JNS
The event is scheduled to take place in New York City shortly after France said unilaterally it supports Palestinian statehood.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement on Thursday that Paris is slated to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the U.N. General Assembly has brought renewed attention to a “high level” U.N. event about “peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two-state solution,” slated to take place at the world body's headquarters in New York City on July 28-29.
Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, stated on Thursday that Canada “condemns the Israeli government’s failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza” and that it “supports a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.”
“Canada will work intensively in all fora to further that end, including through the participation of the minister of foreign affairs at the U.N. high-level conference on a two-state solution in New York next week,” Carney said.
More than 220 members of Parliament called on the British prime minister and foreign secretary to “put on record our support for U.K. recognition of a Palestinian state” ahead of the U.N. event, stating that they “are expectant that the outcome of the conference will be the U.K. government outlining when and how it will act on its long-standing commitment to a two-state solution, as well as how it will work with international partners to make this a reality.”
France and Saudi Arabia are co-sponsoring the conference, which was originally scheduled to run for four days in June but was postponed due to security and logistical issues during the Israel-Iran 12-day conflict. Representatives of more than 55 countries are slated to address the conference. (More than 60 others are listed as participants.)
Organizers have said the goal of the ministerial-level event is to produce an action-oriented outcome document detailing irreversible steps and concrete measures toward implementing a two-state solution.
Asked about the two-day conference, Tommy Pigott, principal deputy U.S. State Department spokesman, said at Thursday’s press briefing that he had “nothing further, beyond saying that we will not be in attendance at that conference.”
In June, Reuters reported on a U.S. diplomatic cable that it viewed in which Washington urged other governments to skip the event, “which we view as counterproductive to ongoing, life-saving efforts to end the war in Gaza and free hostages.”
“The United States opposes any steps that would unilaterally recognize a conjectural Palestinian state, which adds significant legal and political obstacles to the eventual resolution of the conflict and could coerce Israel during a war, thereby supporting its enemies,” the cable states.
The United States has long backed a two-state solution, even in some form during the first Trump administration. U.S. President Donald Trump said in February that the United States should “take over” Gaza, an idea that hasn’t gained traction since.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Bloomberg last month that he did not think a sovereign Palestinian state remains a U.S. foreign policy goal. The State Department would not say if the envoy’s remark reflected U.S. foreign policy and would not define what current policy dictates about a two-state solution.
JNS asked the U.S. mission to the United Nations on Friday if it had any comment on next week’s conference. A spokesperson referred JNS to a statement from Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, “strongly” rejecting Macron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state and stating that “this reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace” and is “a slap in the face to the victims of Oct. 7.”
Significant time devoted to roundtable discussions
Monday’s session at the conference will open with remarks from Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, and Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, according to an agenda that the French mission to the United Nations shared with JNS. António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, and Palestinian leader Mohammad Mustafa are also slated to speak at the beginning of the event.
Participating countries will then divide into working groups for a series of roundtable discussions, followed by a concluding segment where U.N. agencies, including several in dispute with the United States and Israel, will provide perspectives, according to the agenda.
Working group members are slated to include Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Norway, Qatar, Senegal, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union and the League of Arab States.
Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and former U.N. commissioner for human rights with a long history of anti-Israel statements, is expected to address a roundtable. She chaired the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which the American Jewish Committee says was “a forum to attack and vilify Israel and threaten Jewish groups in attendance.”
Former president of Colombia Juan Miguel Santos, who recognized a Palestinian state in his waning days in office after years of building ties with Israel, is also scheduled to address a roundtable.
Organizers have allotted Monday afternoon, Tuesday and several hours on Wednesday, if necessary, for a plenary session for representatives of U.N. member states to speak.
Israel has been given a speaking slot at the beginning of the plenary, according to the agenda copy provided to JNS. High-level U.N. officials, conference co-chairs, and Mustafa have also been given speaking opportunities.
Israel does not plan to participate in the event, a spokesperson for the Jewish state’s mission to the United Nations told JNS on Friday.
On Sept. 22, heads of government and state are scheduled to meet for a summit on Palestinian statehood, just ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly.
