Category Archives: One state/Two states

After Kerry visit, Israeli and Palestinian leaders quietly re-open economic negotiations

Perhaps the greatest achievement in neutralizing the Palestinian cause from how it started out, as a liberation struggle, was nudging it into a humanitarian project. Over the past two decades political talks have been exchanged for economic ones. The U.S. hand in this transformation became clear after Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Jerusalem on Sunday to reopen economic collaboration measures

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Policy in the Middle East | 7 Comments

Olmert jokes being called ‘war criminal’ may restore his reputation in Israel as activists disrupt speech at Woodrow Wilson Center

On June 4, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited Washington, D.C.’s Woodrow Wilson Center to offer a so-called “moderate” perspective on Middle East affairs and the Palestinian-Israeli impasse. A DC area coalition of Palestinian justice activists, led by George Mason University Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), were there to challenge Olmert and interrupt the Wilson Center’s complicity with the ongoing normalization of Israeli occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid.

Posted in Activism, BDS, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states | 116 Comments

Flipping the political map: Yehouda Shenhav upends liberal understandings of Israel/Palestine in ‘Beyond the Two-State Solution’

Yehouda Shenhav’s book, Beyond the Two-State Solution: A Political Essay, is a true paradigm shifter. At the heart of the book is Shenhav’s convincing argument that traditional thinking on the conflict–first and foremost perpetrated by the Israeli liberal left–has been stuck in the 1967 paradigm, which has lead to never-ending and doomed efforts to establish a two-state solution. The Iraqi-Jewish sociologist also offers a truly novel vision for a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Nakba, Occupation, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists, US Politics | 5 Comments

Exile and the Prophetic: Barghouti’s warning – the alternative to two states is ‘persistent conflict’ without any middle ground

If nations are defined by the people they jail, check out a recent interview with Marwan Barghouti.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Occupation, One state/Two states | Comments Off

Israel approves construction to transfer West Bank Bedouin

The Israeli government approves a plan to relocate Jahalin Bedouin in al-Khan al-Ahmar to a “dump site” called “Nueimah” near Jericho. The Nueimah plan sets the stage for a future territory swap where Palestinians will lose out on residency rights to geographically key land in exchange for a wasteland in the desert.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states | 38 Comments

When will the discourse of the ‘two state solution’ finally change?

The only hope for Palestinians is a one state solution. Accomodating the settler-colonial ideology of Zionism with concessions only brings misery

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Video: Olmert booed in NYC for saying Israel should re-engage in the ‘peace process’

Over the weekend former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke at a conference organized by the Jerusalem Post in New York City. As the the video above shows the crowd did not support his argument that a Palestinian state is in Israeli self-interest.

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Politics | Comments Off

Palestine and the Left

Read the introduction to Jacobin magazine’s special section on Palestine and the Left.

Posted in Activism, BDS, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Middle East, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 17 Comments

Benjamin Netanyahu vs. The Two-State Solution

Excerpts from the Institute for Middle East Understanding fact sheet “Does Netanyahu Really Support the Two-State Solution?”

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists | 13 Comments

Former Israeli Amb to Obama on his visit: ‘You cannot come to an area that exhibits signs of apartheid and ignore them’

Alon Liel, a former Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General and ex-Ambassador to South Africa, said on February 20, “In the situation that exists today, until a Palestinian state is created, we are actually one state. This joint state — in the hope that the status quo is temporary — is an apartheid state.”

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The Fog of Occupation: An interview with Dror Moreh, director of ‘The Gatekeepers’

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What did you leave on the cutting-room floor from your interviews of six former Israeli spies? Were you trying to save the Jewish state? And how do you rate Netanyahu? Estee Chandler grills the Israeli director of the Oscar-nominated documentary

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Politics | Tagged | 25 Comments

More than 700 rabbis, cantors and rabbinical students protest E1 construction

Despite an announcement on Friday from the Prime Minister’s office that Benjamin Netanyahu delayed construction in the E1 corridor between Jerusalem and the West Bank, more than 700 American rabbis, cantor and rabbinical students continue to decry the controversial settlement plan.

Posted in American Jewish Community, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Politics | 13 Comments

Jews for Palestinian right of return

A statement from Jewish activists, writers, artists and academics calling for “all supporters of social justice to stand up for Palestinian Right of Return and a democratic state throughout historic Palestine — “From the River to the Sea” — with equal rights for all.”

Posted in Activism, American Jewish Community, BDS, Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Nakba, Occupation, One state/Two states | 77 Comments

Roots of Resistance: The intifada brought Palestine home

Omar Dajani writes about being a college student in the U.S. during the first intifada, “the transformations it effected were no less personal than political. For many of us who had never visited the Holy Land, the intifada brought Palestine home. It was our introduction, our initiation, our gateway to an addiction that I suspect few of us have managed to kick.” This post is part of the series “Roots of Resistance: 25 year retrospective on the first intifada.”

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Occupation, One state/Two states, Roots of Resistance, US Politics | 3 Comments

Consensus: Right wing govt minister says Israel is not a state of all its citizens; liberal Zionist icon calls for cantons to avoid bi-nationalism

Two recent statements — one from a right wing government minister and the other a liberal Zionist icon — reveal the staggering degree of racism in Israeli political discourse.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, One state/Two states | 9 Comments

Endless ‘debate over two-state solution’ is cover for the real story, annexation of West Bank

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Joseph Dana recently wrote in the National: “the debate about the two-state solution has become an important diversion from discussing the true nature of Israeli colonialism.” This trend has been shared from right wingers to liberal Zionists: Keep talking about the need for the two state solution, so that no one talks about the policies that have made it impossible.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists | 67 Comments

Roots of Resistance: The source of Palestinian power is the moral force of our cause

Ahmed Moor shares memories of growing up in Gaza during the first intifada and what that struggle means for the Palestinians today. This post is part of the series “Roots of Resistance: 25 year retrospective on the first intifada.”

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, Roots of Resistance | 3 Comments

Roots of Resistance: The first intifada and the non-emergence of a Palestinian state

The mainstream Israeli left had a chance to create a two-state solution during the first intifada. Instead they launched the vast settlement expansion of the 90s. This post is part of the series “Roots of Resistance: 25 year retrospective on the first intifada.”

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, Roots of Resistance | 5 Comments

Israel razes Al-Araqib for the 45th time

Araqib village razed for the 45th time The Israeli authorities razed the Araqib village in the Negev desert for the 45th time running claiming that the houses were built without permit. link to www.palestine-info.co.uk Land Theft & Destruction / Ethnic … Continue reading

Posted in Activism, BDS, Gaza, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Neocons, Occupation, On the ground reports, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists, syria, Today in Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East | Comments Off

Palestinians in Israel have used the contradiction between Zionism and democracy to reconstruct their national project

MK Haneen Zoabi’s foreword to Ben White’s ‘Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy’

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Nakba, Occupation, One state/Two states | 8 Comments

Rise of Hamas and failed peace process lead Israeli leaders and media to warn of ‘third Intifada’

 Israel grows jittery of new Palestinian uprising JERUSALEM (AP) — The rising confidence and bellicosity of Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, combined with rapidly deteriorating relations with Israel’s would-be peace partner in the West Bank, are raising jitters in … Continue reading

Posted in Activism, American Jewish Community, BDS, Gaza, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Neocons, Occupation, On the ground reports, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists, Today in Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East | 2 Comments

UN: 120 houses destroyed, 3000 displaced during latest Israeli attack on Gaza

500 Israeli soldiers ransack homes in Burqa Around 500 Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Burqa, north-west of Nablus, in the middle of the night, ransacking homes and causing damages amounting to thousands of euros. Soldiers arrived in over 30 … Continue reading

Posted in Activism, American Jewish Community, BDS, Egypt, Gaza, Israel Lobby, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Neocons, Occupation, On the ground reports, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists, syria, Today in Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | Comments Off

Israel’s annexation moment has arrived

Discourse from within the Israeli government to formalize Greater Israel may indicate that Israel is finally planning to formally annex the West Bank.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Occupation, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists | 40 Comments

Makdisi: E1 sets the stage for one state

Saree Makdisi joins the two state post mortem. In tomorrow’s International Herald Tribune, Makdisi says Netanyahu’s decision to build in the E1 area not only kills the two-state solution, but also seals the fate of an exclusively Jewish state.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, Media, Occupation, One state/Two states, Settlers/Colonists | 11 Comments

Khalidi, Karon and Bronner (!) deliver a post mortem for the two-state solution

Host Marwan Bishara and guests Rashid Khalidi, Tony Karon and Ethan Bronner serve up yet another post mortem on the two-state solution on the Al Jazeera English show Empire. Peter Beinart is the lone hold out.

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Media, Occupation, One state/Two states, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics | 25 Comments