IN 2011 at the People’s Health Assembly I asked a delegation of Palestinian doctors whether or not, a binational state solution like Belgium, in which the Flemish and Walloons coexist under a unitary constitution, could be a possible solution to the problem. Their answer, like so many answers I receive from Palestinians, echoed the 1967 Khartoum Resolution: ‘No, no, and no’.

The Khartoum resolution is famous for containing what became known as the “Three Noes” namely, ‘no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it’. The top priority of Palestinians, as Einat Wilf of Israel’s Labour Party and many others put it, is not the creation of a Palestinian state, ‘their top priority is the elimination of Israel.’

Later that same year, the late Dr Costa Gazi of the PAC and myself attended a seminar hosted by a member of Fatah at UCT. I sat listening to the familiar story of the Nakba, a story which removes the context in which 5 Arab States attacked Israel entirely. In this sad, tragic place, the Zionists arrived out of nowhere, to a land bereft of Jews, then attacked the Arabs, who immediately became Palestinians.

Of course, such claims are nonsensical given the existence of the Old Yishuv, the Jewish community surrounding Jerusalem which predates Zionism. I asked the representative a similar question: so in summary, what is the problem? His answer, once again echoed Khartoum: “The Jews, the Jews, the Jews.”

This inability to compromise, to move on from Khartoum, has proven one of the most enduring stumbling blocs on the path to peace. It is why the Oslo Peace Accords fell on deaf ears, and why Yasser Arafat walked away from what would have been the deal of the century.

Today I write in the aftermath of a series of events, the tragic Manchester terror attack on Yom Kippur, a week after the UK and its allies announced recognition of what could be described as Fatah Palestine. This was followed by the Trump Peace Plan which saw the final release of hostages, and signing of a ceasefire agreement by Egypt, Qatar and USA at Sharm al Sheik.

The IDF has now withdrawn to a pre-agreed line, and the ceasefire mobs seem eerily silent over Hamas’ public execution of dissidents and opposition, in the streets of Gaza. A key aspect of the ceasefire deal is the disarming of the Islamist group, a task that is unlikely to come without intervention of the proposed international stabilisation force.

The Zealots were once a Jewish sect which arose in the Kingdom of Judea to oppose the Roman occupation of their land, they fought their most famous battle at the great fortress of Masada, where 1,000 defenders took their own lives just as the Romans were about to storm the citadel.

Today, the word is associated with a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals. Hamas, as the premier Islamic Jihad movement, are certainly the Zealots of our time. Many forget it was the Romans who renamed the region Syria-Palestina, to eviscerate the land of Judea and Samaria, in the same manner that Palestinians continue to exenterate the history of the Jewish people by denying archeological evidence linking Jerusalem to the Bible.

Let’s hope that what looks like traction on the Trump Peace Plan signals a shift in thinking for those who support the Zealots. Let’s hope that Fatah Palestine isn’t simply an excuse to wage further war on the issue of Jerusalem. Let’s hope that peace will prevail and that coexistence amongst the world’s faiths will arise via the growing consensus in the Arab world, that the Abraham Accords are the only viable platform to bring peace and cooperation.