A true Arab peace initiative

The first step in a true Arab peace initiative should be to give descendants of Palestinians, who were born in the Arab countries, full citizenship rights in their countries of residence. The wealthy Arab countries should provide all the needed help for the full integration of these refugees in their present countries of residence, including the eradication of all the refugee camps. It is estimated that around 3 million Arabs of Palestinian descent live today in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

This is long overdue: this is an elemental recognized right for all descendants of refugees in all the other conflicts in the world: the right to rebuild their lives in their new countries of residence. The Palestinians became the exception to the rule: They were kept for generations as refugees in the Arab countries to sustain and provide a justification for the continuation of the war against the State of Israel.

Israel did its part by integrating more than half a million Jewish refugees from the Arab countries. Around half of the present Jewish population in Israel is descendent from Jewish refugees from Arab countries. t is time for the Arab states to do their part in integrating the Palestinian refugees in their countries of residence.

The second step in a true Arab peace initiative is for the Arab countries to return to the 242 United Nations Security Council resolution, and for the Arab countries to support the reunification of the West Bank with Jordan, and launch an economic initiative to eliminate the remaining refugee camps in the West Bank, as well as the economic reintegration of the West Bank with Jordan.

Following the model of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the West Bank will be demilitarized (as the Sinai Peninsula is). The final recognized international borders between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine [1] replacing the 1949 armistice line will be decided through negotiation, but will resemble the pre-June 1967 armistice line, with some territorial swaps here and there. No one will be forced to leave his/her home, as explained by the author in a previous article.

If these basic two steps are adopted by the Arab Peace Initiative, then – within this framework – the political future of the Gaza Strip can be resolved too. The political time line may be longer and the political future may be open to discussion. However, some principles could be established and implemented immediately. These would include: 1) The Gaza Strip will be demilitarized, 2) All the Israeli hostages will be set free, and within (and only within) the framework of reconciliation between people, all the Palestinians held presently in Israeli prisons will be released as well, 3) An international initiative will be launched to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip and eliminate the remaining refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.

If the Arab countries adopt this initiative, then the recognition of the Jewish State by the Arab countries, and the establishment of diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations (“peace”), will just be a simple trivial formality that will recognize the new reality on the ground.

Unfortunately, all the Arab peace initiatives that have been floated through the years and also lately, look more like a “2-stage solution” [2], instead of a “2-state solution”:  First stage, the establishment of an ephemeral Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and second stage, the elimination of the State of Israel by waging “the war of return” of millions of Palestinian refugees to the State of Israel, within its pre-June 1967 borders, or what all the Arab “peace” initiatives call, the “achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.” (See, for example, the Arab Peace Initiative from 2002)

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References

[1] The reunification of the West Bank with Jordan, the name “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine”, as well as the rationality of this proposal, were explained by Ali Shihabi, a close confident of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, in the Saudi Royal Family-owned news outlet “Al-Arabiya News”, in an article he published on June 8, 2022:

https://english.alarabiya.net/in-translation/2022/06/08/The-Hashemite-Kingdom-of-Palestine

[2] For details about the “2-stage solution” see my book: “The root of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the path to peace” (February 2024 edition). It can be downloaded for free by all at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364057784_The_root_of_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict_and_the_path_to_peace

(It is also available at Amazon, in eBook and paperback formats)