Bantustans do not work, so three-state solution stands

Gerald Levin, Johannesburg

In Israel in April 2003, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to withdraw from Gaza for demographic reasons. He wisely requested a UN mandate for Egypt to again control Gaza, as before the 1967 capture. Without Egyptian control, he predicted that the Gazans would fight for a Bantustan, like the apartheid South African model.

Will the Gazan and West Bank Bantustans be acceptable without fighting with Egypt or Israel?

The solution? Jordan agreed in 1997 to administer between 17 and 21 per cent of the West Bank, remaining the only Palestinian state; a United Nations mandate for Egypt to again control Gaza and Jordan to again control some West Bank. Control of land south of the Dead Sea could strategically strengthen the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal project.