Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Speaking at a recent news conference in Amman alongside his Jordanian counterpart, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas reiterated his country's stance on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict saying "we are still in agreement that reaching a two-state solution through negotiations is the only solution." He used the adverb 'still', apparently, because as far as the US is concerned, the two-state solution is dead in the water. President Donald Trump, patently biased in Israel's favour, is doing all he can to deny the Palestinians their just rights in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and international law.
Less than a year after assumption of office, Trump announced recognition of occupied Jerusalem - which the Palestinians want as the capital of their elusive state - as the capital of Israel. In early September 2018, he decided to stop funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, reportedly on the urging of his son-in-law and top advisor on the Middle East, Jarred Kushner, whose family has been making donations for the construction of illegal Jewish settlements on the Arab land. Last March, in yet another mockery of international law, the US president recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights seized from Syria during the 1967 war. It was not difficult to see what the next step would be. As expected, now US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who like Kushner has been a supporter of Jewish settlements, said Israel had the "right" to annex at least part of the occupied West Bank. Only an arrogant power can think it has the prerogative to hand another country the right to annex other people's land. Meanwhile, Kushner is preparing to roll out in Bahrain later this month a 'peace plan' dubbed by the Trump administration as the "deal of the century." He is said to have been working on 'economic dimensions' of the deal. Though there is no mention of its political details, some of the emerging reports say the plan is to throw lots of money at the Palestinians in exchange for giving up the demands for return of their lost lands. Having sensed what is coming at them; the Palestinian leadership has already rejected the 'deal of the century' and stopped talking with the US.
For long, Palestinians have been waging a relentless struggle against Israeli occupation, suffering bloody repression, massacres, and air and ground assaults by occupation forces. Since March of last year, they have been staging demonstrations at the Gaza-Israeli border to assert their right to return to their ancestral homes. According to a UN investigation, more than 200 unarmed demonstrators as well as journalists and medical personnel have been killed and about 18,000 people wounded by Israeli army. The state violence has not, will not, dampen their resolve to fight against occupation. The 'deal of the century' only adds insult to injury, and is destined to end up in the dustbin of history. There can be no peace until Israel vacates occupation.