Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a pleasure to be here with committee members as we talk about how we can reach peace in the Middle East, ideally with a two-state solution, with Israel, the world's only majority Jewish state, living in peace and security with its Palestinian neighbours. Ideally, this would be through negotiations between the two parties, but if not, we need to understand what conditions would be needed to recognize the state of Palestine.
Professor Imseis, I'd like to start with you. I read several of the things you've written, including a document you presented earlier this year at the United Nations entitled “The Nakba and the UN's Permanent Responsibility for the Question of Palestine”. I'll read one paragraph. It states:
For that, it is essential to discuss the fateful decision made by the then western dominated UN General Assembly to recommend partition of Palestine against the will of the country’s indigenous majority population through resolution 181 of 29 November 1947. A review of the terms of the partition plan and the accompanying UN record...reveals that the plan was illegal under prevailing international law. This illegality helped lay the ground-work for the Nakba of 1948 [which means “catastrophe”] and its painfully unjust results that have continued and, indeed, accelerated ever since.
It sounds to me, and I've read through it, that your thesis is essentially that the creation of Israel was illegal under international law. Therefore, I'm going to ask you, do you recognize the State of Israel? We talk about a two-state solution.
Do you recognize that Israel has a right to exist as a democratic and Jewish state?