Ex-PLO legal adviser says two-state solution ‘dead’ MEMO | October 11, 2014 (aletho) A former legal adviser for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas believes the so-called “two-state solution” will not resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict, citing Israel’s ongoing construction of Jewish-only settlements on Arab land. “The two-state solution died a long time ago,” Diana Butto, a Palestinian-Canadian national, told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview. She said that a glance at a map of Palestine and the numerous Jewish-only settlements that have been built there made it clear to anyone that a “two-state” solution to the conflict was no longer viable. “The Israelis have built these settlements with complete impunity,” said Butto, who for five years served as legal advisor to the PLO and Abbas. diana-buttu“The only configuration that’s going to work is a one-state solution in which Palestinians and Israelis live together in a situation of peace and equality,” she added. Butto, who was formerly involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, said such a scenario should also allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. “But we’re very far from [achieving] this right now,” she noted. “We have to put an end to settlement colonialism,” she asserted, “but, that being said, this isn’t just an issue of land, it’s an issue of liberation and return.” She stressed that Palestinian refugees didn’t only hail from the West Bank, but also came from Nazareth, Haifa, and other cities inside what is now Israel. “They [the Palestinians] want to liberate these areas; they want to return to these areas,” said Butto, who is a human rights lawyer. …
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 11:35:11 +0000
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