Hadash-Ta’al Member of Knesset (MK) Aida Touma-Sliman hosted on Tuesday a conference in Israel’s Knesset titled “Recognizing the State of Palestine: Why Now?” in which members of her party and the second Israeli-Arab party, Ra’am, called on Israeli leadership to recognize a sovereign State of Palestine.
All of Hadash-Ta’al’s MKs participated in the conference, as did MK Ayman Hatib-Yassin from Ra’am. Other participants included Hadash secretary-general Amjad Shavita, former Hadash MK Dov Hanin, and other Jewish and Arab peace activists.
At one point, MKs Tally Gotliv (Likud) and Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionist Party) entered the conference room and began shouting at the participants. Gotliv accused them of “supporting terror during war” and called them “dangerous enemies.” Touma-Sliman said afterward that the disruption represented the “fascism” that she faced daily in the Knesset.
International support for Palestinian statehood
The conference came after Norway, Ireland, and Spain recently recognized Palestine as an independent state and after the issue of Palestinian statehood arose in proposals by the US administration to end the war in Gaza and move towards the normalization of diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Ta’al chairman MK Ahmad Tibi said such a conference should have been held “every day since the start of the occupation.” Tibi claimed that since October 7, none of the non-Arab parties said the words “Palestinian State,” and National Unity chairman MK Benny Gantz never said the words, period. Tibi also said that in the current Israeli government, there were no ministers who regarded the Palestinians as a people, let alone the right of the Palestinian people for an independent state.
Despite the recognition of 151 UN member states, the US only paid lip service to the concept of the two-state solution but de-facto has used its veto power to prevent this, Tibi claimed, adding that recognizing Israel’s right to a state but refusing to recognize the same for Palestinians served as support for “Jewish supremacy.”