Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, esteemed members of this committee and Canadian citizens as well.
It is an honour to be here today. I am speaking from the Middle East, where I live and work at this time. I have agreed to appear today to present my point of view regarding the two-state solution and whether the international community, in particular Canada, can still support it and usher in an era of peace and security with a Palestinian state and an Israeli state living side by side.
I am speaking today as an individual, and the views I present here are my own and only my own.
I am a former Canadian diplomat, in particular, a former head of mission and representative of Canada to the Palestinian Authority. I, like Canada, support a two-state solution that will end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a permanent manner. In these tragic times, more than ever, I argue that the traditional and fundamental tenet of Canadian foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be the unifying and unwavering vision for the future that Canada brings back to the forefront: a negotiated solution between Israelis and Palestinians on the basis of two states, an Israeli state and a Palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security.
The current tragedy offers a sobering view of what an alternative future would hold if Israelis, Palestinians and the international community fail to work towards this unifying objective. This would be a future of objectionable violence, even more so than what we have been witnessing. In this future, extremists on both sides prevail and terrorism flourishes.
This alternative would fail to deliver a state for the Palestinians and would also fail to deliver any security for Israel. It would corrupt the Israeli polity to its very core, turning it into a perpetual, ever more violent international actor whose sons and daughters are turned into agents of oppression. It would also corrupt the Palestinian polity to its very core, anchoring only terrorism, violence and destitution and stripping the Palestinians of their sense of agency, of their future and of their honour.
A negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains the only path toward the establishment of a full-fledged Palestinian state and the security of the State of Israel. This is partly because no other path has been identified to reach the objective and also partly because history has taught us that a negotiated solution to a conflict is the most likely one to be successful at resolving the conflict in the medium and long term. However, what can Canada and the international community do?
Israelis and Palestinians are first and foremost those who must decide that it is in their best interest to negotiate to resolve the conflict. This prospect is slim at this time, given the tragedy unfolding before our eyes. That said, Canada and the rest of the international community can play a role to try to usher in a path leading to negotiations.
I am outlining here a handful of strategic ideas that can potentially ground Canada's foreign policy. These ideas are not exhaustive, and none of these ideas would be sufficient to bring about a path towards negotiation and Palestinian statehood. However, they do represent tools in our foreign-policy tool box, options that we are not exploring today and should be exploring.
The first of these options is a framework with clear parameters for a two-state solution.