{"id":13569,"date":"2025-09-22T11:09:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=13569"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:09:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:09:32","slug":"growing-support-for-a-two-state-solution-to-middle-east-conflict-must-go-beyond-mere-symbolism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/growing-support-for-a-two-state-solution-to-middle-east-conflict-must-go-beyond-mere-symbolism\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing support for a two-state solution to Middle East conflict must go beyond mere symbolism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Growing recognition of Palestinian statehood by the international community, while welcome, must be matched with punitive sanctions to force Israel to end its genocidal campaign in Gaza, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Stephenson said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing yesterday\u2019s declarations by the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal, today\u2019s session of the UN General Assembly is set to see France, Belgium, Malta and Luxembourg also recognise the state of Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, growing support for a two-state solution to this decades-long conflict must go beyond mere symbolism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecognition of Palestinian statehood is hugely important. But it doesn&#8217;t change the appalling situation on the ground, where Gazans face daily indiscriminate bombing by the IDF and death from enforced starvation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout immediate sanctions against Israel, we will see the death toll continue to rise in Gaza and the increased displacement of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank by violent settlers \u2013 aided and abetted by Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe international community must now show some backbone and stand up to Israel and its staunchest supporters, including the US administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecisions made in relation to Gaza and Palestine at the 80<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0UN General Assembly \u2013 which is being attended by the Taoiseach and T\u00e1naiste \u2013 will serve as a marker for member states\u2019 credibility and humanity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Palestinian people have nothing to gain from this UN session simply ending up as another talking shop for world leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>September 22, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growing recognition of Palestinian statehood by the international community, while welcome, must be matched with punitive sanctions to force Israel to end its genocidal campaign in Gaza, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. Senator Stephenson said: \u201cFollowing yesterday\u2019s declarations by the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal, today\u2019s session of the UN General [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[529,718,738,641,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaza","category-israel","category-palestine","category-patricia-stephenson","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Growing support for a two-state solution to Middle East conflict must go beyond mere symbolism - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/growing-support-for-a-two-state-solution-to-middle-east-conflict-must-go-beyond-mere-symbolism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing support for a two-state solution to Middle East conflict must go beyond mere symbolism - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Growing recognition of Palestinian statehood by the international community, while welcome, must be matched with punitive sanctions to force Israel to end its genocidal campaign in Gaza, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. 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