Letters | Israel-Gaza war: a two-state solution is the only viable course for peace

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification.

As past presidents of the International Society of Political Psychology and editors of the journal Political Psychology, we are writing to express our astonishment and sorrow regarding the events that have taken place in the Middle East since October 7, the day Hamas terrorists attacked Israeli civil settlements around the Gaza Strip. Since then, some 1,400 Israelis have perished, more than 200 were kidnapped, and thousands more injured, including women, children and old people. Over 100,000 Israelis have lost their homes or were forced to leave them.

Israel responded immediately and massively to the Hamas attack, bombing the Gaza Strip indiscriminately. This turned a justified and natural desire for self-protection into revenge against Hamas and collective punishment of all citizens of Gaza. As of November 1, aerial bombing has killed over 8,500 people, mostly civilians, and left more than 19,000 injured. Again, these included children, women and old people.

According to the United Nations, Gaza is now in the grip of a humanitarian crisis. Hospitals are too crowded to take care of all the injured. Over 1.4 million people have been forced to move south.

In the wider context, we must also recognise that one, Hamas is not the same as the Palestinians, and two, that the Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of an unjust occupation, with the de facto illegal annexation of almost two-thirds of the West Bank. The Israeli settlement policy dooms hope for a two-state solution.