Earlier this week President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority visited the White House this week and was warned that this could be the last chance for a two-state solution through negotiations with Israel. Upon arriving home, however, Abbas’ son, Tareq Abbas informed his father that the opportunity for a two-state solution had long since passed. What Tareq Abbas and a majority of the younger Palestinian generations want is a one-state solution with equal citizenship.
In a December poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Resarch showed that 65% of Palestinians over the age of 50 supported the two-state solution while only 47% of Palestinians between the ages of 18 and 34 supported it. Despite thi, only about one third of Palestinians support the one-state solution. Among various ideological reasons that the state should not split up, Tareq Abbasb believes that the occupation of Israel due to the conflict slows down business as checkpoints slow productivity.
