Two former world leaders, Mary Robinson, Ireland's first female president (1990-1997), and Helen Clark, New Zealand's prime minister (1999-2008), have warned that the prospects for Palestinian statehood and the future of its people are "disappearing." The warning came after their recent tour of Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the occupied West Bank.

Robinson and Clark, members of "The Elders," a group founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, identified the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and incitement to violence against Palestinians as major concerns. They pointed specifically to actions and rhetoric from Israel's right-wing Netanyahu government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Robinson described the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank as "so much worse" than during her last visit in 2023, prior to Hamas' deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. She criticized the explicit hate speech from Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, stating it was dehumanizing and clearly aimed at annexing the entire West Bank.

According to the United Nations, from January through May 2026, there were over 760 incidents in the West Bank resulting in injuries to Palestinians or damage to property, averaging six incidents per day. During its last term, the Netanyahu government approved more than 100 new settlements in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a related ruling, calling it a "decision of lies," and asserted that "the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, nor in our ancestral heritage of Judea and Samaria."

Robinson expressed shame that the European Union, currently presided over by Ireland, had not taken stronger measures against Israel, such as sanctions or banning products from Israeli settlements.

The former leaders are calling on the international community to increase pressure on Israel to change course, warning that "Palestine will disappear before our eyes if this process of settlement and annexation continues," a process that has intensified over the past two and a half years.

Sources