One of the key points of my recent book, After Zionism, is that a two-state solution has always been a mirage, designed to distract from Israel’s colonisation project. The one-state solution is the only just and democratic outcome.
It’s therefore pleasing to read that The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) have released a new statement – the group’s founder Jeff Halper told me about this recently in Israel and asked me to look over the proposed new position – and it’s both a realisation of the new reality and attempt to change the conversation towards making one-state happen:
…with the two-state solution gone, apartheid unacceptable and a Middle Eastern economic confederation a distant vision, it seems time to seriously consider the only alternative available to us at this time: the creation of a single state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. To be sure, the idea has been raised before, but it remains ambiguous. There are fundamental variations and disagreements even among one-state proponents themselves. Political clarity is vital, especially if such a solution is – or is not – inclusive of Israelis.
Indeed, does post-apartheid South Africa inspire our joint aspirations or is Algeria the model, whereby the Israeli “colonists” (if they are that) leave or are driven out when Palestine is liberated? If the state is to be inclusive, should it be a unitary democratic state, a bi-national one or a combination? Will the solution be one defined purely by politics, or will the rights and obligations of all parties be guided indeed by international law and human rights treaties?