The last-chance appeal: stop the war, rebuild Gaza, and resist the transfer plans in the West Bank and deportation from Gaza

We need no reminder of the grave dangers threatening the Palestinian presence on its land — dangers we are confronting with this bluntness for the first time since 1917.

The Arab Republic of Egypt hosts two very important events in the coming two weeks. The first is the fourth session of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, convening on 17 February with an expected 90 states taking part — the conference that began in Riyadh in October 2024 and moved to Brussels, Belgium, and Oslo, Norway, with the fifth meeting to be held in Amman, Jordan, next month. The conference aims to mobilise international support for implementing the two-state solution — which means the establishment of the State of Palestine. The attendance of this enormous number of states, including European ones, confirms the international community's commitment to the two-state solution.

The second is the emergency Arab summit called by Egypt in coordination with Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, convening on the 27th of this month. This emergency meeting will not be like its predecessors: Arab–American relations are visibly strained, with categorical Arab rejection of the displacement and resettlement schemes, and we have recently seen Arab coordination strengthened to confront the danger of liquidating the Palestinian cause under the direction of the American and Israeli administrations.

The Palestinian cause sits at the heart of both important events. It is neither logical nor in the Palestinian interest for the Arab and international world to rush to our aid while we as Palestinians fail in our duties to help ourselves and to help those seeking to stand with us.

In every meeting with representatives of the international community in Egypt and abroad — the latest this week with a senior European official in Cairo — it has become beyond doubt that the Palestinian division and the absence of a unified Palestinian address have made it hard for the international community to act: it has paralysed the international community and opened the way for the Israeli narrative to prevail. This is nothing new; it has been certain for years that the Palestinian discord has struck the cause a mortal blow. Successive Israeli governments have exploited the Palestinian division to evade political obligations, Judaise Jerusalem, intensify settlement, and impose blockade, starvation, and wars on the Gaza Strip.

What is required now, without hesitation or delay, is a declaration by the Palestinian president and the political forces of the achievement of Palestinian unity — a Palestinian unity standing on these principles:

1 — The return of the Palestinian National Authority to operate in the Gaza Strip, assisted by an administrative body working on the ground in the Strip.

2 — The Palestinian National Authority declares it will work side by side and coordinate with the governmental, municipal, and security bodies present in the Gaza Strip to achieve stability, begin reconstruction, and secure safety for our people — for no work in the Strip is possible without close cooperation with all the structures existing there.

3 — After the war the Gaza Strip is in urgent need of every effort in the governmental, municipal, and security sectors — indeed it needs the return of the thousands who left the Strip for Egypt and the world: doctors, engineers, business people, staff of civil and international organisations, journalists, and others.

4 — The “H” movement declares it will not be part of governing the Gaza Strip, and will instead do all that is required to back and ease the work of the Palestinian government in the Strip, providing it with the administrative, municipal, and police cadres needed to secure safety for all.

Palestinian unity is required and necessary — not a luxury — given these realities. This Palestinian step would form important backing for the Arab efforts led by Egypt in coordination with the other Arab states, and would deny the Trump administration and Netanyahu the opportunity to carry out the displacement schemes in Gaza and the transfer schemes in the Palestinian West Bank.