[Mb-civic] Two Peoples, One State

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3157.shtml

Two Peoples, One State
By Michael Tarazi, The New York Times, 4 October 2004
nytimes.com/2004/10/04/opinion/04tarazi.html

Israel's untenable policy in the Middle East was more obvious than 
usual last week, as the Israeli Army made repeated incursions into 
Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians in the deadliest attacks in more 
than two years, even as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reiterated his 
plans to withdraw from the territory. Israel's overall strategy 
toward the Palestinians is ultimately self-defeating: it wants 
Palestinian land but not the Palestinians who live on that land.

As Christians and Muslims, the millions of Palestinians under 
occupation are not welcome in the Jewish state. Many Palestinians 
are now convinced that Israeli support for a Palestinian state is 
motivated not by a hope for reconciliation, but by a desire to 
segregate non-Jews while taking as much of their land and 
resources as possible. They are increasingly questioning the most 
commonly accepted solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - 
"two states living side by side in peace and security," in the words 
of President Bush - and are being forced to consider a one-state 
solution.

To Palestinians, the strategy behind Israel's two-state solution is 
clear. More than 400,000 Israelis live illegally in more than 150 
colonies, many of which are atop Palestinian water sources. Mr. 
Sharon is prepared to evacuate settlers from Gaza - but only in 
exchange for expanding settlements in the West Bank. And Israel 
is building a barrier wall not on its land but rather inside occupied 
Palestinian territory. The wall's route maximizes the amount of 
Palestinian farmland and water on one side and the number of 
Palestinians on the other.

Yet while Israelis try to allay a demographic threat, they are 
creating a democratic threat. After years of negotiations, coupled 
with incessant building of settlements and now the construction of 
the wall, Palestinians finally understand that Israel is offering 
"independence" on a reservation stripped of water and arable soil, 
economically dependent on Israel and even lacking the right to 
self-defense.

As a result, many Palestinians are contemplating whether the 
quest for equal statehood should now be superseded by a struggle 
for equal citizenship. In other words, a one-state solution in which 
citizens of all faiths and ethnicities live together as equals. Recent 
polls indicate that a quarter of Palestinians favor the secular one-
state solution - a surprisingly high number given that it is not 
officially advocated by any senior Palestinian leader.

Support for one state is hardly a radical idea; it is simply the 
recognition of the uncomfortable reality that Israel and the 
occupied Palestinian territories already function as a single state. 
They share the same aquifers, the same highway network, the 
same electricity grid and the same international borders. There are 
no road signs reading "Welcome to Occupied Territory" when one 
drives into East Jerusalem. Some government maps of Israel do 
not delineate Israel's 1967 pre-occupation border. Settlers in the 
occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) are interspersed 
among Palestinian towns and now constitute nearly a fifth of the 
population. In the words of one Palestinian farmer, you can't 
unscramble an egg.

But in this de facto state, 3.5 million Palestinian Christians and 
Muslims are denied the same political and civil rights as Jews. 
These Palestinians must drive on separate roads, in cars bearing 
distinctive license plates, and only to and from designated 
Palestinian areas. It is illegal for a Palestinian to drive a car with an 
Israeli license plate. These Palestinians, as non-Jews, neither 
qualify for Israeli citizenship nor have the right to vote in Israeli 
elections.

In South Africa, such an allocation of rights and privileges based on 
ethnic or religious affiliation was called apartheid. In Israel, it is 
called the Middle East's only democracy.

Most Israelis recoil at the thought of giving Palestinians equal 
rights, understandably fearing that a possible Palestinian majority 
will treat Jews the way Jews have treated Palestinians. They fear 
the destruction of the never-defined "Jewish state." The one-state 
solution, however, neither destroys the Jewish character of the 
Holy Land nor negates the Jewish historical and religious 
attachment (although it would destroy the superior status of Jews 
in that state). Rather, it affirms that the Holy Land has an equal 
Christian and Muslim character.

For those who believe in equality, this is a good thing. In theory, 
Zionism is the movement of Jewish national liberation. In practice, 
it has been a movement of Jewish supremacy. It is this domination 
of one ethnic or religious group over another that must be defeated 
before we can meaningfully speak of a new era of peace; neither 
Jews nor Muslims nor Christians have a unique claim on this sacred 
land.

The struggle for Palestinian equality will not be easy. Power is 
never voluntarily shared by those who wield it. Palestinians will 
have to capture the world's imagination, organize the international 
community and refuse to be seduced into negotiating for their 
rights.

But the struggle against South African apartheid proves the battle 
can be won. The only question is how long it will take, and how 
much all sides will have to suffer, before Israeli Jews can view 
Palestinian Christians and Muslims not as demographic threats but 
as fellow citizens.

Michael Tarazi is a legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation 
Organization. 

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Action is the antidote to despair.  ----Joan Baez
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