… Haïm Bresheeth, Ahmed Moor, Youssef Munayyer, Georges Bisharat

In this issue

An interview with Salah Salah, Chair of the PNC Commission on the Right of Return

.Virginia Tilley: The One-State Solution. A breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock .Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan : A Common State between the River Jordan and the Sea.

Dialogue 31 - June 2012 issue page 1

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Contents

Short web-interview with Prof. Haim Bresheeth, of the One State in Palestine group - page 5

Appeal : A single secular democratic state in Palestine: A Republic of all its citizens! - page 7

Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal by Yousef Munayyer - page 9

One state for Palestinians and Israelis by Ahmed Moor - page 11

Interview of Salah Salah, Chair of the PNC. Commission on the Right of Return - page 14 Virginia Tilley: The One-State Solution A breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock (The University of Michigan Press – 2005) by Sam Ayache - page 18

A One-State Solution for Israel and Palestine by Georges Bisharat - page 26

Book review : A Common State between the River Jordan and the Sea, by Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan by François Lazar - page 28

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Presentation

he « two State » solution to the conflict that has been devastating Palestine for several decades is an official solution replying to political necessity. At whatever T cost, with one “peace plan” after another, the UN, successive American govern- ments and in their wake, the European Union have tried in vain to impose a permanent partition of Palestine, i.e. a physical separation of the populations that live between the Mediterranean and the Jordan which entails territorial segregation of Palestinians.

As you can read in the different articles published in this edition of Dialogue, this policy enters into collision with the reality of Zionism that demands exclusively, all the territory of historic Palestine, and only conceives the existence of the Palestinian people as confined behind secure barriers, with no rights, no future.

But for this situation - that has lasted for more than sixty years - to be accepted, the myth of shared responsibilities had to be invented. In this way Israeli intransigence would be explained by the refusal of Palestinians to recognise the very convenient “right of the Jews” to take their place.

Once again, why couldn't populations of different origins live together with the same rights if it weren't for very material political interests?

To encourage an exchange of dialogue on the basis of facts and arguments is a necessary condition for all democratic advances in this area. Can there be democracy without equal rights in practice and not just formal equal rights in legal terms? Can practical democracy be achieved outside of the framework of a single State in which all components have the same rights? Can this happen without implementing the right to return for Palestinian refugees? These questions are still of extreme importance to-day. We invite our readers to pursue this discussion.

The editors.

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Short web-interview with Prof. Haim Bresheeth, of

the One State in Palestine group

(april 24, 2012)

n the occasion of the publication of conquered Jaffa and forcibly got rid of its an international appeal for "A sin- indigenous population, most of whome O gle secular democratic state in boarded fishing vessels trying to reach Ga- Palestine: A Republic of all its citizens!" za or Lebanon. Many were lost at sea. we questioned Professor Haïm Bresheeth, who is the originator of this appeal. The neighbourhood was most unusual in the Israeli context – the newly-housed sur- Dialogue vivors of the camps who made the majority of the population, shared the lovely town You were very young when you first arri- with few Palestinian families who have ved in Israel, shortly after its foundation. stayed behind, making some of the poorest Could you explain to us how you came to population of the new state. Jews have sha- your conviction for engaging in activism red a school with the Palestinian Arab chil- for the one-state solution? dren, and Arabic was taught as well as He- brew. None of this could happen today. What is your feeling concerning the evolu- This background, I believe, made me able tion of Israeli society, especially after last to understand and sympathize with the Pa- summer's social movement, in which most lestinians as I grew up, despite the marked of the objectors refused any comment on racism of the Jewish Israeli society in the fate of the Palestinian people, as though which I was brought up. Typically, the Pa- it were possible to dissociate the two situa- lestinian children who came from the same tions? According to you, how can the one- background have not made it to university, state solution be supported and implemen- or to a middle class occupation – they have ted in the Israeli society of today ? Is it remained on the margins of Israeli society, possible on a broad scale and in which severely limited by its inbuilt racism to- conditions? What are your perspectives wards the Palestinians. with this appeal? If we think of the so called ‘tents protest’ Haim Bresheeth last summer, in the context of the great upheaval in the Arab world, the Israeli pro- I have been born in Italy, in a DP camp test is seen in its proper proportions – a near Rome, in 1946, to two refugees of the middle class protest with nationalist and death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, who populist agenda, excluding the Palestinians found their way to Italy after the end of and their occupation, which was evident by WW2. We arrived in Israel in June 1948, its total suppression by the protest leader. on the first boat which entered Israel after Ironically, it was the only protest move- its independence and in May 1948. ment in the Middle East which was not brutalized by the state police forces, not a On our arrival, my father was forced to single protester was hurt; it seems to have fight at Latroun, despite his avowed paci- been the easiest to defeat by the regime in fism and refusal to carry arms, and was power, as the commitment of the protesters deployed as a medic. My mother and I to change the system was somewhat limi- stayed in the refugee centre in Atlith, until ted in comparison to the societies around it. the end of the fighting, when we were all re Now, almost a year after it started, it seems -housed in a flat at Jebaliya (later to be re- clear that it achieved nothing, and its lea- named as Giva’at Aliya…) to the South of dership was co-opted by the Israeli regime Jaffa, which was of course the former ho- – both the main leaders of the ‘movement’ me of a Palestinian family, expelled with were sent by the Israeli government of thousands of others when the Irgun has speaking tours of European capitals, ma-

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king the case against BDS… The protesters bic attitudes and positions which have fed who were not prepared to rethink their ra- the right in Europe, North America and cism and colonial role, ended up with no- elsewhere. To Israelis, it has brought no thing, after the most impressive marches in peace, but a long series of destructive wars: Israel. This is nota movement which will to Palestinians and other Arabs, it has end racism, or the occupation. This is nota brought destruction beyond belief, racism, movement for real social change, but a vol- and xenophobia, and continued oppression kish populist movement, which cannot de- and loss. This has got to come to an end, feat the populist fascist, Netanyahu. In like it did in South Africa. short – if any of us was hopeful about a change from within, the Tents Protest has Only a state based on total equality of all proven how impossible this is in Israel, citizens within Palestine – a secular demo- even more impossible than change in most cratic state of all its citizens, can offer Jews Arab countries. and Arabs some hope. Once citizenship is not based on racial and racist definition, So if racism cannot be defeated by popular but on equality for all, can offer peace, jus- forces in Israel, if such protest that exists tice and the rule of law in a country which chooses to totally deny the main issue on has seen more suffering than most. To the Israeli political agenda – the occupation achieve this, historical injustices must be and subjugation of the Palestinian people – reversed, as much as is humanly possible – then opposition to Zionism is not likely to Palestinians who were expelled, and their come from this quarter; on the contrary – families, must be allowed to return to their the leaders are happy to serve as a tool of country, as well as to be properly compen- the regime they are supposedly against. To sated for their lost land and property. Such my mind, this means that the end of racist a state in the whole of the country will not and unjust, brutal practices and policies of allow racist treatment of any kind, and will Zionism will not come from within, and not offer unjust privileges to ethnic groups that without an end to this colonial project, of any kind. there can be no just peace for anyone, and no just resolution of the Palestinian ques- The large group of Palestinian and Israeli tion, created by Zionism and its western academics and activists who have worked allies in crime. As long as the Zionist state on the One State in Palestine declaration stays intact, we have a situation reminis- and its detailed principles, has tried, for the cent of South Africa under apartheid – the- first time, to confront the deep divisions re can be no resolution unless this corrosi- and inequalities which were forced by Zio- ve, toxic system is replaced, as was apar- nism, not just on Palestinians, but also on theid in South Africa, by a fully democratic Mizrahi Jews, in order to offer a just foun- system in the whole of Palestine. The dation for the future of life together of both country, so unjustly divided by the UN in communities, so as to allow them to build a 1947, leading to the brutal expulsion of commonality across the national and ethnic 800,000 Palestinians from their homes, dividers, a commonality of civic and demo- almost 80% of the whole nation, by the cratic nature, leading to more hopeful and IDF, and by the Israeli government refu- peaceful future to all the people of Palesti- sing their return, has been torn and mutila- ne, Israelis and Palestinians. This founda- ted ever since. This neo-colonial enterprise, tion needs further elaboration, detailing serving the aims of western capitalism, has and development, which our group is wor- not only caused the Palestine continued king towards. We see our limited effort as Nakba, but has also poisoned middle- an icon and symbol of the future coopera- Eastern politics with anti-Arab, Islamopho- tion which the democratic Republic of Pa- lestine shall be based upon. Dialogue 31 - June 2012 issue page 6

A single secular democratic state in Palestine:

A Republic of all its citizens!

(march 03, 2012)

or 63 years, ever since the fateful volatile and highly dangerous not only to UN Resolution 181, Palestinians Palestinians but also Israeli Jews. F have lived in terror and fear. In the 1948 Nakba, which followed the UN par- The Oslo Accords of 1993, which were tition resolution, Israel conquered 78% of the result of secret negotiations between Palestine and expelled most of its popula- Israel and the PLO, laid the ground for tion, almost 800,000 people, from their an agreement which in theory would ha- homes, villages and towns. It also made ve returned 22% of historic Palestine the remainder of the Palestinians still un- back to Palestinian rule, along the lines der its control second-class citizens and of the 1949 ceasefire boundaries. This discriminated against Mizrahi (Arab and agreement was systematically violated Sephardic) Jews in what it defined as a by Israel which has continued to confis- Jewish state – not a state of its citizens; cate more Palestinian land, build more today at least 20% of the citizens of Israel Israeli settlements and kill more Palesti- are not Jewish. The Palestinian refugees nians. It was clear from the outset that were never allowed to return home, despi- Israel had no intention of withdrawing te UN Resolution 194 of December 1948, either the settlements or its army from and countless UN resolutions since, affir- the West Bank and East Jerusalem – the ming their right of return. Today over six number of its settlers living illegally in million Palestinians and their descendants the West Bank and East Jerusalem has in are refugees into the third generation. fact trebled since the signing of the Oslo Accords, rendering the two-state solution In 1967, the remainder of historic Palesti- completely unrealistic. The current poli- ne was occupied by Israel. Every Palesti- cies of the Quartet are aimed at funding nian in the Occupied Territories of the (not ending) the occupation. West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza has lost his/her human and political rights un- In fact the two-state solution was never der a brutal settler-colonial military oc- real or fair. It has disregarded justice for cupation. After 1967 there followed a fast most Palestinians; but even this unjust colonisation project, in violation of inter- ‘solution’ was systematically undermi- national law and the 4th Geneva Conven- ned by Israel through more land grabs tion, of settling Israeli Jews in the newly and more illegal settlers in the projected conquered territories, expelling and dis- state for Palestinians. Israel made sure possessing Palestinians even further. the two-state solution based on the 1967 boundaries would never become a reali- Israel has since disregarded all UN resolu- ty. Most Palestinians and many Israelis tions demanding it withdraws from the have recognised this fact for decades. Occupied Territories and has continued to They have instead desired an alternative build illegal settlements, roads and army solution, a solution based on justice and camps. It has continued to suppress bru- non-separation, a solution which will tally and dispossess the Palestinian popu- bring an end to the trauma and suffering lation under its military rule. Internatio- of the Palestinian refugees, a solution nally Israel has set up powerful lobbies which will end the settler-colonial, mili- which have sought to silence the voice of tary and rule of Zionism over historic reason among Jews across the world. Do- Palestine, a solution which will treat all mestically it has constructed a highly mili- citizens, residents and ‘absentees’ of his- tarised society, armed-to-teeth with wea- toric Palestine as equals and fairly. Such pons of mass destruction which renders a solution is the single secular (in the the situation in Palestine-Israel extremely

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sense of separating religion from the sta- have mapped out the road to peace, re- te), non-sectarian, democratic state in the conciliation, equality and coexistence in whole of historic Palestine: A STATE a democratic state, a state which would OF ALL ITS CITIZENS. bring an end to illegal occupation and the unequal racist and separatist practices of A group of Palestinians and Israelis has apartheid Zionism. The document pre- been working on the basics of the one- sented here outlines the foundations for a state vision and foundational principles future constitution of the Republic of of a Republic in historic Palestine. They Palestine.

http://www.1not2.org

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Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal

by Yousef Munayyer (May 23, 2012)

’M a Palestinian who was born in marry Americans or any non-Palestinian the Israeli town of Lod, and thus I foreigners are not subjected to this treat- I am an Israeli citizen. My wife is not; ment.) she is a Palestinian from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Despite our Last week marked Israel’s 64th year of towns being just 30 miles apart, we met independence; it is also when Palestini- almost 6,000 miles away in Massachu- ans commemorate the Nakba, or setts, where we attended neighboring “catastrophe,” during which many of colleges. Palestine’s native inhabitants were turned into refugees. A series of walls, checkpoints, settlements and soldiers fill the 30-mile gap In 1948, the Israeli brigade commander between our hometowns, making it more Yitzhak Rabin helped expel Lydda’s Pal- likely for us to have met on the other side estinian population. Some 19,000 of the of the planet than in our own backyard. town’s 20,000 native Palestinian inhabitants were forced out. My grandparents Never is this reality more profound than were among the 1,000 to remain. on our trips home from our current resi- dence outside Washington. They were fortunate to become only internally displaced and not refugees. Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Air- Years later my grandfather was able to port is on the outskirts of Lod (Lydda in buy back his own home — a cruel ab- Arabic), but because my wife has a Pal- surdity, but a better fate than that im- estinian ID, she cannot fly there; she is posed on most of his neighbors, who relegated to flying to Amman, Jordan. If were never permitted to re-establish their we plan a trip together — an enjoyable lives in their hometowns. task for most couples — we must prepare for a logistical nightmare that reminds us Three decades later, in October 1979, of our profound inequality before the law this newspaper reported that Israel barred at every turn. Rabin from detailing in his memoir what he conceded was the “expulsion” of the Even if we fly together to Amman, we “civilian population of Lod and Ramle, are forced to take different bridges, two numbering some 50,000.” Rabin, who by hours apart, and endure often humiliating then had served as prime minister, sought waiting and questioning just to cross into to describe how “it was essential to drive Israel and the West Bank. The laws con- the inhabitants out.” spire to separate us. Two generations after the Nakba, the If we lived in the region, I would have to effect of discriminatory Israeli policies forgo my residency, since Israeli law still reverberates. Israel still seeks to prevents my wife from living with me in safeguard its image by claiming to be a Israel. This is to prevent what Prime bastion of democracy that treats its Pal- Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once re- estinian citizens well, all the while con- ferred to as “demographic spillover.” tinuing illiberal policies that target this Additional Palestinian babies in Israel very population. There is a long history are considered “demographic threats” by of such discrimination. a state constantly battling to keep a Jew- ish majority. (Of course, Israelis who In the 1950s new laws permitted the state

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to take control over Palestinians’ land by therefore essentially one state, under Is- classifying them “absentees.” Of course, raeli control, where Palestinians have it was the state that made them absentees varying degrees of limited rights: 1.5 by either preventing refugees from re- million are second-class citizens, and turning to Israel or barring internally dis- four million more are not citizens at all. placed Palestinians from having access to If this is not apartheid, then whatever it their land. This last group was ironically is, it’s certainly not democracy. termed “present absentees” — able to see their land but not to reach it because of The failure of Israeli and American lead- military restrictions that ultimately re- ers to grapple with this nondemocratic sulted in their watching the state confis- reality is not helping. Even if a two-state cate it. Until 1966, Palestinian citizens solution were achieved, which seems were governed under martial law. fanciful at this point, a fundamental con- tradiction would remain: more than 35 Today, a Jew from any country can move laws in ostensibly democratic Israel dis- to Israel, while a Palestinian refugee, criminate against Palestinians who are with a valid claim to property in Israel, Israeli citizens. cannot. And although Palestinians make up about 20 percent of Israel’s popula- For all the talk about shared values be- tion, the 2012 budget allocates less than tween Israel and the United States, de- 7 percent for Palestinian citizens. mocracy is sadly not one of them right now, and it will not be until Israel’s lead- Tragically for Palestinians, Zionism re- ers are willing to recognize Palestinians quires the state to empower and maintain as equals, not just in name, but in law. a Jewish majority even at the expense of its non-Jewish citizens, and the occupa- Yousef Munayyer is executive director of tion of the West Bank is only one part of the Jerusalem Fund. First publication in it. What exists today between the Jordan the New York Times. Published in dia- River and the Mediterranean Sea is logue with the author permission

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One state for Palestinians and Israelis

by Ahmed Moor (March, 03 2012)

or decades the two-state solution lestinian extends beyond settlements. to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict The region has few freshwater resources. F has eluded well-intentioned pea- In Israel, maintaining access to water is a cemakers. Diplomats have talked, shaken matter of national security. The mountain hands, snapped photos — and returned aquifer underneath the West Bank’s roc- home from summits with strikingly little ky topography is one major source, and to show for their efforts. Meanwhile, the the army regularly destroys occupation of Palestinian territories grew “unauthorized” wells and cisterns to se- more restrictive. Israel’s settlements de- cure Israeli hegemony over the scarce veloped into towns and small cities as resource. Palestinians were penned into smaller and smaller spaces. While diplomats It was awareness that there will never be shuffled from Madrid to Oslo to Wye a viable Palestinian state that prompted River, from Camp David to Taba to An- me to work with other Harvard students napolis and resort towns in between, the to organize a one-state conference this illegal settlements expanded. And the weekend (www.http:// window for two states closed. onestateconference.org). Our work has been informed by the uncontroversial Palestine and Israel are two parts of the view that all people are created equal. same country — something those who Assessing an environment in which have not been to the region may find Israel controls the lives of 4 million peo- hard to imagine. The area of Mandate ple and deprives them of basic human Palestine — that’s Israel, the West Bank rights, we ask whether there is an alter- and Gaza — is about the size of New native: Can the one-state solution deliver Jersey. The country is so small that Pa- equal rights to everyone? lestinians on the hilly West Bank can view the Israeli coastline from their ho- Critics say that raising the question of mes (never mind that restrictions on Pa- equal rights in Israel/Palestine reveals lestinian movement have prevented the our motives; we seek to destroy Israel, vast majority from ever visiting the sea). they say. They contend civil rights for Moreover, one out of five Israelis is a everyone in the country will mean “the Palestinian, and about one of every six elimination of Israel as the national ho- residents of the occupied territories is a meland of the Jewish people.” Jewish settler. For some, everything that happens in the The degree to which the country is a sin- Middle East is viewed through the prism gle, indivisible unit is sometimes unders- of what is best for the Jewish people. But cored by the most mundane experiences. the Palestinians are people, too. Preser- A Palestinian friend recently told me ving “Israel as the national homeland of about being pulled over for speeding in the Jewish people” is a costly endeavor. the West Bank. The person who ticketed And I regret that the cost is borne almost him was an Israeli army official. exclusively by Palestinians living under apartheid. Yes, Palestine has been colonized out of existence, and the Israeli army is busy It is also worth asking whether perma- policing traffic. nent occupation is good for the Jewish people. Palestinians learn about thou- The army’s nearness to the average Pa- sands of years of Jewish suffering, perse-

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cution and genocide, and we wonder mittee, and, as is typical, a group of whether Israel can really be the height of Israelis joined in solidarity. Many of the- Jewish achievement. Did the Jewish peo- se young people had publicly rejected ple survive for so long only to become their Jewish privilege. They were there another people’s occupiers and perma- because we were equals, united in our nent oppressors? rejection of military occupation and apartheid. Many of my Jewish friends and peers in Israel and in America answer that ques- In Israel/Palestine, the struggle for hu- tion resoundingly: No. Peter Beinart has man dignity and freedom is edifying. The done an admirable job chronicling the call for equal rights is energizing and movement of young American Jews uplifting. And in a region where hope away from Israel. But in Israel, some- founders and falters so frequently, that’s thing different is happening. saying a lot.

About a year ago, I marched down a win- Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American ding lane in the windswept village of journalist, blogger and activist . Bilin to protest the Israeli seizure of vil- First publication in the Washington Post. lage lands. The nonviolent action was Published in dialogue with the author organized by the village’s Popular Com- permission

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Interview with Salah Salah, Chair of the PNC. Commission on the Right of Return

(March 17th 2012)

hat is your appreciation on continue on an independent line, the PLO the current relations be- will have to be rebuilt. W tween Fatah and Hamas? - Apparently, Hamas, which has just - It is the current situation which compels moved its headquarters to Damascus, the two organisations to talk to one an- more and more clearly aligns itself with other. The one rules the West Bank while the Gulf countries, notably Qatar.... the other rules the Gaza Strip. They can no longer attempt anything against each - Hamas leads the PA in Gaza. Keeping other and are compelled to have con- that place obliged it to offer assurances structive relations. That is what they are in order to retain its position, therefore to implementing concretely in the frame- give up on its drive for the liberation of work of the so-called “reconciliation” the entire Palestinian territory, which fits agenda whose latest act was played out in with the two state orientations. Hamas in Qatar (prior to this, meetings had agrees with Fatah for the creation of a taken place in Egypt, Mecca, Sanaa and Palestinian state. It no longer defends its Damascus …) slogan of armed liberation and is fully engaged in the truce. It is also engaged Fatah and Hamas do not seek to realise by forcing the other factions (People's the unity of the Palestinian people but resistance committees, Islamic Jihad, the they are toiling the line imposed by the armed groups of the Popular Front for donor states (especially the Gulf coun- the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)) to tries) and by Egypt, which is the US comply with the truce. In the latest at- agenda. They have to agree on the two tacks on Gaza, several leaders of armed state guideline, therefore give up on the groups were targeted. Hamas immedi- right to return. ately stepped in as a go-between with Egypt to halt Palestinian fight back. Achieving the unity of the Palestinian people would first require engaging a During the reconciliation meeting in dialogue with every Palestinian faction Cairo Machaal appointed to Abu Mazen and party. Such dialogue would essen- the task of continuing the negotiations tially drive at focussing on the political with the State of Israel. In Doha in Qatar, treatment of the process that resulted in he accepted Abu Mazen taking charge of the Oslo Accords. The process has been a setting up the transitional government. proven failure. What is to be done is to When Khalid Machaal accepts all this, it set up a new way to view the fight means acceptance of Abu Mazen's politi- against Israeli occupation. Finally, the cal programme. unity of the Palestinian people involves rebuilding the Palestinian Liberation Or- - Is Hamas one-minded on those issues? ganisation (PLO) with all its organisations on the basis of its founding princi- - There is difference within Hamas. By ples. and large, Hamas comprises three currents. The majority one, at the centre, is Fatah and Hamas have embraced the idea the Khalid Machaal current and two op- of complying with the Oslo Accords so posed wings, one of which is the one led much so that if Fatah runs the Palestinian by Haniyeh. The most serious differences Authority (PA) in the West Bank, it can are kept in line by the decisions of their be said that Hamas runs the PA in the Consultative Council (alshora) which Gaza Strip. That is why, if the fight is to has the capacity to solve all the differ-

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ences. The Council's views are closely - Can you come back to the place of related to Mechaal's moderate stand. Syria in the Palestinian national move- Within Hamas, the minority wings, the ment … while keeping in mind that Assad opposition, respect the framework of the never shrank from making use of and Consultative Council. If inside structures slaughtering Palestinians for his own fail, it is the international leadership of political ends? the Muslim Brotherhood which steps in to settle disagreements. - There have been several phases in the position of Syria. During the '50s and - You said that one of the objectives of '60s, at the beginning of resistance, Syria the Israeli attack was possibly to test gave assistance and enabled the resis- Hamas and see what it was prepared to tance to store weapons, to open training finally resort to. camps. Free circulation existed between Lebanon and Jordan but, in exchange, - This was one of the several purposes of Palestinians were not permitted to fight Israeli attacks. The first objective, - you from Syrian borders. In a second phase, can take Israel State's word for it – pur- Syria played a negative role as in 1976. posed to test the capacity of the anti mis- The Palestinian resistance had sided with sile shield. It also made it possible to Lebanese resistance against the separa- gauge the range and destructive capaci- tists and phalangists. Syrian troops en- ties of the missiles which the various tered Lebanon to stamp down separatists Palestinian factions have at their dis- and nationalist forces. Fatah, PFLP and posal, some of them rather hi-tech. The other factions had taken a position Israeli power wants to know the nature of against Syrian invasion whereas other those weapons – defensive weapons for groups, such as the General Command, Palestinians – especially in anticipation as Saïqa and others supported armed in- of a possible attack on Iran's nuclear tervention. A third period in the relations sites. was opened after 1982, with deepening rift between Palestinians. On the one - Outside Fatah and Hamas, what are the hand there was the leadership linked to independent Palestinian organisations? Abu Amar, who was siding with Egypt. There was the political premises of the - There are groups of activists who take political diversion which, from negotia- independent actions, such as the one “In tion to negotiation, finally resulted in the defence of the PLO charter”, comprising Oslo Accords. Other currents stood up former executive members of the PLO, against that political agenda, especially and members of the National Council. the Salvation Front mainly led by PFLP. Youth movements have formed and are At that time, Syria which openly dis- developing in Lebanon, Gaza, the West agreed with Egypt, however left Palestin- Bank, throughout the Diaspora. Their ian fractions solve their own problems major call is to rebuild PLO on the basis among themselves, and then tried to use, of its Charter, to organise elections to the and then manipulate the Salvation Front, National Council, which would include egging it to attack Abu Amar and his al- Palestinians from around the world. Be- lies. Actually Syria's action tended to yond this, a growing number of people make Palestinian inner differences come worldwide have decided to boycott the out. The Palestinian fractions refused and State of Israel. Syria drove Lebanese nationalist forces to launch an all-out attack on the Pales-

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tinian resistance in Lebanon. Only the mands of the Palestinians centred on the Amal movement accepted, in conjunc- right to return of the refugees and the tion with Lebanese forces, to engage an rebuilding of the PLO, torn apart by the attack on Palestinians; they besieged Oslo Accords. If the project was to come refugee camps, and tried to force their into being, it should put an end to any way in to erase any resistance. The pe- resistance and break the national unity of riod from 1985 to 1987 was the most the Palestinians, which tends towards brutal one. At that time there were sev- rebuilding the PLO. They will pretend to eral attempted discussions with the Arab the refugees that the right to return is League, Iran and even Saudi Arabia but done and finished, but this will not hap- the war on camps ceased only after Amal pen. In the refugee camps, the right to had realised that he would never pit Pal- return is part and parcel of Palestinians' estinians against each other. Syria also daily lives, for the children, everywhere. realised it would not manage to set Pales- It is a question tied to their very exis- tinians at each other's throats. The erup- tence. Conferences and congresses meet tion of Intifada urged Amal to stop the everywhere on the issue of the right to war, under the guise of paying homage to return, inside the camps as well as out- the Intifada. It was Syria which was pull- side in the Diaspora. In all the refugee ing the strings behind the stage. camps a massive march to cross the borders is preparing for May 15th with the Syria always hosted the offices and head- support of many, as a symbol of the unity quarters of most Palestinian organisa- of the Palestinian people, which is the tions, except Fatah. Palestinian presence unity of the refugees demanding their in Syria was of no military use since the rights. country requested it not to start from its borders. Today, the factions have a neu- - In this framework, what is your opinion tral or supportive position towards the on the boycott campaign against the regime since it is clear that if the regime state of Israel the Boycott, Disinvestment is overthrown, the alternative is the one Sanction (BDS) you were mentioning supported by the United States and Arab before, and which is relayed in many reactionaries which meets the Israelis places in the West to support and defend and it would be a disaster. The Syrian the so-called two state solution? opposition, backed by the reactionaries cannot side with the Palestinian people. - BDS is the international organisation to Palestinian factions are well aware that pressure Israel into recognising Palestin- they cannot rely on the Syrian National ian rights. It is the recognition that Israel Council and the Free Syrian Army. is stealing lands that never belonged to it. This State which plunders the natural - Takeover by the reactionaries you are resources of an entire people must be mentioning would be a step further on boycotted. In this sense, the campaign the way towards Broader Middle East, should be encouraged; it is very positive for which one of the prerequisites implies that numerous academics should boycott stamping down the refugees and their Israeli universities to show that they re- rights. fuse to be accomplices. It is an international movement to give a message to - Such coming together is indeed a part this State that is opposed to democracy. It of the Broader Middle East project, should be widely publicised that Israel is which implies doing away with the de- a violator. Naturally there are hidden mo-

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tivations, especially from those who de- facto exists, bar democracy, i.e. the sin- fend the two state solutions. But what- gle state with one citizenship. This idea ever the motivations, pressure must be is gathering momentum. Every year, con- applied. At one point, even those who ferences are organised on this subject, advocate the two states will see by them- especially in the United States and it is selves that the State of Israel will always worth noting that many Jews attend. It is refuse them because, unless pressure, very important for us to keep track of compulsion is applied, it will never rec- those activities the more so when they ognise Palestinians' rights. So what other are organised in the United States. solution unless the one which already de

Salah Salah

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Virginia Tilley: The One-State Solution A breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock (The University of Michigan Press – 2005)

by Sam Ayache

irginia Tilley is an American aca- tion” after the Oslo Accords I and II (1993 demic specialized in the compara- and 1995)? She says that the solution ap- V tive study of racial and ethnic peared as a possibility “to some hopeful conflicts. She has been in charge of the observers”. But, when her book was pub- South African project on Governance and lished in 2005, Virginia considered that Democracy at the Council for Research in the “solution” was “a fantasy theory in- Human Sciences. The comparison she volving non-existent conditions”. makes – she is not the only one to have done so – between the bantustans of the The book was published in 2005, shortly South African apartheid regime and the before the completion of the Israeli with- status of Palestinian occupied Territories drawal from the Gaza Strip (September is based on her accurate knowledge of the 2005) and long before Salam Fayyad, the situation in South Africa. Palestinian Authority's (PA) Prime Minis- ter launched the process of “unilateral John Strawson of East London University declaration of independence” (UDI) (United Kingdom) is one of those who aimed at securing the recognition of the oppose any comparison between the State State of Palestine by “the international of Israel and the Apartheid regime. Straw- Community”, i.e. the major powers repre- son (1) promotes the Oslo Accords and sented in the “United Nation System”. advocates the recognition of the State of True, the PA's move failed - as could have Israel. He criticizes Virginia Tilley's paper been foreseen - at the Security Council, saying that she ignores religious tensions, but the PA received the support of a num- non-existent in South Africa, but which ber of European Union diplomats in a run high in Palestine. He affirms that the vote at the UNESCO last November (2). context has bred religious extremism, also unknown in South Africa. He says that Ms Tilley wonders what part the Euro- comparing South Africa to Palestine is pean Union could play in order to counter “casual, unhistorical, and ultimately un- the US policies of support to Israel, the helpful”. organizing of the economic boycott of Israel, mentioning the resolutions voted at Has Mr Strawson indeed read Ms Tilley's the European Parliament in 2002 and work? The criticisms which he articulates 2003. She thinks that “the EU is no pas- are wholly unfounded. Ms Tilley explains sive recipient of U.S. wishes”. On that that the “devastating terror attacks” are point at least, recent events in Libya show the result of “Palestinian Bantustans”, that she overestimated the EU's desires for which are “sealed vessels designed to independence. doom the Palestinians to mounting poverty and social disintegration.” Contrary And today, nothing has been solved: to what Mr Strawson argues, Virginia Salam Fayyad's approach has come to a Tilley correctly points to the root cause of dead end, mirroring all the previous at- the violence: social disintegration in Pal- tempts to solve the conflict between Israel estinian Bantustans are the breeding and Palestine in the framework of the ground of violence and tensions in Pales- “Two state solution”. tine. She specifies that “a Bantustan state could not possibly generate a stable Since her book was published, Ms Tilley peace.” has been able to clarify her arguments in favour of the “One state solution” in vari- Did Ms Tilley oppose the “two state solu- ous symposiums and particularly in a pa-

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per entitled “A Palestinian Declaration of “skilled diplomatic maneuvering by Independence: Implications for Peace” Rabin”.

The two-state solution impasse Does partitioning Palestine afford the “solution” of the Israeli-Palestinian con- Virginia Tilley wishes to be objective. flict? The first plan for partition was She observes that the different projects of mapped out at the UN as early as 1947, “two state solution” do not fit in with re- with the blessing of the West's major alities on the ground. Israeli colonization powers, along with Stalin’s. But it ignored in the West Bank has considerably devel- the will of the Palestinian people opposed oped in comparison with the 1990s. The to partition. Since 1948, other plans for very dense grid of colonization has trans- partition were devised and constantly up- formed the West Bank, its infrastructures, dated during the Camp David accords its economy and the living conditions of (1978), the Madrid Conference (1991), all its inhabitants, Jewish and Arab. It has the Oslo Accords (1993 and 1995) and in made the “two state solution” unfeasible. the various road maps imagined by US To support this observation, Virginia presidents – both Republican and Democ- Tilley quotes President Bush's April 14th rat – one after the other over the recent 2004 speech …. “The realities on the decades. ground and in the region have changed greatly over the last several decades and Virginia Tilley’s assessment is starkly any final settlement must take into ac- clear: the “peace processes” defined sub- count those realities and be agreeable to sequently to the Oslo Accords have run the parties.” into a dead end and the “road maps for peace” have led nowhere. “Taking into account the realities on the ground and in the region” makes Virginia On the basis of this assessment and of the Tilley's approach original and she does reality of the country, Ms Tilley considers not bind herself to accepting the confined that any “two state solution” should be framework of UN sponsored accords, abandoned, because such a solution is not which are far from those realities. These viable and does not solve one single cause objective conditions have reduced to nil of the conflict: neither the Golan issue (a the viability of a Palestinian state de facto, Syrian territory annexed by the State of subjected to the state of Israel and totally Israel) nor the issue of East Jerusalem deprived of the means to exist as an inde- (reunified and annexed by the State of pendent state. Ms Tilley concluded that Israel), let alone the fundamental issue of the “one state solution”, excluding any the right to return for Palestinian refugees other possibility, has been imposed for of 1948, and of all those who have been practical reasons taking realities into ac- expelled since that date. count. The collective myth of an “honest Facing Facts broker”

For Virginia Tilley “Facing Facts” is the United Nation Security Council Resolu- primary concern (it is the title of the first tion 446 (March 1979) affirms that Israeli chapter) rather than the trusting of the settlements in the Occupied Territories are Oslo Accord promises which she calls the “illegal” according to international law

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and an “obstacle to reach a just and lasting Line” pioneering the annexation by Israel peace in the Middle East” of a sizeable portion of the West Bank: “... in 1988 the Jewish Agency reported Virginia Tilley explains that UN resolu- that the region known to Arabs as Wadi tions 242 and 238, accepted by US foreign Ara and on Zionist maps as Nahal Eron policies have created “The collective remains with a sparse Jewish population myth of an 'honest broker'”. But she calls noting that an area of about 180 square attention to the Bush administration's kilometers is inhabited by less than 1,000 move in 2004 “publicly stamping ap- Jews amidst an Arab population of proval on the « larger » Jewish settlement 160,000.” blocs while unilaterally removing from negotiations the Palestinians’ right of re- Virginia Tilley gives the details of the turn within Israel”. financial set-up of the “Bloc Rehan”: “The total projected cost of the Rehan It is common knowledge that UN resolu- Bloc was US$7,982,000. The WZO alone, tions dealing with Palestinian rights are in charge of settlement construction on the never implemented. What is the use of West Bank side, was to supply $2,975,000 those resolutions, except for easing the of this amount. But because the project conscience of the major powers, which straddled the Green Line, each component Ms Tilley calls a “diplomatic fig leaf”? of the project had to be orchestrated through a strategic collaboration. The Deliberately encouraged by each US ad- Jewish Agency’s legal setup confined its ministration and the Israeli government authority to Israel’s side of the Green one after the other, colonization in the Line; the WZO would have to supervise West Bank has been stepped up irrespec- settlements on the West Bank side. Other tive of UN resolutions. agencies, however, could operate on both sides.” Virginia Tilley substantiates her argument that Israeli settlements have always been The project was carried out with the as- part and parcel of the prospect of coloni- sent of Israeli authorities: a report of the zation of Palestine which is basic to Zion- Department in charge of settlements ap- ism. Settlements in the West Bank have pointed the Israeli government in office at always been funded by official agencies the time the task of funding the such as the Jewish Agency, the World “education” chapter to the tune of US Zionist Organization or ministries- such $150,000 out of a total US $425,000, “the as the ministry of housing, of industry and balance to be obtained from the regional commerce, of defense, of transport and settler council, the Ministry of Housing education. These agencies have always and the Ministry of Education.” been associated to, if not fully part of, the Israeli State's administration, ever since it Besides, Virginia Tilley has provided am- was founded. ple proof that the State of Israel gives support to the settlers in the form of individ- Instead of restricting her arguments to ual loans at ridiculously low rates to ac- these general and widely recognized fac- quire housing, to invest in commerce and tors, Virginia Tilley prefers to cite the industry, in transports and job creation, in precise example of the project called social and educational structures for chil- “Bloc Rehan” crafted in 1988, whose im- dren, clinics, sports and cultural centers plementation zone straddled the “Green and so on. In the building of these infra-

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structures, housing units and roads, the Ariel Sharon as early as 2003, was State of Israel has invested billions of dol- achieved at the end of 2005, shortly after lars in the West Bank settlements. Ms Tilley's book was published. Here is what she thinks of Israel's withdrawal Since the end of the 1990s, the West from the Gaza Strip: “.... withdrawal from Bank's economy has almost entirely relied the Gaza Strip is both politically desirable on its exchanges with Israel: “In 1999, 97 and feasible for Israel. Sharon is indeed percent of West Bank exports went to Is- one of those keenly aware that withdraw- rael. That statistic does not include the ing from Gaza will in several ways facili- private Israeli investment in Jewish settle- tate Israel’s hold on the West Bank.” ments, which includes shopping malls, cinemas, and industry.” If the Gaza Strip was part of British Man- date Palestine, Virginia Tilley notes that The State of Israel has no political will to Zionism was never much attracted by this give up these infrastructures, or even to portion of Palestine, as the Gaza Strip did exchange them for a promise of lasting not have the same symbolic value as the peace. Ms Tilley notes that when Israel West Bank. Contrary to the West Bank, withdrew from Sinai in exchange for which Zionist call “Judea and Samaria” to peace with Egypt, Ariel Sharon, then De- link it to the biblical tale of “the legendary fense Minister, organized the blasting of kingdoms of David and Solomon”, the the Yamit settlement (located on Egyptian Gaza Strip was never part of any Judean territory) rather than see Jewish buildings or Israeli kingdom in the antiquity. handed out to Arabs. In the West Bank, blasting Israeli settlements would turn the Besides, settlements in the Gaza Strip country into a wasteland and the State of were small and involved few people. In Israel starkly refuses to let Jewish people 2005, the Jewish population established in be administrated by Arab authorities. the Gaza Strip numbered some 7,800 compared with over one million Palestini- Virginia Tilley writes: “Having Jews live ans. This demographic difference facili- in the biblical territory under Palestinian tated the transfer of the Jewish population (alien) rule would only return the settlers – the Sharon administration however had to the condition of Jewish life under the to resort to force against reluctant settlers. Romans, the Babylonians, or any of the unreliable, oppressive, and sometimes The territorial basis for a viable Pal- lethally dangerous alien rulers in Jewish estinian state no longer exists collective memory through two millennia. Such a prospect is viewed with fear and In 2005, when Ms Tilley's book was pub- anathema.” lished, the “two state solution” - which was to be the completion of the partition Withdrawal from the Gaza Strip plans formulated as early as 1947 – had has facilitated settlements in the already been made unfeasible because of West Bank. the Israeli settlement grid in the West Bank. As Ms Tilley had foreseen, the uni- Many observers consider that Israel's lateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is an en- Strip at the end of 2005, far from ending couraging example of what should be Israeli settlements in the West Bank only done to achieve the “two-state solution”. boosted the settling drive. As of 2005, the The Israeli withdrawal, announced by case of East Jerusalem raised in itself an

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array of questions because of the imple- deep into Palestinian territory…230,000 mentation of a special law of annexation settlers were embedded in the region, with of the city to the State of Israel and of the jobs, children, social networks and full settlement of numerous Israelis in the cultural lives… The second sense in eastern part of the Old City. which the two-state solution has died is that even if a Palestinian « state » were In 2005, Virginia Tilley explained: “At declared in this dismembered enclave, it this writing, these territories hold some can bring continuing instability. The re- 230 settlements and some four hundred sulting Palestinian statelet would be thousand Jewish settlers (about 10 percent blocked off physically from the Israeli of Israel’s population). Israel has annexed economy, its major cities would be cut off East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and from each other, and its government considers them as part of Eretez Israel would be unable to control the territory’s (the land of Israel), Israeli sovereign terri- water resources, develop its agriculture, or tory….An Israeli withdrawal from the manage its trade with neighboring states. Golan engages the same questions as It would comprise little more than a other regions – questions of ideology, se- sealed vessel of growing poverty and de- curity, and especially water (the Golan’s moralization.” aquifer is crucial to Israel).” This 2005 balance sheet showing Since 2005, the situation has simply gone “growing poverty and demoralization” is from bad to worse. In 2008, 192,000 Is- the one which best depicts the situation in raelis were living in East Jerusalem with the Gaza Strip in 2012. an estimated Arab population of 208,000. In 2009, a little less than 500,000 Israeli Reverting to the 1947 borders would settlers had settled in the West bank and be political suicide for Zionism East Jerusalem. Estimates dated 2012 in- dicate that the half-million settlers bench- Virginia Tilley explains the reasons of mark was overtaken with 310,000 settlers Israeli leaders' opposition to any reversal in the West Bank and more than 200,000 to the 1947 borders: “...Menachim Begin Israeli people living in East Jerusalem asserted that Israel’s withdrawing to the where 270,000 Arab people still live. 1967 border would be 'national suicide', Golda Meir denounced such a withdrawal In 2005, Virginia Tilley put forth two ar- as 'treasonable', and Abba Eban said that guments showing the “two state solution the 1967 border carried a 'memory of impasse”: “ The Jewish settlements al- Auschwitz'”. ways recognized by the international community as an « obstacle to peace » have Indeed, the “two state solution” would accomplished their purpose : the territorial imply that Israel withdraw to the 1967 basis for a viable Palestinian state no borderlines but this withdrawal clashes longer exists…The two-state option has with the bases of Zionism which Ms been eliminated as a practical solution in Tilley coins as ethno-nationalism. two senses. First and most graphically, Jewish settlements have carved Palestin- Ms Tilley notes that no court of the State ian territory into a vestige too small to of Israel ever agreed to recognize the exis- sustain a viable national society…By the tence of “Israeli nationality”: according to end of the 1990s, however, the settlements the law, the State of Israel only recognizes were major urban complexes burrowed “Jewish” citizens who enjoy special rights

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(concerning landed property, housing and the liberal-secularists against the religious education subsidies) or “Arab” and “non- -nationalists, sometimes called “neo- Jewish” (enjoying none of those rights). zionists” who, she says, “ urge the settle- Blurring the lines between “belonging to a ments’ expansion toward a theocratic, nation” and “belonging to a religion”, Zi- territorially maximalist, and ethnically onism is founded on the supposed exis- exclusive vision of Israel”. And some ex- tence of a “Jewish nation”; the other na- tremists, whose uncompromising positions are to recognize the right of this tions forbid any peaceful solution what- “Jewish nation” to have a “Jewish state”. ever, advocate mass expulsion of all the Besides, this basic feature of Zionism ac- Palestinians from the West Bank. The counts for the aggressive aspect of debates power of the latter is spreading not only to on upholding the “Jewish character” of circles of the Israeli government but espe- the State of Israel which considers itself cially under the form of powerful lobby “necessary as a vital sanctuary for the with the US ruling elites. Ms Tilley insists Jews in a world devastated by anti- on the fact that it is a Zionist lobby and Semitism.” not a “Jewish lobby”, many Jewish intellectuals like Noam Chomsky being op- Ms Tilley asks: “If the two-state option is posed to Zionism and the Zionist lobby on permanently crippled by the settlement its side being led by “Christian Zionists” grid, how can the conflict be resolved and connected to televangelists such as Pat the Middle East stabilized? The solution Roberson and the ultra-conservative net- lies elsewhere…” work of Fox-News.

Again, she quotes G. Bush's April 14th In her analysis of the political agenda of 2004 speech: “The United States is the US “neo-conservatives” who support strongly committed and I am strongly Israeli settlements, Virginia Tilley quotes committed to the security of Israel as a an astonishingly relevant report, written vibrant Jewish state.” by a Oded Yinon, published in 1982 by the World Zionist Organization. The re- And she concludes: “This phrasing report “explicitly endorsed Arab-state frag- flected the writers’ better understanding mentation or « dissolution » as Israel’s that is precisely the Jewishness of the modus operandi”: Jewish state that is now on the table. For if a Jewish settlement in the West Bank “Lebanon’s total dissolution into five has already expanded too far, then a Pal- provinces serves as a precedent for the estinian state is no longer viable, and the entire Arab world, including Egypt, Syria, two-state solution promises only gathering Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula, and is crisis and possible explosion. And if the already following this track. The dissolu- only alternative to that explosion is the tion of Syria and Iraq later on into ethni- one-state solution, then Zionism itself is cally or religiously unique areas, such as approaching a crisis.” Lebanon, is Israel’s primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the Ms Tilley devotes part of her book to the dissolution of the military power of those internecine rifts that have torn at the fab- states serves as the primary short term ric of Zionism, “a heterodox movement target. Syria will fall apart, in accordance woven with disparate threads” since it with its ethnic and religious structure, into came into being. First she notes a several states such as in present-day Leba- “growing polarization” of Zionism pitting non…This state of affairs will be the

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guarantee for peace and security in the framework of close collaboration with the area in the long run, and that aim is al- Arabs. If the platform of Ihud, always ob- ready within our reach today.” scured by official Zionism, is so important, it is because it situates the current The quote continues: “Iraq, rich in oil on debate around a one state Palestine as the the one hand and internally torn on the continuation of the democratic traditions other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Is- of the West Jews among whom Judah rael’s targets. Its dissolution is even more Magnes, who, as early as 1917, had been important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is active alongside socialist Eugene V. stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Debbs against the USA's entering the war Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest and to support the Soviet revolution, had threat to Israel. Every kind of inter-Arab been one of the major figures. confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more At the end of her book, Ms Tilley lists the important aim of breaking up Iraq into 9 points which she thinks could pre- denominations as in Syria and in Leba- condition the formation of a single state non. In Iraq, a division into provinces over the entire territory of Palestine, guar- along ethnic / religious lines as in Syria anteeing every citizen equal rights: during Ottoman times is possible. So three (or more) states will exist around the three • Sustain the Law of Return for Jews, major cities : Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, reflecting the special historical relation- and Shiite areas in the south will separate ship of Jews and confirming Israel as a from the Sunni and Kurdish north.” sanctuary. • Detach any additional privileges The threats towards the fragmentation of (automatic citizenship and housing bene- Arab States were therefore clearly defined fits) from the Law of Return. Revise the as early as 1982. Citizenship Law to include ethnic-neutral criteria for naturalization. Virginia Tilley concludes her book on two • Curtail the activities of the WZO and important points. the Jewish Agency while sustaining their She pays homage to the forerunners of the activities supporting Jewish Diaspora life. “One state solution”, the Ihud (Union) group formed in 1942 around Judah Mag- • Establish some parity principle for nes and Martin Buber. Moreover, as an Palestinian return. Second and third gen- appendix, she publishes the platform of eration Palestinians not born in the terri- Ihud which explains it “adheres to the Zi- tory should be held to the same naturaliza- onist movement insofar as this seeks the tion criteria applied to prospective immi- establishment of the Jewish National grant Jews. Home for the Jewish People in Palestine”, • Eliminate and prohibit all ethnic pro- but “regards a Union between the Jewish visions regarding land tenure, allowing and Arab peoples as essential to the up Arabs and all non-Jews full access to the building of Palestine and of cooperation state’s land. between the Jewish world and the Arab • Abolish ethnic differences regarding world in all branches of life.” military service, educational, health, or housing benefits. The founders of Ihud, opposed to the crea- • Transfer public authority over plan- tion of a “Jewish State” excluding Arabs, ning and development to non-Jewish- the content of the “National Home” in the national state agencies. Restrict the do-

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mestic activities of the Jewish Agency to avert that disaster…” managing and promoting Jewish ethnic and religious matters, such as promoting Virginia Tilley considers hers is one of cultural events and managing libraries and the voices which are being raised to pre- historical projects. vent the powder keg from exploding. • Insure free access by all citizens and foreign pilgrims to holy sites. ————————————- Eliminate all national identities except the state identity as a status recognized under 1. An article published in May 2006 based state law. Through the usual modes of on an intervention delivered to the NGO iconography, new text-books and school- “Avocats Sans Frontières” (Defense counsels ing, affirm and inculcate a sense of dig- without borders) (December 2005) nity and vision of the state identity as a 2. Admitting Palestine to become a UNESCO member state resulted in the suspension of cohesive multiethnic national identity. several dozen million dollar contribution that the USA was to pay to the Organization. The This is a praiseworthy effort and she of State of Israel also suspended its own contri- course is aware of the obstacles to be bution to UNESCO, froze dozens of million overcome: dollars of funds that should have been trans- ferred to Palestine and started the process of “Fixed at a sensitive nerve centre of the cancelling its UNESCO membership. The Middle-East – the “holy land” of three Israeli government also decided to step up the religions- the Zionist project of Jewish settlement process by building 1,650 additional housing units in East Jerusalem plus statehood has culminated in a powder keg another 350 housing units in the West Bank. for international security and a course of doom for Israel…Yet voices are raised to

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A One-State Solution for Israel and Palestine

by Georges Bisharat (april, 10, 2012)

he international community has segregated Jewish communities Israel struggled for two decades to navi- has established in the West Bank, but T gate Israelis and Palestinians to- also in more than 35 laws within Israel ward an oasis of peace and stability. Yet that bestow benefits exclusively to its it is increasingly clear that this oasis -- Jewish citizens. the two-state solution, whereby each of the two peoples would exercise sover- A growing number of forward-looking eignty within their own state -- is in fact Palestinians and Israelis are rejecting a mirage that continually recedes into the Jewish ethnic privilege as both ethically distance, always remaining just beyond insupportable and politically unsustain- reach. able, and are opting for equal rights. That is the position of a number of the partici- In fact, a genuinely sovereign Palestinian pants in a "one state" conference held state will not be realized any time in the recently at Harvard University's John F. foreseeable future, and quite likely never Kennedy School. Recognizing that Is- will be. The obstacles to meaningful Pal- raeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs are des- estinian statehood are constantly mount- tined to live together, the conference par- ing, most tangibly in the form of Israel's ticipants were seeking ways to share illegal settlements in the West Bank and power equitably between the two com- East Jerusalem. Some 600,000 Jewish munities. settlers now reside there -- three times as many as at the beginning of the Oslo Not all support for a single state ema- peace process in 1993, and their numbers nates from progressive thinkers, how- are growing rapidly. ever. Members of Israel's right wing are also beginning to seriously mull the ad- Continuing to chase the two-state mirage vantages of a single state: no borders under these circumstances will only en- would have to be drawn, Jerusalem able continuing Israeli colonization of would remain undivided, and Jewish set- the West Bank and entrench a new form tlements in East Jerusalem and the West of systematic ethno-religious discrimina- Bank -- at least if desegregated -- could tion, where only Jews enjoy full rights -- remain where they are. Current Knesset to travel, housing, employment, educa- speaker Reuven Rivlin, for example, tion, and other basics of a free life. stated in a 2010 interview in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: "I would rather Pal- As it stands, there is one effective sover- estinians as citizens of this country over eign between the Mediterranean Sea to dividing the land up." He further advo- the west, and the Jordan River to the cated "true partnership" between Jews east: Israel. It is the Israeli government and Palestinians and relations based on whose actions most impact the lives not mutual respect and absolute equality. only of its 7.6 million citizens, but also of its 4.3 million subjects in the Occu- Right-wing politicians in the United pied Palestinian Territories. As this func- States appear to be following suit. For- tionally unitary state will not be divided, mer Republican presidential candidate the question that looms is: on what prin- Rick Santorum, in a recent exchange ciples will it be organized, ethnic privi- with a young voter captured on You- lege for Jews, as it is now, or equal tube.com, characterized the West Bank rights? Ethnic privilege for Jews is cur- as "Israeli country" and asserted that "All rently institutionalized not only in the the people that live in the West Bank are

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Israelis, they're not Palestinians. There is solution, the emerging Israeli and Ameri- no 'Palestinian.'" As a descriptive matter, can conservative advocates of one-state of course, he was flatly wrong -- Pales- achieve a form of progress. But real, on- tinian residents of the West Bank are not the-ground progress will follow only if citizens of Israel and have no vote in Is- the state that ultimately emerges is sol- raeli elections. But as a normative state- idly based on the principle of equal ment, Santorum's could be read as en- rights. Inequality, in contrast, is a for- dorsing the inclusion of Palestinians into mula for perpetual conflict. the Israeli body politic. It pays to remember that possibly the In February the Republican National largest, and surely the safest and most Committee passed a resolution sponsored prosperous Jewish community in the by national committeewoman Cindy world, is in the United States. We aban- Costa of South Carolina that claimed doned racial privilege and formally com- "peace can be afforded the region only mitted ourselves to equal rights in adopt- through a united Israel governed under ing the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. one law for all people." Elsewhere the Is a true democracy -- one in which all, resolution denied that Israel was "an oc- not some, enjoy full rights of citizenship cupier of the land of others," clarifying -- really so threatening to the interests of that the area to be governed under "one Israeli Jews? Would not a truly democ- law" includes the West Bank. Two state ratic state joining Jews and Palestinians legislatures, in South Carolina and Flor- become the "light unto nations" that Is- ida, have passed resolutions in the last rael was always meant to be? year supporting a one-state solution and identifying the West Bank as part of Is- George Bisharat is Professor, at UC rael. Hastings College of the Law. First publication in the Huffington Post. Published By abandoning the still-born two-state in Dialogue with the author permission.

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Book review : A Common State between the River Jordan and the Sea, by Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan

by François Lazar (May 30, 2012)

he book “A Common State be- them designates a cutting, a division. The tween the River Jordan and the definition given for “to share” in diction- T Sea”, co-written by Eric Hazan aries, however, is not so categorical. and Eyal Sivan, published by La Fabri- Among different definitions for “share” que (in French only), is yet another con- can be found “to make a share; to share a tribution to the necessary critical discus- field (= dividing up, splitting up) of a sion on the future of the State of Israel country by its invaders (= breaking up); and Palestine. The two authors, one a the sharing of booty, of stolen money” writer and the other an Israeli filmmaker, Elsewhere in the dictionary, the term have long been known for their serious “partition” is defined as : “the sharing of and highly relevant work. Eric Hazan, a country, of land or of territory (=the the director of La Fabrique publishers, partitioning of Cyprus)” Why should two introduced French readers to fundamen- terms that can be considered as syno- tal critical works on Zionism, the authors nyms be presented as being contrary/ of which (the names Norman Finkelstein, different? It is true that Palestinian activ- Amira Hass, Tanya Reinhart, Joseph ists often use the word “sharing”. Need Massad, Ilan Pappe and Edward Said the ambiguity be emphasized, or should come to mind),might not have been it be left as is? The struggle for political translated into French otherwise. freedom here has been a fight for the unification of rights, of assembly, of the The book is concise, controversial and reunification of the territories. Isn’t fight- accompanied by a documentary film by ing against the partitioning - which is at Eyal Sivan entitled “A Common State – the origin of all the ills that the popula- a Potential Conversation”. The work can tions living on the historical territory of but retain our attention, as much for the Palestine are up against today, beginning arguments it presents as for the serious with the Palestinian people themselves – issues posed by some of those argu- in fact the same as demanding re- ments, which we will examine. unification (implying the re-unification of families) rather than a sharing? This The Palestinian question, and more par- question will be the subject of a discus- ticularly its outcome, is the subject of a sion at the end of the book; we shall debate that is older than the proclamation come back to it. of the State of Israel itself on May 14, 1948, which had been preceded several The two authors then remind us, in de- months earlier by the vote on the parti- tail, of the declarations that have been tioning of Palestine by the General As- made by so many (from Netanyahu to sembly of the United Nations (November Sharon, including the Zionist pacifist Uri 17, 1947). The work briefly summarizes Avneri and the leaders of Hamas and of the conditions of the creation of the State the Palestinian Authority), claiming that of Israel. the creation of a Palestinian State would be a necessity for there to be a common The title of the first chapter, “Sharing future for “two free peoples”. Going instead of Partitioning” takes us into a back over the history of this demand, semantic debate on words and their Hazan and Sivan ask the predictable meaning. The authors defend the idea of question: “How can a consensus that is sharing, arguing that the term defines a so general not come to be realized?” The placing in common, contrary to the prin- succession of dozens of “peace plans” cipal of partitioning which, according to has indeed come to nothing, except the

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steady worsening of the precariousness tion is to change the present single State of the existence for the Palestinians, and into a State common to all these citizens, the strengthening of the Israeli control free and equal before the law.”Pursuing, over Palestinian land. In that sense, can the authors note, through practical exam- we still today speak of “partitioning”, ples that separation and partitioning given the fact that the Israeli control is founded on “ethnic” and religious criteria total? When they assert “the two-State are tantamount to arbitrary racism discourse, while convenient, cannot and (although this term is not used to de- will never lead to a real solution because scribe Zionism). (…) the partitioning of Palestine is simply not possible” the two authors state In whose interest is it to maintain the obvious. Let us pause to consider an the myth of two States? odd evaluation. Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan consider that “the partitioning (…) The second chapter poses an essential is not a solution but discourse. It is war- question: In whose interest is it to main- like discourse…” Discourse? Yet Eric tain the myth of two States? The authors Hazan, the impassioned author of Notes answer that there is a pragmatic, practical sur l’occupation, knows the raw, physi- interest for the State of Israel to maintain cal reality, empressed in the flesh of a a situation of temporary status quo where whole people, of the consequences of “the discourse on the creation of a Pales- separation/segregation. It is no a democ- tinian State makes the military occupa- ratic solution, but it is the solution that tion, and thus the status of war, accept- the Zionists have come up with to at- able, which is a social and national ce- tempt to eradicate the entire Palestinian ment indispensable to the cohesion of the presence. We have got a deep divide in Jewish State”. Note the use of the ex- Palestine, and the reality of the Zionists, pression “Jewish State” without inverted their solution – which endeavours to- commas, as if it were a recognized fact. wards a terrible impasse – is for a Pales- Many authors (Arno J. Mayer, Baruch tine without Palestinians. Kimmerling, Ilan Pappe, etc.) have written on the incredibly large place occu- In clarifying their point of view on the pied by the army in the Israeli society, inanity of partition, Hazan and Sivan noting, “the Israeli military establishment develop the idea that can be found in is barely subject to civilian con- many authors treating the question. trol”(Arno J. Mayer). It should be em- “Therefore, a single State does exist on phasized here that what greatly domi- the historical land of Palestine. What is nates the leading circles of the Hebrew called “occupied territory” is actually a State is the Zionist ideology that is called region of this State where military law “revisionist” – but which is actually but rules over a majority of the (non-Jewish) the logical evolution of Zionism. population. This single State is not a common State because it defines itself as After the State of Israel itself, the other a Jewish State and not the State of all its party that “also has an interest in main- citizens. It maintains the inequality and taining the idea of two States” is the Pal- legal discrimination not only in the zones estinian Authority. Can we consider – as that it calls “occupied territories” but do the authors – that the Oslo Agreement also over all the non-Jews inhabiting the was “supposed to be the beginning of the country. This situation cannot be re- path to a Palestinian State”? That agree- solved by partitioning. The realistic solu-

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ment wrought the carving up of the West of Israel as a country attached to peace in Bank into three zones of which one, es- the region…” Coming back to the idea sentially populated by Palestinians, saw that the Israelis share “western values”, the Israeli occupation forces replaced by Hazan and Sivan use a quotation from Palestinian police – working on behalf of Netanyahu, speaking before the president the Israelis. For the Israeli historian Ilan of the European Parliament, to great ef- Pappe, published by La Fabrique, “the fect: “We are at the extreme point of Oslo Accords were nothing more than a European and western values, all the way political and military arrangement meant to the Himalayan mountains. We are to replace the Israeli occupation by an- you!” Just what these “western values” other form of control”. In 1991 – 1993, are – values that are thus opposed to the the two State idea, which would be fur- universal value of equality of rights – ther developed by George W. Bush’s remains to be defined. Road Map in 2004, was not yet officially on the agenda and the Oslo Agreement Chapter 3 then, logically, goes on to de- does not refer to it. Shimon Peres, in the fine what a State is. We will quickly see last decade, often recalled that neither he that the State proposed for the Palestini- himself, as one of the negotiator’s of the ans is not a State like the others. For ex- accords, nor then-Prime Minister Rabin ample, it “would only regroup one-third had committed to a possible Palestinian of the Palestinian people; the other two- State. What was important then for the thirds remain outside…” From a territo- proponents of world order was to stop rial point of view, Eric Hazan and Eyal the first Intifada (which began in Sep- Sivan remind us that the negotiations tember 1987) and its popular commit- only concern the 22% of historical Pales- tees. That said, the facts put together by tine occupied by the State of Israel since Hazan and Sivan call up an undeniable 1967. The authors specify that the Israeli consequence: “For the Palestinian Au- colonies set up in the West Bank have thority, the myth of two States is (…) already gnawed away 46% of the previ- financial manna.” ously defined 22%. Furthermore, “the West Bank has been divided into three The book then expands on the interest cantons, themselves also split up”. that the western countries have in main- (“Three cantons”; we shall come back on taining the “two-State myth”. First at this later.) All the descriptions of the stake is the issue of relations with the West Bank, be they from the Zionists or Arab and Muslim countries. The two their critics, show a territory integrated, authors note “in the countries where used and in fact annexed, which the book there is a significant Arab minority, open tasks to demonstrate in the following support for the creation of a Palestinian pages. Finally, a State – even at the head State plays a role in the keeping of do- of a string of territories – would be noth- mestic peace”. Would it not especially be ing without armed forces and the better a question of creating and maintaining a part of the attributes of sovereignty… To communitarianist division in order to conclude this chapter, Hazan and Sivan “ghetto-ize”, to prevent the junction be- correctly point out that “an ersatz Pales- tween all the components of a same so- tinian State is possible and it is even cial class… precisely on the Israeli probable that such will come about”. But model? That is something that need be even with all the gold in the world, even discussed. The third element, “the two- with the backing of the UN General As- State discourse allows for the supporting sembly, without the implementing of the

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right of return for the refugees – imprac- and cleansed the whole country – the ticable in the micro-State – such a consti- whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan tution could not be made without the River. It may yet turn out that this was support of the broadest masses of the his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a Palestinians. Everyone knows this. So, full expulsion – rather than a partial one once again, there remains the option of – he would have stabilized the State of repression. Israel for generations”. Does this definition of the State of Israel need comment- The next chapter deals with the “long ing? term” viability of a “Jewish State”, hold- ing such a perspective as improbable, In presenting the great diversity of its due to the extreme diversity of the popu- populations, Hazan and Sivan more than lations living in this territory. The Jewish once characterize the Palestinians of the populations, whose culture, rites and tra- inside as “Arabs or Israeli Palestinians”, ditions are very different, are only held noting further on in arguments that are together by “the existence of a common controversial “their national belonging is enemy”. The authors insist on this point: of the Arab nation”. There is not the least “the state of war is the guarantor of na- commentary on that expression, which tional cohesion in Israel” and, it should allows for accepting that if there is an be added, of the economic prosperity that “Arab nation” then there can be a is a product of the security and weapons “Jewish nation”, whereas the arguments industries. It would moreover be more developed previously demonstrate the correct, according to us, to define the contrary. So here we see the progressive State of Israel negatively as a “non- acceptance of the idea that the common Arab” State, founded notably on the dis- State under discussion would be bi- crimination against and the rejection of national, i.e. founded on an ethnic recog- the Palestinian people, of which only a nition, based on the origins of each, the small fraction escaped the massive ex- psychological problems of the other - pulsions of 1948. The historian Benny and not on the equality of rights. Given Morris, known worldwide for having the partition, given Zionist ideology, been the first – amongst the Israelis – to given the daily practice of Zionism in prove the existence of the massacres of Palestine, how can the State of Israel not 1948 – stated in the January 8, 2004 is- be defined as being colonial racist, sue of Haaretz (corroborating that real- gorged with powerful economic interests, ity), “In certain conditions, expulsion is which our authors – and it is indeed their not a war crime. I don’t think that the right – do not do? A last element on the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes. diversity of Israel: “in the army, half of You can’t make an omelet without the officers are religious and of colonial breaking eggs. You have to dirty your origin, and the proportion is even higher hands. (…)If he (Ben-Gurion) was al- amongst the commandos and the combat ready engaged in expulsion, maybe he units (…) for them, the enemy is the Pal- should have done a complete job. I know estinian”. “The Jewish State” – without that this stuns the Arabs and the liberals the inverted commas has recently taken a and the politically correct types. But my content rarely evoked, through the voice feeling is that this place would be quieter of the former head of Israel secret ser- and know less suffering if the matter had vices, Yval Diskin: explaining that he been resolved once and for all. If Ben- has “no confidence in either the Prime Gurion had carried out a large expulsion Minister or the Defence Minister”, he

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specified “I give no credence to leaders policy may be called anti-Semitism – in who base their decisions on messianic short, Nazism! Must this intellectual dik- sentiments”. We shall leave Diskin to tat really be accepted? How does the de- manage his own contradictions, and struction of reactionary and racist institu- come back to the book. In this chapter, tions mean the destruction of populations Sivan and Hazan emphasize the impossi- who live in this country? The destruction bility of an enduring “Jewish State”, all of the Salazar State in Portugal and the the while considering it could “remain in combat to destroy the Apartheid State in force for the middle term”. Thus today South Africa do not mean the destruction there is indeed a “Jewish State”? Doesn’t of the populations. As much as it is ad- saying that make the authoritative amal- mitted that this amalgamating in the gamation between Judaism and Zionism State of Israel is oppressive, can’t we and recognize a “national” legitimacy of admit to what extent the destruction of that State? The “Jewish State” is but a such institutions would be a liberation denomination usurped by the State of for the Jewish populations of the whole Israel, an artificial construction that has world, prisoners that they are of this used the suffering of the European Jew- yoke – both physical and intellectual – ish populations surviving the Nazi terror that has turned the victims of yesterday to respond to the convergent interests of into the guarantors, in spite of them- American imperialism and Stalinist bu- selves, of the oppressors? reaucracy, carried by Zionism. Hazan and Sivan beat around this ques- The two next chapters, entitled “The ar- tion and yet manage to carefully avoid it. guments against the common State: truth Page 38 of the book marks the place and fiction” and “The idea of a common where our disagreement is fundamental, State was not pulled out of a hat” ex- particularly with the assertion: “the end haustively review the arguments devel- of Jewish State sovereignty (…) does not oped by those who oppose an end to par- in the least imply the end of the Judeo- titioning. (Again, the idea that in reality Israeli civilization, an undisputable real- there has been no partitioning since 1967 ity which was built all throughout the should be developed). Hazan and Sivan 20th century”. The surprised reader will dismiss out of hand that “the term de- find here no definition of that “Judeo- struction, which obviously refers to the Israeli civilization” and even less a dem- destruction of Jews in Europe, is to be onstration that it is an “undisputable real- eliminated as it implicitly establishes a ity”. How to describe this “civilization”, lumping together of the Jewish State and which has not even led to the creation of the Jews”. The assertion of the right of a culture all its own? Again, this is the return is itself frequently taxed with be- underlying idea of the book coming back ing anti-Semitic. Need it then necessarily in the front door; here, the term “State” is be withdrawn? Can there be a solution no longer in vogue, there it is the word to the problem of the refugees in the “nation” (we will come back to that) and framework of the State of Israel? And yet again, “long live civilization”! The what is it that is shocking in the chal- State of Israel is impregnated with lenging of the institutions of that State? American culture, ideology of western There is a shameful lumping together of origin and… eastern food. A recent Is- the Jewish people and the Zionist State. raeli film, “Policeman” by Nadav Lapid We know – heavily, oppressively, threat- is a bleak illustration of the dead-end that eningly – that any criticism of Israeli a society that is supposed to be civilized

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has come to. The first scene of the movie their self-designated spokespersons, what shows a group of Israeli policemen, do they want? To become Jordanians, to mountain-biking up a hill in the West become Lebanese, to become Syrians? Bank and stopping to overlook a mag- And the 700,000 refugees living in the nificent view of the Dead Sea. One of West Bank, and the million refugees liv- them exclaims: “We really do have the ing in the Gaza Strip, what do they want? most beautiful country in the world”. The Concluding this paragraph, the authors last scene is a young Jewish Israeli lying specify, to follow up that previous quota- on the ground, shot in the head by a po- tion: “– no more than the law of return liceman who is standing looking down for the Jewish made all the Jews of the on her. You can see on-coming death in diaspora come back to Israel.” Is that the fear in her eyes. A young woman supposed to be second-degree? How can who was lost and floundering, she had anyone claim to defend the democratic committed a “terrorist” act against a rights of the Palestinian people and make group of Israeli businessmen. She sym- an equal comparison between the refu- bolizes the complete dead-end of a soci- gees “right of return” and the Jewish ety without hope, without a future… in “right of return” which was simply in- “the most beautiful country in the world” vented by Zionism in contrast with the historical movement of the Jewish people “confusing right of return and re- throughout the world seeking to benefit turn.” from the same rights as the populations of the countries where they are living? On another point of disagreement, the Demanding the right of return of the Pal- next paragraph brings up a “second am- estinians is a profoundly national and biguity”, that of “confusing right of re- democratic demand. The “right of return and return.” Here we are. Hazan and turn” of the Jewish people is a product of Sivan specify: “Recognition the right of colonialism. Go tell the American Jewish return does not mean the physical return that they are refugees. So, Palestinian of all the refugees, but recognition of the refugees who demand their right of re- wrong suffered in 1948, acceptance of turn would be the problem. Like haunt- Zionism’s responsibility in the Palestin- ing ghosts, they prevent peace and tran- ian exodus (…)”. Let us stop there. Who quillity to the State of Israel, who asks said that recognition of the right of return for nothing more. does not mean return? Not the 4,000,000 refugees who have been living in camps Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan have broadly for two or three generations. The text demonstrated that there already exist, in goes on: “(…) For sixty years, a great all the aspects of day-to-day life, – in a part of the Palestinians live outside the more or less in embryotic form– the ele- country: for them, the right of return is ments of a future society founded on the important but it does not mean that all of equality of rights. But the book is hard them wish to go back (…)”. The right of reading, given that, as we mentioned ear- return is “important”? Isn’t it the basic lier the quality critical analysis keeps element, the crucible of the national Pal- coming up against questionable affirma- estinian movement that has always been tions and dubious shortcuts. Thus it is the fundamental movement organized by asserted “it was the policy of separation the refugees who wish to go home? If established by the Oslo Accords that they don’t want to go back, as proclaim turned the Israelis into settlers and soldiers, in the eyes of a part of the Palestin-

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ian youth”. The policy of separation was but I assume that it means that Moham- not established by the Oslo Agreement medans and Christians are to make way but voted by the Assembly General of for the Jews (…) that Jews will hereafter the UN in 1947! And we could go all the be treated as foreigners in every country way back to the Balfour Declaration on but Palestine ... and that Palestine will this point. The Israelis, and the Zionist become the world's ghetto. Let us appre- before them, have been settlers, not since ciate the clairvoyance of a Montagu, 1967 but since the foundation of the He- British and member of the cabinet. Quot- brew State. And what is to be said of the ing the Brit Shalom association, which First Intifada? Wasn’t its breaking out in defends the idea of a bi-national State, September of 1987 already triggered by our authors note “Brit Shalom can be the settlement policy? Later on, the au- said to be Zionist to the extent that it rec- thors refer to the outbreak of the Leba- ognizes the existence of a Jewish na- nese civil war, claiming, “the presence of tional identity”. Quite correct. What is to a national liberation army, using Leba- be said of those who recognize a “Judeo- non as the base of resistance against Is- Israeli civilization”? Let us also note the rael, destabilized the country (…)”. declaration of the American Jewish There were no massive worker strikes in Council, published in the New York Lebanon in 1975, no provocation from Times of August 31, 1943 “(…) We Christian Fascist militia backed by would like the establishing of a democ- France? Palestinian organizations took ratic and autonomous government in Pal- up the cause of the Lebanese working estine, where the Jewish, Muslims and class and they were punished for it. They Christians are equally represented; where were pro-western militia and Syria who each person may enjoy equal rights and intervened militarily at the joint request share equal responsibilities, where our of the USSR and the USA, who destabi- Jewish brothers are free Palestinians lized Lebanon (unless a counter- whose religion is Judaism, the same as revolutionary action can be considered as we Americans have Judaism as religion”. re-establishing stability)! The authors Describing the Jews of Palestine as Pal- then speak of “separating religion and estinians who are Jewish is interesting. politics once and for all”, but the term We are far from Zionist exclusivity. “secular” is never mentioned. The chapter finishes with quotations from Zionist A critical analysis of this part would ne- leaders aware of the narrow link between cessitate yet another article. What sepa- maintaining the perspective of a two- rates the Jews and the Arabs is not an State solution and the very existence of acid-filled Grand Canyon. Rather it is the State of Israel. something political and heavily ideologi- cal. Resolving the conflict would mean The book comes back on the history of a recognition of the fact that there are ex- demand for a single State. The long propriators on one side and the expropri- quote from Lord Montagu, Jewish and ated on the other. Furthermore, as the British like the other British, at one time Palestinian militant Ghassan Kanafani Secretary of State to India, is to be appre- said, the roads to the liberation of Pales- ciated. After the Balfour Declaration, tinian passes through Cairo and Bagdad, characterizing the Zionist project as a Damascus, Amman, Ryad and, let us “mischievous political creed”, he notably add, Washington. The “Israeli- stated “I do not know what (a national Palestinian” conflict is not “local” be- home for the Jewish people) involves, cause the State of Israel’s taking hostage

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of those who claim to follow Judaism – Middle East has been marked by the as we have seen – is but an instrument of American plan for the Greater Middle the American Middle East policy… even East, one of the tools for which includes if this instrument may act in accordance the destruction, breaking up and parti- with its own logics of survival. The au- tioning of nations (as witnessed in Iraq, thors take the time to unravel the histori- Sudan, the Sahel and the projects for cal position of the PLO, demanding a Syria). In the same sentence, the authors secular and democratic State and they suggest replacing “State” with “country”. consider that “the weak point of this Would that be a country without a State? proposition is the considering of the citi- Functioning perhaps on the principle of zens of that State on a religious basis” subsidiarity? In the same vein, Eric and that renders the “Palestinian proposi- Hazan and Eyal Sivan mention what is tion inaudible, internationally and par- called the Olga Appeal, co-written with ticularly for the Israelis”. That is a curi- Michel Warshawski in June 2004. This ous truncating of the argument. The Pal- appeal states, on one hand, “The recogni- estinian position defends a secular Pales- tion of the right of return follows from tine in which all its components – quali- our principles”. Very well – unless it is, fied against their own will as being reli- as we saw earlier, the right of return gious – would have the same rights. without real return. Several lines further, Secularity implies that the religious the same document reads: “Is it neces- sphere be relegated to the private do- sary to know at this stage what the physi- main. From this point of view, secularity cal form of the future shared existence is a step forward in the political and so- will be - Two States or not? Perhaps a cial emancipation of the populations who confederation, perhaps a federation? demand it. Relegating religion to the pri- What about the canton solution?” With- vate sphere tends among other things to out questioning the sincerity of most of stand in the way of the established order the Jewish Israeli endorsers of the Olga or to seek a new balance of power with Appeal, it only mentions solutions that that established order. Is that what would involve the maintaining of the partition- render this proposition “internationally ing: two States, as we have said; a con- inaudible” – i.e. to the ears of the propo- federation still implying the sovereignty nents of world order? The official Pales- of each of its parties; a federation also tinian position will evolve, but the foun- implying two state-like entities. As for dations are still there. The authors dis- the canton solution, that conjures up the cuss about the correct language: Two- present reality in the West Bank, it con- State? Single-State? For them, taking jures up ex-Yugoslavia torn to pieces by Edward Said as the moral authority, it is civil war and it, too, results from the rec- therefore the notion of sharing that is ognition of several States. Here is the essential. Further on, they propose Olga Appeal bringing us up-to-date: pro- “putting aside the idea of “nation” which gress or another velvet-lined trap? As has done harm enough – and moreover Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan remind us, we could say the same for “State” and the debate on the solutions and the defi- speak instead of a “common country”. nition of the State that will end the parti- The above quote does not allow for mak- tioning of Palestine has never been so ing a distinction between an oppressed, rich, so complex and so necessary… and colonized nation and a nation that op- also so – voluntarily? – blurred. presses. Furthermore, need it be re- minded that the current period in the We come to the conclusion of the book,

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contained in seven “theses on the com- the economic reins of the country. We mon State”. They summarize the essen- are also far from Ilan Pappe, who con- tial demonstration made by the authors, cluded his book entitled “A History of establishing an insurmountable fact: the Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peo- profound unity of a land, the interweav- ples” as follows: “For any political peace ing of the populations living there. The initiative to succeed, the chapter of Pal- “denying of that reality will lead to the estine’s dispossession needs to be closed. long-term ruin of any project, no matter Recognizing the very act of disposses- how powerful those supporting it”. The sion – by accepting in principle the Pal- second thesis of the book returns to the estinian refugees’ right of return – could recommendations of the Olga Appeal, be the crucial act that opens the gate to presenting four possible choices for the the road out of the conflict. A direct dia- “mode of political organization of the logue between the dispossessed and the common State, be it bi-national, feder- state that expelled them can refresh the ated, cantonal or confederated”. In this discourse of peace and may lead people referendum, there is no box for a single, and leaderships alike to acknowledge the democratic, secular State, the choice need to seek a united political structure which “is to be made by the people of which, at different historical junctures in that State”, as the authors specify. It is this story, has seemed possible.” thus a limited choice. In their 4th thesis, Eric Hazan and Eyal Sivan recommend Thesis number 6 will reassure the liberal common efforts, as the common State democrats: “The common State is not would imply that “the Palestinian Arabs meant to resolve all the issues of society, and the Jewish Israelis (how far we are or in particular to put an end to class from the American Jewish Council dec- struggle”. In this State, founded on the laration of 1943! – ed.) abandon the tired recognition of a « Judeo-Israeli civiliza- old dream of a Nation-State”. Tired old tion » legal equality will thus be en- dream? Are the authors speaking for graved above the entrances to public themselves? Wouldn’t the common State buildings. The common State thus pre- imply a common fight for a same State, a sented will have settled the question of same nation in which all the components the right of return – which, may we em- would have the same rights? Anyone is phasize, is not mentioned in the theses – free to describe a historical process as “a in each of the countries where the Pales- tired old dream”. Further on, the mention tinians of the Diaspora are currently liv- of this common fight makes a direct ref- ing! The demand for the equality of erence to the necessity of an organization rights is limited to the legal realm if it is comparable to the South-African ANC not associated with the demand for the “where Jews, Arabs, Israelis and Pales- right of return, which carries in itself the tinians will fight together in equality”. question of the expropriation of the ex- There were few whites in the South Afri- propriators. The “Class struggle” will can ANC, but that is not the question. therefore go on. But how is the class The equality we are talking about here is struggle on the historical territory of Pal- still that same legal equality that, for- estine described? The political upheaval mally, exists in South Africa today, that will lead to the reunification of Pal- where the blacks – whose poverty has estine and the establishing of equal rights not ceased to increase over the Past 20 will be nothing but an expression of an years – now have the right to use the international class struggle, beginning same beaches as the whites – who hold with that which will develop in the

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United States itself. Moreover, the ex- law that marks the completion of politi- ploited Israelis are not exploited in the cal emancipation. In the case of the State same conditions as the Palestinians, be- of Israel, that would mean cantoning re- cause they benefit from the profits and ligion to the private sphere, i.e. creating a advantages of the colonization and the secular State, the incontrovertible prior pillage of Palestine. Has the essential necessity for any form of social emanci- framework of the exploitation and the pation. Marx emphasizes the point: oppression of one class by another noth- “Political emancipation certainly repre- ing to do with the partitioning itself? A sents a great progress. It is not, indeed, common State poses the question of the the final form of human emancipation, ownership of the land. In this framework, but it is the final form of human emanci- doesn’t the division of the class struggle pation within the framework of the pre- pit the partisans of partitioning, in other vailing social order. It goes without say- words, the destruction of the Palestinian ing that we are speaking here of real, nation, against the partisans of reunifica- practical emancipation.” This practical tion? point of view necessarily means the af- firming of the present-day right of return The last sentence of Eric Hazan and Eyal and the creation of a single secular and Sivan’s book is a quotation from Karl democratic State in which all its compo- Marx’s “The Jewish Question”: nents - Arabic, Jewish, Christian - will “political emancipation is only the first have the same rights. step on the road to human emancipation”. Reading what came previously, the An expression of the complexity of the human emancipation of the Palestinians debate as well as of its pitfalls, A Com- would be to recognize their having the mon State between the River Jordan and equivalent rights of their oppressors. the Sea is a book to be read by all those Quoting Marx is indeed useful, but it is seeking to forge a critical analysis of the necessarily to quote in the full. In his Palestinian issue. As for Eyal Sivan’s book, Marx develops the conditions for film, presenting witness from activists the achieving of human emancipation, who are either political or members of considering that political emancipation is various associations, from both Jewish a condition for that and that it is the tran- and Arab intellectuals, it is excellent. sition of religion into the realm of private

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