University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 4-1-2012 Whether a 'One-State Solution to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Comparative Study of Settler-Colonial Domination Systems in South Africa and Palestine Hasan Saleh Ayoub University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Ayoub, Hasan Saleh, "Whether a 'One-State Solution to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Comparative Study of Settler-Colonial Domination Systems in South Africa and Palestine" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 41. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/41 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. WHETHER A ‘ONE-STATE SOLUTION TO THE PALESTINIAN-ISARELI CONFLICT A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SETTLER-COLONIAL DOMINATION SYSTEMS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND PALESTINE _____________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies University of Denver ______________ In Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ______________ By Hasan Saleh Ayoub April 2012 Adviser: Dr. Timothy D. Sisk Author: Hasan S. Ayoub Title: WHETHER A ONE_STATE SOLUTION TO THE PALESTINIAN-ISARELI CONFLICT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SETTLER-COLONIAL DOMINATION SYSTEMS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND PALESTINE Adviser: Dr. Timothy D. Sisk Degree Date: April 2012 ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to answer the question: why do ostensibly similar ethno-national conflicts within a system of settler-colonial domination see such wide variation in their outcomes? How they emerge from conflict through power sharing and social integration versus the endurance of separation and systems of domination and control? The study identifies causal paths that resulted in the decline of domination systems of this type. Ethno-national conflicts that feature certain similarities develop in different trajectories due to certain conditions that culminate in transforming the structures of these conflicts towards integration (the establishment of a single political entity) or separation (independence in separate entities). The goal of the dissertation is to examine the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through a comparative lens in order to specify the conditions that led to the persistence of the two-state solution and to examine the prevalence or lack of necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of a one civic-democratic state. Building on the comparative approach I argue that ethno-national territorial underpinnings of the conflict and the “regimes of territorial legitimation” of the dominant group are the most crucial explanatory factor in determining the trajectory and outcome of the conflict. “Regimes of territorial legitimation” are the practices, procedures, systems of meaning, and institutional designs that found the relationship between a nation, people, ii or ethno-national group and geography/territory. The dissertation features a qualitative structured and focused comparison of the conflicts in South Africa, and Palestine. Method of difference is applied for a case-oriented interpretive inquiry that focuses on the complexity of each of the two cases and aims at capturing the historical diversity of these similar cases. iii Table of Contents Chapter I ............................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Patterns of ethno-national conflicts: Divergence and convergence ............................................. 1 Reshaping ethno-territoriality in Palestine ................................................................................... 7 Parameters of the Study ............................................................................................................. 11 The question of comparability ................................................................................................... 13 Research Methodology .............................................................................................................. 23 Outline of Dissertation Chapters ................................................................................................ 28 Chapter II ........................................................................................................................ 30 Conceptualizing the national-territorial nexus of self-determination ....................... 30 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 30 Self-determination in Settler-colonial domination systems ....................................................... 31 Characteristics and manifestations of ethno-national conflicts .................................................. 33 The national-territorial nexus ..................................................................................................... 42 ‘Regimes of territorial legitimation’ in ethno-national conflicts ............................................... 45 Theory of “state contraction” ..................................................................................................... 52 Chapter III ....................................................................................................................... 56 Ethno-national colonialism in South Africa ................................................................. 56 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 56 South Africa: British imperialism and Afrikaner colonialism ................................................... 60 Racial colonialism: Segregation and exploitation ...................................................................... 62 Divinity and secularism in Shaping Afrikaner ethno-nationality .............................................. 64 The Afrikaners: from Republics to state ethno-nationality ........................................................ 70 White politics and the climax of segregation 1920s-30s ........................................................... 79 Chapter IV ....................................................................................................................... 90 Apartheid as an ethno-territorial control system ........................................................ 90 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 90 The National Party and the advent of Afrikaner ethno-territoriality .......................................... 91 Apartheid: the creation of the ethno-national nexus .................................................................. 92 Changing the political-geography of the conflict by partitioning .............................................. 95 iv Chapter V ...................................................................................................................... 106 The Decline of Afrikaner ethno-nationalism .............................................................. 106 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 106 The Contradictions between ethno-territoriality and social stratification ................................ 107 African nationalism: restoring the political geography of the conflict .................................... 114 The eradication of Afrikaners’ ethno-territoriality .................................................................. 120 South African from a regional power to a pariah state ............................................................ 139 Chapter VI ..................................................................................................................... 151 Democratization, self-determination and liberation in Palestine ............................. 151 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 151 The term one-state.................................................................................................................... 155 The One-State solution: a choice or an emergence? ................................................................ 157 European Colonialism and Zionist implantation ..................................................................... 169 Constituting Zionist Jewish ethno-territorial ideology ............................................................ 182 Chapter VII ................................................................................................................... 196 Israel’s anachronism ..................................................................................................... 196 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 196 Israel’s “regimes of territorial legitimation” ...........................................................................