“Making a Palestinian State Impossible: Israel’s Objective Since Its Creation” – 4 Questions for Monique Chemillier-Gendreau

A jurist and emeritus professor of public law and political science at the University of Paris-Diderot, and a specialist in international law, Monique Chemillier-Gendreau answers questions from Pascal Boniface on the occasion of the publication of her book Rendre impossible un État palestinien. L’objectif d’Israël depuis sa création (Textuel).

In your view, Israel will never agree to recognise a Palestinian state. It has never been sincere in those moments when, under external pressure, it feigned willingness to consider it…

Indeed, I believe that the community of states and civil society, concerned about the terrifying drift Israel has embarked upon, can no longer seriously speak of the two-state solution as a credible prospect. It is an illusionist’s stance. In this book, I analyse the perfectly thought-out and systematic manner in which Israel, from its origins, has methodically undermined the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. This became clear from the Oslo negotiations onwards and has only been confirmed since. Israel’s project is that there should never be a viable Palestinian state. The Israeli state has granted only a “Palestinian Authority”, which holds none of the sovereign powers of a state. And even as this “Authority” was being established, Israel continued its policy of colonising Palestine and has considerably accelerated it in recent times. The hope among Palestinians that the Oslo Accords would usher in a positive dynamic was quickly shown to be illusory. Today the outcome is clear: there is no longer any viable territory for a Palestinian state. Gaza is a field of ruins, under threat of full takeover by Israel. In the West Bank and Jerusalem, Palestinians only control fragmented and non-contiguous administrative areas. The Palestinian people have been dispersed since 1948, and Israel’s prohibition of the right of return condemns them to this dispersion. The Palestinian Authority is neither a state nor even the embryo of a state, for lack of the functions attributed to states. Finally, Palestine’s natural capital — Jerusalem — has been confiscated by Israel in both its parts, with no prospect of reversing the situation.

Today, the discourse of Israeli ministers, including the Prime Minister himself, along with the Knesset resolution of 18 July 2024, formalise Israel’s policy: there will be no recognition of a Palestinian state. Other states must therefore reconsider their positions in light of this reality.

You recall that Israel’s admission was validated on 11 May 1949 with a specific reference to the state’s commitment to accept without reservation the obligations arising from the Charter…

Yes, that reminder is necessary. Israel has never respected its international commitments. I refer here to the oral proceedings before the International Court of Justice on Friday 2 May 2025, during which I had the opportunity to outline the full range of Israel’s breaches of its international obligations. Already, at the time of its application for admission to the United Nations in 1949, Israel inspired such mistrust in the General Assembly that, to obtain a vote in favour of the country’s admission, the Israeli delegate had to solemnly commit to respecting the obligations of the Charter and all that they entail. We know how that turned out. The promise made upon Israel’s entry to the United Nations in 1949 was a sham. UN Member States should question their own weakness in the face of such blatant bad faith and shift their policies by finally committing to sanctions against Israel.

Despite the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, legally, the occupation has never ceased?

Indeed, Israel plays with words and norms. The Israeli state, because of the withdrawal of settlements from Gaza in 2005, claims that it is no longer an Occupied Territory and that, as such, the Geneva law no longer applies. But the International Court of Justice has corrected this erroneous interpretation. In its opinion of 19 July 2024 on “The legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, it held that, insofar as Israel retains “control over land, sea and air borders, imposes restrictions on the movement of people and goods, collects import and export taxes, and maintains military control over the buffer zone”, it is not released from its obligations under humanitarian law in armed conflict. It therefore remains bound by these obligations.[1] But, as demonstrated by the destruction of Gaza, Israel tramples all the rules laid down by the Geneva Conventions and other norms of humanitarian law.

Displaying a Palestinian flag is forbidden and considered a threat to Israel’s security…

The flag is the ultimate symbol of a group’s political existence and its will to be recognised by others. It is therefore, for Israel, the physical reminder of the Palestinian demand to be recognised as a state. Hence the Israeli sensitivity on the matter.

Finally, I would like to stress the argument concerning Israel’s security and the fundamental misunderstanding by the Israeli people and their government in this regard. Jews who have supported the Zionist project — and still do — have lulled themselves into an illusion: that after centuries of persecution across time and geography, what would protect them would be a land of their own. This illusion was doomed to fail for two reasons. First, there was no uninhabited land on which to realise this project. They had to seize the land of another people. This was legitimised in favour of Israel by the UN partition resolution. But Israel has never ceased to push its territorial greed further. The Palestinian people could not accept this without violent upheavals. The second reason lies in the illusion that a piece of land can provide protection. What protects all human beings are recognised, respected and mutually guaranteed rights. For a group to seize land by force, implant its own population while driving out the original inhabitants, and practise discrimination against all who do not belong to the group is to risk unleashing a spiral of vengeance. Only respect for the law can bring an end to this. Israelis will increase their chances of security when they respect the law.

This article is also available on my blog and on the Mediapart blog.

[1] International Court of Justice, Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, Advisory Opinion, 19 July 2024, para. 94.