Norway’s Foreign Minister: We need clear understanding there will be one Palestine

Nordic country, which recognised Palestine in May, has been leading force in trying to reach a two-state solution

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says his country 'did the right thing' when it recognised Palestine as a state. NurPhoto

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Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has said the world must continue to work towards a two-state solution, with clarity that there will be “one Palestine”.

Mr Eide, speaking to The National this month, stressed the need to end the war in Gaza and "rapidly beef up" immediate humanitarian efforts, but added that "we need the political solution and to get there we need a direction”. Mr Eide’s country is at the forefront of work with regional partners to turn the aim of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state into a reality.

“We need a clear understanding that there shall be a Palestine, but one Palestine”, Mr Eide said. That principle is at the heart of the post-war preparations being laid out by diplomats, as hopes for a potential ceasefire grow with ongoing diplomacy.

The “day after” the war requires a functioning government, as does a Palestinian state. Mr Eide said: “A Palestinian state has to be built on the foundations which today is known as the State of Palestine, the Palestinian Authority … it is imperative that in that future process there are people from Gaza involved.”

He added that a future government has to have “people who’ve shared in the suffering of Gazans ... I don’t think it can be Hamas as a fighting group, but the world is full of what many people saw as a terrorist who converted to politics”.

Getting to a ruling coalition “will need some kind of political filtering process”, Mr Eide explained. However, he also acknowledged that this is a “Palestinian issue and we should be respectful of the processes they run; however, we want a two-state solution, not a three-state solution or a one-and-a-half Palestinian state solution”.

The fears of a “one-and-a-half state” solution are shared by diplomats concerned about the lack of agreement between various Palestinian factions and the years-long disagreements between the leaders in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Mr Eide stressed: “It has to be a credible state encompassing the whole territory, the relevant parts of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, centre, signs the Oslo Accords in 1993, at a ceremony at the White House attended by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, second from left, US President Bill Clinton, fourth from left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, third from right. AFP

Norway has been a leading force in trying to get to a two-state solution since the Oslo Accords of 1993. Last May, Norway recognised Palestine and has launched the Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State and a Two-State Solution with Saudi Arabia, as well as other countries from the Arab world and Europe.

Mr Eide expressed happiness about Norway and other European states recognising Palestine, saying: “We did the right thing when we moved forward with a group of European states to recognise Palestine. I am, of course, fully aware that that didn't create a Palestinian state as such, but it has given a new impetus and it gave us a role in this global alliance, which was formalised at the UN General Assembly.”

After meeting in Riyadh and Brussels, the alliance is due to meet in Oslo next and more countries are expected to join. There are now 149 countries that recognise Palestine and Mr Eide expects more to follow.

He hopes Donald Trump's incoming administration in the US “understands the strong message from the Saudis and from many others” that a Palestinian state must be stood up. “Morally, there is a Palestinian state, but it's not physically a state, apart from the embryonic institutions of the Palestine authority … we got to a state where we see what it will be," he explained.

Mr Eide accepts that there is not yet a Palestinian consensus government or a government in Israel that is seeking peace, saying “there is ample opportunity for being a pessimist if you want to”, but he sees an opportunity now “because this crisis is so deep and because it continues to spread”.

There's more than one conflict in the Middle East, but there is a root conflict, and that is the absence of a Palestinian solution

Espen Barth Eide,
Norwegian Foreign Minister

From the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel to the fast-paced developments in Syria, Mr Eide sees the ongoing occupation of Palestine as the root of the problem. “The simmering, underlying problems, they are all related," he explained.

Speaking to The National in Bahrain, where he attended the Manama Dialogue, a day before the Bashar Al Assad was ousted in Syria, Mr Eide said: “There's more than one conflict in the Middle East, but there is a root conflict, and that is the absence of a Palestinian solution”. He added: “It's more than one conflict, but one conflict is more important than the others. You have to address the root conflict."

The Norwegian minister stressed the importance of ending the occupation of Palestine and halting the conflict on humanitarian grounds and to ensure longer-term stability. He explained that hardliners and those who follow the Iran-led so-called Axis of Resistance “mobilise international support exactly on the perception of double standards and the bad treatment and the daily ordeal that everybody sees from Gaza, so that has become recruiting ground”. He added: “If that is taken away, the hardliners will not go away, but it will weaken the case.”

Mr Eide stressed the importance of international law and the rulings by the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice regarding Palestine and Israel, including declaring the continued occupation of Palestine as illegal. “These court decisions actually matter."

There has been some criticism that, despite these rulings, Israel continues with the war and occupation. Mr Eide acknowledges that, saying: “Of course, I agree it didn't change things overnight, because the courts do not have enforcement mechanisms, that resides with others.”

A Palestinian home in left in ruins after an Israeli air strike on Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza. EPA

However, there have been consequences, such as the UK withholding some arms sales to Israel and Norway stopping all weapons sales to the country. He said: “The ICJ ruling on the illegality of the occupation, which in my view may be a more important court case than the genocide one ... really the occupation case is very, very solid and very clear, and it's concluded [the occupation] is totally illegal. Mr Eide added that “the ICJ final decision took a long time”, but is of consequence because “that limits the room of manoeuvre for the Israeli government”.

Norway led an effort to secure a resolution supported by the majority of the world’s countries to call for the delivery of humanitarian aid as stipulated by international law. A total of 137 countries voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution, submitted by Norway and 22 co-signatory countries, calling on Israel to stop impeding the delivery of basic services and aid, in particular to Gaza. The resolution gave an important boost to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), as the resolution stressed the “vital” role it plays for Palestinians, calling on Israel to respect the rights of international organisations.

Despite the enduring suffering of Palestinians and a very fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, Mr Eide sees some hope, pointing to a seriousness in trying to tackle the Palestinian issue. That is shown by "the coming together of many Arab leaders who are now taking this issue very seriously, and I would say more seriously, as a collective problem and a strategic problem” compared with five or 10 years ago, he said.

He added: “I think the understanding of the connectedness and the need for collective action is much higher, and I'm happy that some of us have been able to reach out from Europe to say that we want to support your plan”. He went on to explain: “It's not the European plan this time, because we do not any longer live in a world where some blond Nordics can fly in and fix things on their own”.

Stressing the importance of indigenous solutions, Mr Eide also expressed keen interest to “be helpful, and sometimes our experience and our distance is an advantage precisely because we're not of the region. So that's a good thing, and I still believe that that can take us somewhere".

Looking towards next year, Mr Eide hopes to get a ceasefire that “is followed by the roll out of something that can be presented as a plan”. He added that on the ground management and a political horizon were critical to satisfy “people’s desire for a solution”.