Ex-PM Olmert: Gaza is Palestinian, not Israeli, and must be part of a Palestinian state

Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and must be part of a future Palestinian state, former prime minister Ehud Olmert says as he addresses the left-wing People’s Peace Summit at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, with former Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser Al-Kidwa.

Olmert and Al-Kidwa discuss their peace framework, which they first unveiled last year, and are promoting together. The framework aims at reaching a two-state solution based on Israel’s pre-1967 borders with its neighbors, with land swaps.

While acknowledging that the concept is not popular in the current political climate, Olmert says that “only a two-state solution is a prescription for a dramatic change in the direction of our country and the whole region.”

He maintains that Israel achieved what it could militarily in Gaza “a long time ago” and that the war must stop immediately.

“The hostages should have been back already,” Olmert says.

“We must pull out from Gaza,” he adds. “Gaza is Palestinian and not Israeli. It needs to be part of a Palestinian state.”

Olmert calls for an interim security force to ensure that Hamas does not go back to power, and a new administration linked to the Palestinian Authority that can rebuild Gaza without any involvement of the terror group. According to the former premier, this can be achieved within the framework of a comprehensive normalization of ties for the whole region.

“In 1977, when the Likud [party] entered the government for the first time, nobody believed that Menachem Begin would make peace with Egypt and Israel would pull out of Sinai, but it happened,” Olmert says.

“We all understand that we need a new situation in Gaza,” Kidwa says.

“Nobody is going to do the job on our behalf; we need to do the job and people from abroad can help us,” he says, adding that everyone needs to do more for this.