By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola says South Africa will continue to push for the two state solutions between Israel and Palestine.
Speaking at the high-level conference in New York on Tuesday, 29 July 2025, Lamola said the recognition of Palestinian statehood was “fundamental to restoring the credibility of the two-state solution”.
“There is an expectation that we will deliver an effective response to the destruction of an entire population and a peaceful path for preserving the prospect of a viable Palestinian state existing side by side with the state of Israel in peace and security. This expectation is not misplaced, and it could not be higher.
“Eighty years since the founding of the UN, this is a matter that has plagued our collective conscience. The solution lies with a tangible recommitment from all of us to the values that bind us,” said Lamola.
Lamola was among high-level representatives who gathered at the UN this week to promote a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
The UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025, after it adopted a resolution related to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israels’ policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The conference was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran. Both Israel and the US have boycotted the three-day meeting, chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
This conference takes place at a time when we are witnessing the destruction of Gaza and its people in real time, in a brazen and wanton act of genocide in full view of the world,” said Lamola.
“South Africa continues to condemn the horrific events of 7 October 2023 where innocent Israeli citizens were killed. Despite this challenging context, in which the international legal and multilateral system has been paralysed and turned into a blunt tool, the focus today on a real path to lasting peace must prevail.
“The might is right doctrine can no longer be justified. It has led to perpetual insecurity and it justifies an attempt to eradicate the Palestinian people through killing and starvation,” he said.
Lamola added that South Africa hoped the conference would “plot a real path forward, based on concrete actions, for the creation of a Palestinian state existing peacefully and side by side with the state of Israel, along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
Saudi Arabia and France called on countries at the United Nations to support a declaration that outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards implementing a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We call on you to support this document before the end of the 79th session of the General Assembly by contacting the missions of Saudi Arabia and France in New York,” Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the conference.
The declaration supports the deployment of a temporary international stabilization mission, mandated by the U.N. Security Council, and welcomes “the readiness expressed by some member states to contribute troops.”
It calls on Israel’s leadership to “issue a clear public commitment to the two-state solution, including a sovereign and viable Palestinian State,” to immediately end violence and incitement against Palestinians, and to halt all settlement, land grabs, and annexation activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.
The declaration commits to adopting restrictive measures against violent extremist settlers and those who support illegal settlements, and adopting targeted measures “against entities and individuals acting against the principle of the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, through violence or acts of terrorism, and in breach of international law.”
It also describes regional integration and independent Palestinian statehood as “intertwined objectives.”
“Only by ending the war in Gaza, releasing all hostages, ending occupation, rejecting violence and terror, realizing an independent, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian State, ending the occupation of all Arab territories and providing solid security guarantees for Israel and Palestine, can normal relations and coexistence among the region’s peoples and States be achieved,” it reads.