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A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Countering an Illusion of Our Epoch: The Re-Emergence of the Single State Solution in Palestine/Israel Cherine Hussein International Relations Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex, April 2011 I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted, either in the same or different form, to this or any other university for a degree Signature: ................................. The public squares are filled once more. There’s a hope on the street corners, a hope in each and every one of us. It is as if most of the nation had been taken by an uncontainable need to vomit at the sights of all this shamefulness. Paulo Freire, 2006: 2 Only a few miles of night, the moist distances of the country dawn, a handful of earth separated us, the transparent walls we did not cross, so that life later put between us the seas and the earth, and we came together in spite of space, seeking each other step by step, from one ocean to another…regaining earth and life. Pablo Neruda, 1952: 157 Cherine Hussein International Relations Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Countering an Illusion of Our Epoch: The Re-emergence of the Single State Solution in Palestine/Israel Abstract Since the Oslo Accords, the two-state solution has dominated, and frustrated, the official search for peace in Israel/Palestine. In parallel to it, an alternative struggle of resistance — centered upon the single state idea as a more liberating pathway towards justice to the conflict — has re-emerged against the hegemony of Zionism and the demise of a viable two-state solution in Israel/Palestine. This thesis inquires into the nature of this phenomenon as a movement of resistance and investigates its potential to become a counterhegemonic force against the processes of Zionism as embedded within the peace process since Oslo. To this end, it reconstructs the re-emergence of the single state solution both intellectually and organizationally. This reconstructive analysis is undertaken in two interlinked ways. On the one hand, this thesis analyzes and evaluates the single state alternative from within its own self-understandings, strategies and maps to power. In doing so, it centers the political practices of the situated resistances of the oppressed themselves. On the other hand, it mobilises a classical Gramscian theoretical approach—one that re-centers the processes of counterhegemony, and Gramsci’s radical embrace of the transformative power of the human being—through the writings of Edward Said. This theoretical lens enables the analysis of the counterhegemonic potential of this alternative through an evaluation of the extent to which it meets the more stringent demands of becoming a Gramscian-Saidian counterhegemonic force of liberation. Hence, this thesis represents both an empirical contribution to knowledge, and a theoretically informed analysis of the nature of the single state alternative. The thesis finds that the single state alternative can be seen as a Gramscian-Saidian movement of critical pedagogy aimed at creating a reconstructive moment within the conflict. It argues that it has laid much of the groundwork required to become an expansive counterhegemonic force. However, this potential has yet to be seized through a unified, officially led vehicle openly endorsing a single state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and has several obstacles left to overcome in its process of becoming an established political force. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ v List of Acronyms ..............................................................................................vi Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 I. The Single State Movement in Palestine/Israel ......................................... 1 II. Theoretical Framework: Edward Said, Gramsci and a Decolonial Approach ............................................................................................................... 5 III. Methodological Reflections ....................................................................... 13 IV. Structure of the Argument ........................................................................ 16 Chapter One: Antonio Gramsci, International Relations and the ‘Politics of Resistance’: A Literature Review ........................................... 19 I. Introduction .................................................................................................... 19 II. The Many Images of Antonio Gramsci .................................................... 21 A. The Politics of Interpretation, and the Highlighting of a Silenced Revolutionary Project of Resistance ............................................................. 21 III. IR, Robert Cox and the Neo-Gramscian Moment of Theoretical Liberation ............................................................................................................ 26 A. IR, Critical Theory and Robert Cox’s application of Gramsci ............ 26 IV. The Gramscian/Neo-Gramscian Debates in IR ..................................... 30 A. Germain and Kenny’s Intervention .......................................................... 30 B. Ayers et al Intervention ............................................................................... 32 V. Engaging Gramsci: Some Neo-Gramscian Tensions ............................. 34 A. Neutralizing the Philosophy of Praxis ..................................................... 34 B. Blurring Counter-hegemony and the National ....................................... 38 C. Obscuring Gramsci’s ‘War of Position’ .................................................... 43 D. Silencing the Periphery ............................................................................... 48 VI. Conclusion: Towards a De-colonial Gramsci ........................................ 50 Chapter Two: Edward Said and Revitalizing Gramsci’s Project of Counter-Hegemony: Laying Theoretical Foundations .......................... 54 I. Introduction .................................................................................................... 54 II. Edward Said, Postcolonialism and Neglected Images .......................... 56 A. Edward Said: A Brief Look into a Spirit of Opposition ........................ 56 B. Postcolonialism and Neglected Images of Edward Said ...................... 60 III. Edward Said and Buried Images of Gramsci ......................................... 64 A. A Saidian Inflected Gramsci ...................................................................... 64 B. Re-Centring the Revolutionary Role of the Intellectual ....................... 70 C. The Philosophy of Praxis, Geography and Counter-hegemony ......... 76 D. An Emphasis on the Critique of ‘Common Sense’ and the ‘War of Position’ ............................................................................................................... 85 IV. Conclusion: Towards the Invention of New Souls .............................. 92 Chapter Three: The Context: The Oslo Accords and the Hegemony of Zionist Common Sense ................................................................................... 94 I. Introduction .................................................................................................... 94 II. The Context: The Oslo Accords and their Aftermath .......................... 96 A. The Oslo Accords: Circumstances of Emergence and the Groundwork Lain for the following ‘Peace Process’ .......................................................... 96 B. Accepting a Two State Paradigm and The Main Features of Oslo .. 104 C. Extent Oslo Represents a Departure from pre-Oslo .......................... 110 III. Conclusion: Towards a Countering of Zionist Common Sense ...... 119 Chapter Four: The Re-Emergence of the Single State Solution: An Intellectual Mapping of a Movement in the Making ............................ 121 I. Introduction .................................................................................................. 121 II. Critiques of Oslo ......................................................................................... 125 A. The Centrality of Edward Said ................................................................ 125 B. The Re-emergence of a Single State Movement ................................... 129 C. A Critique of the Common Sense of Oslo and After ......................... 132 D. Re-inserting Silenced Facts on the Ground .......................................... 135 III. An Anti-Zionist Conception of the World: Intellectual Points of Beginning, Unity and Re-Orientation .......................................................... 138 A. A Unified Critique of Zionism ................................................................. 140 B.

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