arabs faced Al-Naqba in 1948 (First Arab-Israeli War) and the Jews captured more territory, nearly 77.4 percent more than originally (56 percent) given under the UN plan. The state of Palestine has faced so many wars, the first Arab-Israel War in 1948, Six-Day War 1967, Yom Kippur War 1973, Intifada (uprising) 1987, and conflicts from 1987 to the present. Irrespective of the wars and conflicts, the internal political divisions, such as Hamas' rise in Gaza and Fatah’s control in the West Bank, have also impacted the structural and organizational framework of the Palestinian movement. Hamas has resorted to violence to achieve statehood by invoking “Jihad”. The Fatah believes in political consultation, talks, and discussions to achieve statehood via the international norms, principles, and institutions.
Out of the 193 UN member states, only 147 recognise Palestine as a sovereign state. Since the recent war with Israel, nearly 10 countries have recognized Palestine. Saudi Arabia and France are to give new directions to the peaceful resolution of the Palestine issue.
There are four reasons why the Palestinian issue remains unresolved, which Saudi Arabia and France must take into account.
First, the lack of leadership, following the death of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian side has failed to produce another leader like Arafat who ensured a discussion on the Palestinian Issue until his death. Since then, Palestine has been divided internally and has failed to produce an agency to initiate discussions with Israel and the international community. The state also lacks in delivering commitments on the pacts signed, i.e. Oslo Accords of 1993 failed due to non-compliance over the areas given to each side. The resentment was noted on both sides; Jews hated Yitzhak Rabin (then Israeli Prime Minister) for allowing Palestinians near the settlements.
Second, the rise of Hamas. Its victory in the 2005 election in Gaza has provided a new chapter to the Palestinian resistance movement against Israel. It has used violence as a means to achieve its objectives and resorted to missile attacks, kidnappings, and tunnel attacks. The recent October 7 attack on the Jewish crowd killed nearly 1250 civilians and captured nearly 250. Which were used to release for the release of prisoners in Israeli jails. However, nearly 50 thousand Palestinians lost their lives in the Israeli retaliation.
Third, the usage of violence and revenge made peace talks difficult between the two parties. This has converted the Palestinian crisis into a humanitarian crisis, as many people have died in the clashes. This has also made the ceasefire a tough task as neither trusts the other.
Fourth, the ineffective role of regional and global powers. The major change to the Palestinian cause had come during the time of Yasser Arafat and external powers involvement. After Arafat death, no significant change has happened with respect to the Palestinians. Many plans have been introduced Camp David Accord (1978), Oslo Accords (1990) and Abraham Accords (2020), but nothing substantive has come to fruition, as the issue remains unresolved.
The issue of Palestine has appeared during the Second World War since then to today Palestinians have been longing for their voices to be heard. All regional and global powers have played politics with the suffering of the Palestinians.
The conference between Saudi Arabia and France is in direction to provide new inputs to the old discussion. While the key to resolve remains in the hands of Hamas and Israel to resolve the issue.
Dr. Devender Kumar is Assistant Professor at the Center of Excellence for Geopolitics and International Studies (CEGIS), REVA University.
