Wie man Palästina befreit: Den Waffenstillstand im Gazastreifen in dauerhaften Frieden verwandeln

[SS from essay by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, President of the International Peace Institute and a member of The Elders. He was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2014 to 2018 and before that served as Jordan’s Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations.]

Forging a durable, just, and comprehensive peace in the Middle East should mimic the construction of a bridge. On one side, the architects of peace must build forward from where they stand today: negotiate a cease-fire agreement, uphold it, and point it toward a lasting settlement. On the opposite side, others must define the contours of that permanent settlement and then reverse engineer it to link up with current efforts.

If they follow this blueprint, those working on a longer-term vision for peace can do so unaffected by whatever political upheavals or swirling hatreds arise in the near term. Hamas’s release of all surviving Israeli hostages and Israel’s pullback within [Gaza](https://www.foreignaffairs.com/tags/gaza) and the ending of its horrific campaign in the territory (which a United Nations commission of inquiry and many other experts have described as genocide) offer a desperately needed respite. Credit must also be given to U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration for helping secure the nascent truce. But this cease-fire will only be a pause, an interruption in a long and dismal story, if it is not eventually connected to a future political settlement that accommodates the legitimate aspirations of both the Israelis and the Palestinians: two states. Such an arrangement may seem distant, but its pursuit is not folly. Determining in detail what two states living side-by-side in peace and harmony would actually look like need not depend on the prevailing public moods of today. Planners can hammer out the details now that will inspire widespread acceptance in the future.