Palestine should draft a Declaration of Independence like the United States and Israel did. The United States should then immediately recognize Palestine as an independent state. The United States and Israel declared their independence without waiting for other nations to give their approval. The United States did not ask Great Britain for permission to become an independent national and neither should Palestine.
The first nation to recognize the United States was Morocco in December, 1777. France recognized the United States two months later and fought side-by-side with us against Great Britain.
When Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, President Harry Truman recognized Israel as a nation on that same day. Three days later, the Soviet Union recognized the State of Israel. Palestine will be recognized by most nations in the world in a short period of time.
Palestine’s Declaration of Independence should provide for the following: nn1. Palestine should declare that it is the homeland for the Palestinian people and that all Palestinians from all over the world, have the right to become citizens there. Israel similarly allows Jews from all over the world to become citizens of Israel.
2. Palestine shall declare that Israel has the right to exist, and that the Palestine will not invade Israel.
3. Palestine should declare that because Hamas murdered 1,200 innocent Israeli citizens in October 2023, in violation of international law, Hamas is not permitted to be part of the ruling coalition for the new country.
4. Palestine should declare that there will be no religious discrimination. Currently 50,000 Christians live in the West Bank and 1,300 live in Gaza. Palestinian Christians trace their history back 2,000 years to the beginning of Christianity. Palestine is the home of many Biblical sites and is considered the birthplace of Christianity. Nazareth and Bethlehem, Jesus’s birthplace, are in the West Bank. Approximately 11,000 Druze now live in the West Bank. The Druze religion branched off from the religion of Islam and is now considered its own religion separate from Islam. The Druze religion was created in the 10th and 11th centuries in Egypt, with aspects of Hindu and Greek philosophy incorporated into the tenets of Islam.
5. The 500,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank should be allowed to stay and be allowed to become citizens of Palestine. After Palestine becomes an independent state, no additional Israelis will be allowed to move there.
6. Palestine will be a democracy and will establish a constitution defining rights and responsibilities of Palestinian citizens.
7. Palestinians will have freedom of speech and assembly.
8. Palestinians will have the freedom of travel throughout the West Bank and there shall be freedom to travel to and from Gaza.
9. Palestine shall establish a road and rail service between Gaza and the West Bank with consent of Israel.
10. Palestine will negotiate with Israel in good faith to establish their common borders.
The United States, Europe and the Islamic world should all participate in the reconstruction of Gaza. The new Palestinian state will have a population of about five million, two million in Gaza and three million in the West Bank. In order to assure Israel that the new state will be peaceful, there can be a transition period where an international force, made up of troops from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States, Great Britain and other nations keep the peace. Gaza should be allowed to have a seaport and an airport that allows its citizens, and others, to travel to and from its territory. At its closest point, the Gaza Strip is 25 miles from the West Bank separated by Israeli desert. Israel could build a limited access freeway, and/or rail link, between the two Palestinian enclaves with no exits in Israel.
The only peaceful solution to the war in Gaza is the creation of an independent state of Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is opposed to this, but the United States can proceed with international recognition of an independent Palestine state without his approval. This will help President Biden usher in a new era of peace in the Middle East. The first step is up to the Palestinians to draft a declaration of independence. Then the world can recognize Palestine as an independent nation and invite it to join the United Nations. Israel, with a new government, can negotiate a treaty with Palestine so that both nations can live in peace.
Joel D. Joseph is a lawyer, economist and author of 15 books, including “Solomonic Justice: How the Israeli Supreme Court has Become a Beacon of Justice in the Middle East.” He is founder and chairman of the Made in the USA Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting American-made products.
From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2024
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