The earthly situation makes it almost impossible to imagine a solution in two states, where there is a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel, could become a reality.
Many analysts and activists say this is the result of decades of Israeli policy aimed at hampering the two states’ solutions by building Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands and undermining Palestinian autonomous government (PA) that controls parts of the territory.
The United Nations considers the lands that comprise the future Palestinian states, East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which are Palestinian territory.
But East Jerusalem has long been annexed by Israel, and decades-long expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has been transformed into a collection of disjointed Palestinian pockets separated from each other by strips of checkpoints, roads and land controlled by Israeli forces.
Around 70,000 settlers in Israel, most of them Jews, live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a settlement that is now considered illegal under international law.
That number could increase. In recent months, the Netanyahu government has approved a significant expansion of settlements, including E1. E1 is a controversial project to build thousands of new homes that effectively cut the West Bank to two.
Gaza has been largely reduced to tile rubs due to nearly two years of relentless artillery fire and ground operations launched by Israel.
Full-scale analysts now recognize that earthly reality is making a working Palestinian state impossible.
Learn more about why solutions in two states remain elusive.
