Introduction
It is profoundly disconcerting that Western states are reinvigorating the peace process and two-state solution discourse by extending diplomatic recognition to a potential Palestinian state at a moment when the very existence of its people and land is imperiled by a myriad of settler-colonial eliminatory practices, including systematic territorial appropriation, urbicide, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Recognition, without concrete measures to safeguard the two fundamental pillars of statehood, people and territory, amounts to a hollow and deceitful promise.
This paradox is not new. Current gestures of recognition mirror earlier moments when Palestinians were drawn into the poisoned politics of the peace process to undermine their struggle for liberation, particularly the popular Palestinian Stone Intifada that erupted in 1987. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) seized the momentum then to officially transition from resistance and liberation to diplomacy and statehood on 22 percent of historic Palestine, which Yasser Arafat declared independent in November 1988 and was recognized by approximately 80 countries soon after.
The PLO’s recognition of Israel and abandonment of the agenda of liberation were the preconditions for entering into public and secret negotiations with Israel. In 1993, secret talks culminated in the signing of the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel, whereby the latter recognized the former as the representative of the Palestinians in exchange for the PLO’s recognition of Israel’s “right to exist in peace and security” and its sovereignty over 78 percent of Palestine.1
This
