August 7, 2011

Is a Palestinian State Viable Today?

By Michael Curtis
Beyond the issue of bad faith and irresponsibility of Palestinian authorities in calling for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state is the question of whether such a state is politically and economically viable.  Politically, would it meet the four qualifications for statehood mentioned in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States signed on December 26, 1933: a permanent population; a defined territory; a government; and a capacity to enter into relations with other states? Were a Palestinian state to be established today few of those qualifications would be met, and it is probable that it would become a "failed state." Consider the question of population. Over two million Palestinians live east of the 1947 armistice lines, another million in the Gaza Strip, and about a million in Israel with Israeli citizenship.  Over half of Jordan's population is Palestinian in origin. That hardly epitomizes a "permanent" population within a defined territory....(Read Full Article)