Yesterday I got an email from Brit Tzedek, the American Jewish peace group, which has always had a generational feel for me– people in their 50s and 60s and 70s, who are still somewhat ethnocentric. (I know; I’m ethnocentric.) It contained a conversation with Amjad Atallah, of the New America Foundation, asking him, What do Palestinians want? I’m including a couple of the questions and answers below.
The significance of the conversation is the following. Many Jews have long felt that they can somehow puzzle the justice of the solution out on their own, or with the help of handpicked "good" Palestinians, rather than actually seeking out the Palestinian consensus on crucial issues. When in fact there is broad consensus inside the Palestinian community about refugees, the Nakba, Jewish expansionism; and you must engage that spirit. Brit Tzedek does the good spiritual work here of asking, What do Palestinians want?
The other significance of the conversation is this: I have long dared American Jews to do one thing, to speak openly to Israelis about the kind of state they like to live in. To pass on our learning and experience. And that is a state that respects minorities, is not religious, is tolerant, doesn’t built separate roadways on a religious basis, doesn’t bomb children of a different ethnicity, and so forth. The political values that the Israeli gov’t rubbishes at every turn. If American Jews performed this confession, you’d find that many would naturally accept the idea of one state in Israel/Palestine. I’m not saying this is necessarily the answer by the way, but the idea must be discussed rather than dismissed (as the Jewish writers at Politico, do, out of hand, calling it radical and fringe). When we enjoy the freedoms of such a state every day!
The answer to one-state among liberal Zionists has always been, We like the peace process! And meanwhile Palestinians are dispossessed and imprisoned, and the lobby triumphs. Remember, Brit Tzedek has sought to pressure Obama to make a two-state solution, and completely failed. And so at the end of the conversation, Brit Tzedek begins tentatively to grapple with the idea of a one-state solution. Liberating. Some of the conversation:
1. Why do Arabs and Palestinians reject Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State?
Palestinians and Arabs are prepared to accept a Jewish right of self-determination in Israel. What they can’t accept is that the Jewish right to self-determination abrogates or supersedes the Palestinian right to self-determination. So how do two rights to self-determination co-exist? That has been asked in Bosnia, in South Africa, in Rwanda, and other places. The easiest answer in Palestine/Israel is partition into two states. However, Palestinians are afraid that "right to exist as a Jewish state" is actually code for disenfranchising the 20% of the Israeli population that is Palestinian Arab. Palestinians are afraid that many Israeli politicians ultimately want to remove, "transfer," or further restrict the rights of the Palestinians who live in Israel who already have Israeli citizenship. The debate in Israel currently taking place as to whether Israel should be a "state for all its citizens" with a Jewish majority or a "Jewish state" impacts Palestinian thinking…
2. Isn’t the ultimate goal of Palestinians to destroy the state of Israel one piece at a time?
There will probably always be people from the generation that remember the expulsions of 1947-49 who won’t be able to ultimately be happy with the reality of Israel. But the truth is that for the majority, this is not the case. Arabs have lived with Jews since before the time of the Prophet Mohammed. The Caliph Omar was the one who opened Jerusalem to Jews again after conquering the city from the Byzantines. .. The current nature of the Israeli-Arab antipathy is actually an aberration from a long history of cooperation, co-existence, and in some cases common struggle against an external enemy. A just resolution of this current conflict and the ensuing peace will allow that aberration to be put aside and for the two communities to return to a more cooperative relationship…
10. Do the Palestinian people support two states or one bi-national state?
Both. The majority of Palestinians polled in the Occupied Territory consistently show support for a two-state solution, and this is probably a result of it being considered the most pragmatic and achievable solution as it overlaps so much with Israeli national security interests. However, there are few Palestinians ideologically opposed to living in a bi-national state and a distinct minority actually prefers it. What matters most to Palestinians is freedom and a normal life through realizing their national aspirations. Either a dignified two-state option or a dignified bi-national option could theoretically achieve that outcome. So at least one question that friends of Israel might ask themselves with greater urgency is what they expect Palestinians to endorse if they ever come to the conclusion that the United States will not or cannot induce Israel to end the occupation (having already assumed that Israel will not end the occupation on its own).
