UN: Strong Economy Not Enough For Stability And Peace in Palestine
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- Published on Tuesday, 21 August 2012 15:39
PNN
A strong Palestinian economy will not be enough to guarantee a stable, sustainable Palestinian state, the UN special coordinator for the MIddle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, said on Monday night.
Serry said that stability in the West Bank could not be guaranteed without political legitimacy, in a speech at the closing ceremony of the Israel International Model United Nations at the Management Academic Studies (COMAS) in Rishon Lezion, Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported.
Serry acknowledged the "considerable economic growth in the Palestinian territories, and relative stability, including unprecedented security cooperation."
However, he warned that Palestine's future was not assured "because the Palestinian Authority is quickly, in my view, losing its legitimacy in the eye of the public, if it is not able to bring also the political goal forwards – the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security."
Referring to the uprisings of the Arab Spring, Serry said, "As we have witnessed lately in the region, no political institution can survive if it rests only on economics and lacks political legitimacy." He added that any sustainable two state solution required that peace and security was guaranteed for both Israel and Palestine.
Serry concluded that a revived peace process could ensure that the PA's achievements so far could be consolidated and moved forwards, something that he said would benefit both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the wider region.
However, Serry said that the international community needs to play its part too. In an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Tuesday morning, he said, that the world could "miss the two state solution entirely," unless progress was made on it in the near future.
