Security Council should adopt Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

The United Nations Security Council needs to urgently consider adopting the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution - following the warning delivered on 19 December by Tor Wennesland – UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process.

Addressing the Security Council Wennesland advised:

Clashes, protests, attacks, Israeli security operations, including in Area A, and settler-related violence have continued. In 2022 to date, over one hundred and fifty Palestinians and more than twenty Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and Israel, the highest numbers of fatalities in years.

Wennesland was concerned that Security Council Resolution 2334passed on 23 December 2016 had failed to achieve its objective six years later: the creation of an independent Palestinian Arab State between Israel and Jordan (two-State solution)

Wennesland unwisely chose to blame Israel:

Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remains deeply concerning. Settlements constitute a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions and international law. They undermine the prospects of achieving a two-State solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous, independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian State."

He reminded the Security Council:

As I told the Council in my briefing last month, seeking to freeze this conflict or manage it in perpetuity are not viable options. There is no substitute for a legitimate political process that will resolve the core issues driving the conflict.

Wennesland was correct but his proposed recommendation for "a legitimate political process" fell far short of what is required:

In line with the recommendations that I made to this Council in November, I urge the parties, along with regional States and the broader international community to take concrete steps that will change the negative trajectory on the ground and have an immediate impact on Palestinian and Israeli lives, while, at the same time, ensuring these steps are anchored in a political framework that moves the parties forward towards the establishment of two States.

Clinging to the failed two-State solution 6 years after its endorsement by Security Council Resolution 2334 and 20 years after first being proposed by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative – is a futile exercise.

Wennesland's recommendation will only see the conflict being indefinitely perpetuated – not ended.

The Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on 8 June 2022 (Saudi Solution) has amazingly never been mentioned or discussed in the Security Council. It will dramatically "change the negative trajectory on the ground":

· It challenges the Security Council's pointless pursuit of the two-State solution by calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine having its capital in Amman and being ruled by Jordan's current Hashemite ruler – King Abdullah

• The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and 2003 Oslo Accords are superseded.
• Arab populations living in Gaza, the West Bank and the refugee camps in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon will become citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine.
• Sovereignty in the West Bank will be divided between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
• Its author – Ali Shihabi – is a confidant of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister – Mohammed Bin Salman.
• Publication of the plan in the Saudi Government –controlled Al-Arabiya News overrules current Saudi policy - strongly suggesting Mohammed Bin Salman's approval was first obtained.
• King Abdullah (Jordan), Mahmoud Abbas (Palestinian Authority), Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas) Mohammed Bin Salman (Saudi Arabia) and Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel) have not expressly rejected the solution in the six months since its publication.
• Its successful implementation can end the 100 years-old Arab -Jewish conflict.

Adopting the Saudi Solution to replace the failed two-State solution is needed to arrest this worsening humanitarian nightmare.