Editor’s Note: The following statement was issued on November 15, 2020 by the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC). Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
November 15, 2020
The Palestinian-led One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC), comprised of Palestinians from every major community (’48, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the refugee camps and the Diaspora/Exile), together with their critical Israeli Jewish partners, has issued a call for the establishment of a single democratic state including everyone living between the River and the Sea, including Palestinian refugees who choose to return to their homeland.
Over the past three years, the ODSC, founded in Haifa but with working relations throughout the worldwide Palestinian community, has formulated a 10-point political program setting out the vision and framework of a shared democracy in which all the inhabitants of historic Palestine would enjoy common citizenship and equality under the law in a new and pluralistic political community. After decades in which the justice of the Palestinian struggle against Zionist colonization has been recognized by the international community, after decades of chasing after the chimera of a “two-state solution,” and after decades of asserting Palestinian rights with no viable political expression, the time for an effective campaign of decolonization and liberation is now, and it is urgent. Every day the Israeli government, aided by the international community, imposes draconian and irreversible “facts on the ground,” locking the country’s majority population, the Palestinians, into tiny, impoverished enclaves, perpetuating as well the exile of half the Palestinian population. A democratic state in historic Palestine is no utopia if we organize around a just political program, organize, strategize and effectively mobilize our forces, the global grassroots, the international civil society — you. We call on you to join our One Democratic State Campaign and help us build it into an effective anti-colonial, liberation movement.
For further information, contact us at contact@onestatecampaign.org. Much work still needs to be done to flesh out our program. We understand that we all will not agree on every issue, but our task in this historic moment is clear: armed with a clear and compelling political program, we need to fully enter the political arena. We call on the entire international community, and especially civil society, to support our Call for a democratic state in historic Palestine. The time has come.
It is in this spirit of solidarity, as part of a process of liberation, that we are reaching out to you to join us, beginning by endorsing our program. The struggle goes on.
In solidarity,
Awad Abdel Fattah, Galilee
Nadia Naser Najab, Ramallah, UK
Livnat Konopni, Tel Aviv
Haidar Eid, Gaza
Jeff Halper, Jerusalem
Leila Farsakh, USA
Diana Buttu, Haifa, Canada
Samah Sabawi, Australia
Mohamed Kabha, Galilee
Mohammad Al Helu, Ramallah
Rula Hurdal, Galilee
Jonathan Cook, Nazareth
Ilan Pappe, Haifa
Sami Miaari, Sakhnin
Saleh Hijazi, Ramallah
Nur Masalha, UK
Ramzy Baroud, USA
Jowan Safadi, Haifa
Rafah Anabtawi, Shefa-ʻAmr
Hamada Jaber, Ramallah
Naji al-Khatib, France
Sari Bashi, Ramallah
Bassem Tamimi, Nabi Salah
Johnny Mansour, Haifa
Jamil Hilal, Ramallah
Susan Abulhawa, USA
Haim Bresheeth, UK
Areen Hawari, Nazareth
Abdallah Grifat, Galilee, South Africa
Amir Kaadan, Galilee
Munir Nuseibah, Jerusalem
Ronnen Ben-Arie, Haifa
Eitan Bronstein, Brussels
Umar al-Ghubari, Triangle
Raja Deeb, Yarmouk Camp, Netherlands
Bilal Yousef, Galilee
Areej Sabbagh, Nazareth
Yoav Haifawi, Haifa
Mohamed Noman, Jordan
Mazin Qumsiyeh, Bethlehem
Majd Nasrallah, Triangle
Wehbi Badarni, Nazareth
Ghada Karmi, UK
Bana Shaghri, Kufr Yaseef
Miko Peled, USA
George Bisharat, USA
Issa Debi, Haifa, Switzerland
Ramez Eid, Eilabun
Radi Jarai, Ramallah
Hatem Kanaaneh, ‘Arrabat al-Battuf
Nidal Rafa, Haifa
Issam Odwan, Gaza
Asaad Abu Sharkh, Gaza, Ireland
Shir Hever, Germany
A few words from the old Shin Bet master Ami Ayalon, “Friendly Fire”, page 237:
Olmert immediately pushed for a peace deal with Abu Mazzen…His explanation for his urgency sounded like something straight from a People’s Voice pamphlet: ‘If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses and we face a South African style struggle for equal voting rights…then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished.’
Page 260, sitting in a cafe with a friend; Over a second shot of espresso I summarized my thesis that we Israelis are at war with ourselves, and not with the Palestinians. ‘We’ve already created an apartheid situation in Judea and Samaria where we control Palestinians by force, denying them self-determination; Eventually they will give up on the dream of a state, and they and most of the world will demand a single state where Jews will lose our majority and we can kiss our self-determination goodbye.’
I recall the time when the phrase ‘one man, one vote’, not yet considered sexist, was being put forward concerning South Africa and when the counterargument was that it would invite chaos and destruction. The political leadership of the West wasn’t too interested. But something like it happened, though much later. I don’t necessarily take much comfort from this comparison. The ME problem goes is maybe much worse. It was hard to find any strong political force in the West that was openly enthusiastic for the SA regime. The religious argument in its favour were widely regarded as ridiculous. How different now!
This is all fine and nice, but the primary arguing point is not regarding some ideal that exists in the future, which is a promise that does not entice many of the people who have seen the state of Israel as the means of overturning centuries of powerlessness. Instead it is the point regarding the now that cannot be denied. Given that the two state solution is not realistic, then the one state solution is justifiable as follows: Since Israel wants to annex the west bank, let it do so and give all its inhabitants (or at least those who are willing to renounce violence) citizenship in the Israeli polity. And then over time as this polity evolves and more and more Palestinians living in the territory of the West Bank are given citizenship, then the Israeli polity can evolve to become something other than the Israeli polity: this vision of yours, for example. If the present tense is used to justify the change, then the present tense of the existence of Israel, rather than the dismantling of Israel, but with citizenship rights that reflect the present reality, is the way to move towards the future which you envision.
I am an Israeli Jew. I read it. I thought about it. I am not interested in living in the state you describe. I am not giving up on having my own country that defends me and living as a powerless minority at the mercy of people that hate me and don’t think I should have any right to be here. Pass. Your move. :)
The end result of this “solution” is no different than the long sought military defeat of Israel – an Arab state of Palestine from the river to the sea. You must really think that people are too dumb to see through your charade.
And for the record (for your edification), the two state solution is alive and well. It’s just not one the Palestinians hoped for.