UN Summit Seeks Renewed Push for Two-State Solution in Palestine

© 1949 UN Archives Photographer A convoy of trucks carries refugees and their belongings from Gaza to Hebron in the West Bank.

After nearly two years of war in Gaza, the suffering of its residents shows no sign of easing. As Israel launches a major ground offensive in the north of the enclave, attention once again turns to the United Nations.

On September 22, at the UN Headquarters in New York, a world summit of Heads of State and Government – sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia – will attempt to revive the long-stalled “two-State solution”: one Israeli, one Palestinian, coexisting within secure and recognized borders.

In an April address to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the process is “at risk of vanishing altogether.” Political will to achieve the goal, he said, “feels more distant than ever.”

However, in a recent exchange with reporters, the UN chief asked: “What is the alternative? Is it a one-State solution in which either the Palestinians are expelled or forced to live in their land without rights?”

He underscored that it is “the duty of the international community to keep the two-State solution alive and to materialize the conditions to make it happen.”

What’s being discussed

The idea of establishing one nation each for Jewish and Palestinian populations, living alongside each other in peace, predates the UN’s founding in 1945. Drafted and redrafted since then, the concept appears in dozens of UN Security Council resolutions, multiple peace talks, and in the General Assembly’s recently resumed tenth emergency session.

In 1947, Great Britain relinquished its mandate over Palestine and brought the “Palestinian Question” to the United Nations, which accepted the responsibility of finding a just solution. The UN proposed partitioning Palestine into two independent states – one Palestinian Arab, the other Jewish – with Jerusalem internationalized, acting as a framework for the two-State solution.

A peace conference was convened in Madrid in 1991, aiming for a peaceful settlement through direct negotiations along two tracks: between Israel and the Arab States, and between Israel and the Palestinians, based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accord, which outlined principles for further negotiations and laid the foundation for a Palestinian interim self-government in the West Bank and Gaza.

The 1993 Oslo Accord deferred certain issues to subsequent permanent status negotiations, held in 2000 at Camp David and in 2001 in Taba, but these proved inconclusive.

Three decades on, the UN’s overarching goal remains supporting Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict and end the occupation in line with relevant UN resolutions, international law, and bilateral agreements. The vision is for two states – Israel and an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state – living side by side in peace and security within secure and recognized borders, based on pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.

Held on the opening day of the UN General Assembly’s high-level week – the annual September gathering of world leaders – the initiative comes amid a deeply worrying regional backdrop: intensified Israeli military operations that have killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza since October 7, 2023; the threat of famine in northern Gaza on August 22; Israel’s strikes against Hamas officials in Qatar on September 9; and accelerating settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Despite the volatile context, the two-State solution is regaining diplomatic traction.

On September 12, the General Assembly adopted by a wide margin the “New York Declaration,” following a July conference co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. It called for “just and lasting peace grounded in international law and based on the two-State solution.”

To end the war, it urged Hamas to “end its role in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.” The United States and Israel, which had boycotted the July conference, voted against the text.

The September 22 summit will likely build on that momentum: French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce France’s recognition of the State of Palestine, and several other Western countries, including the UK, Canada, Belgium, and Australia, are reportedly considering following suit.

In short, the summit’s impact could inject new momentum into efforts to establish a UN roadmap toward two states.