Mondoweiss
The 'One Democratic State Campaign' program for a multicultural democratic
state in Palestine/Israel
Jeff Halperon May 3, 2018
Graffiti made by the graffiti artist Banksy is seen on Israel's Separation
Wall in Abu Dis on August 6, 2005. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)
As the Leonard Cohen song goes, "everybody knows" the two-state solution is
dead and gone. Zionism's 120-year quest to Judaize Palestine - to transform
Palestine into the Land of Israel - has been completed. EveryIsraeli
government since 1967 has refused to seriously entertain the notion of a
genuinely independent and viable Palestinian state alongside the state of
Israel. Any possibility of a viable Palestinian state in the OPT has long
been buried under the massive "facts on the grounds." Israel's Matrix of
Controlhas rendered its control over the entire country permanent.
The two-state solution nonetheless continues to be the solution-of-choice of
governments. It provides a perfect vehicle for endless conflict management.
Negotiations over negotiations or merely holding out slim prospects of
negotiations lead nowhere but can be dragged on indefinitely, which is the
point. Indeed, it is a trap in which the Palestinian Authority is caught,
since disavowing the two-state solution casts it as the intransigent party.
Needed: A New Political End-Game
As important as protests, activism, BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)
and other campaigns and actions may be, there is no substitute for a
political settlement that will finally end the oppression and violence. One
cannot be in a political struggle without an end-game, and in our case it
must address two key processes: achieve restorative justice through
dismantling the structures and ideologies of domination on the one hand,
while replacing them with structures of social, cultural, political,
economic equality, accompanied by a process of reconciliation. For that dual
political process to succeed - the first most urgent for Palestinians, the
second most important to sell to, or impose upon, Jewish Israelis - we need
a plan, a vision of the future, and an effective strategy for getting there.
This is the challenge before us, and it is urgent and crucial. If we, the
stakeholders, Palestinians and Jewish Israelis together, do not offer our
own peoples a mutually acceptable way out, and if we do not offer you,
individuals and organizations abroad dedicated to the cause of justice in
Palestine/Israel, a political program for which to advocate, we will lose.
Justice does not prevail by magic. Unless it is empowered politically, it
remains a vague and far-off aspiration. Worse - and this seems to be
happening - activists and supporters will simply drift off to other urgent
causes if there is no movement or prospect of success. Mobilization over
time requires movement, direction and strategy, and only a political
end-game provides that.
The time is far overdue to begin formulating a genuinely just and workable
political settlement, then follow it up with an effective strategy of
advocacy within Israel/Palestine and abroad. Over the past year I have been
engaged with a number of Israeli Jews and Palestinians over the formulation
of a one-state program. We call ourselves the One Democratic State Campaign,
(ODSC), and among are members are Awad Abdelfattah, a founder of the Balad
Party and its long-time Secretary General; Ilan Pappe, the well-known
Israeli historian; Diana Buttu, the well-known analyst and Palestinian
activist; Daphan Baram, a lawyer, comedienne and the Director of ICAHD UK;
As'ad Ghanem, a professor of Political Science at Haifa University; Siwar
Aslih, a Ph.D. student in Social Psychology; Nadia Naser-Najjab, a doctoral
student; Shir Hever, a political economist; Muhammad Younis, a high-tech
engineer; Yoav Bar, ad Israeli activist; Mohamed Kabha, a student; Sami
Ma'ari, a professor of economics; and others, including myself. We have
identified, I believe, the key elements to a just peace and have formulated
an approach that bridges them in ways that the "sides" can agree on, or at
least live with.
The Vision: A Multi-Cultural Democracy
The ODSC promotes a one-state concept that is both democratic and just but
that also acknowledges the multicultural character and the collective rights
of the peoples living in the country, Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews.
Within a constitutional democracy in which all citizens enjoy a common
citizenship, one common parliament and thoroughly equal civil rights,
constitutional protection would also be granted to national, ethnic or
religious collectivities desiring to retain their various identities and
cultural lives if they so choose. Such an approach, acceptable to most
Palestinians, addresses a key concern of Jewish Israelis: protection of
their collective rights in a future country in which they will be the
minority. Parliament, under the Constitution, will have no power to pass
laws discriminating against any community.
Return of the Refugees
Key to any solution is the return of the Palestinian refugees and their
descendants, or compensation and resettlement for those who choose not to
return. But return is only part of the story. Where would they return to?
Their homes and communities were demolished years ago. Well, according to
the Palestinian geographer Salman Abu-Sitta, 85 percent of the lands taken
from the Palestinians in 1948 are still available for resettlement. Although
more than 530 villages, towns and urban areas were systematically demolished
following the 1948 Nakba, their agricultural lands still exist, incorporated
now into Israeli kibbutzim and other rural ventures. Other lands lie under
public parks and forests. So refugees could actually return, if not to their
former homes, at least to the parts of the country where they originated.
This ties into yet another issue: how do we prevent the refugee population,
traumatized, impoverished, severely under-educated and unskilled, from
becoming an underclass in their own country? A project run partly by the
Israeli-Palestinian organization Zochrot has young Palestinian planners and
architects designing modern communities for the refugees in the areas they
left - new communities with economic infrastructure and integrated with
other segments of the society. That, together with lands redistribution,
financial compensation, and equal access to education, training and the
economy, bolstered by affirmative action, would enable the refugees, like
other Palestinians, to achieve economic parity with Israelis within a fairly
short time. We must keep in mind the resources Palestinian enjoy: the high
numbers of Palestinians in Israel, the OPT and abroad that have completed
higher education, together with the likely investment of their
highly-educated and affluent Diaspora. Even in this most difficult of
issues, practical, just and workable solutions exist.
The Question of Bi-Nationalism
As I mentioned earlier, our initiative proposes a constitutional democracy
in which all citizens enjoy a common citizenship and equal rights. Having
said that, we cannot ignore the fundamental reality that two national groups
- Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews - inhabit the country. Nor can we
ignore the fact that the majority will be Palestinians. The prospect that
Jews will live as a minority community contradicts perhaps thefundamental
principle of Zionism: that Jews as a national group control their own
destiny.
Now the very fact that we must engage in a search for an alternative to the
two-state solution arises from the incompatibility of this principle with
Israeli policy of settling and annexing Palestinian territory and
permanently ruling over a Palestinian (majority) population, even if we call
our rule "autonomy." The minute Israeli decision-makers decided to link the
demand for a "Jewish state" with the policy of incorporating a Palestinian
population and territory larger than its own, it created an impossible and
unacceptable reality: Jewish apartheid. Jewish Israelis would certainly
prefer a non-democratic Jewish state over a non-Jewish democratic state. Our
program must wrestle with this dilemma. Providing constitutional recognition
and protection of the collective rights of Jewish Israelis, enabling them to
maintain their community within the framework of a democratic state,
addresses their concerns about their security as a minority while
dismantling structures of privilege and domination.
A bi-national state would be easier to sell to Jewish Israelis than a
unitary one - though barely - as the various schemes of confederation or
"one country/two peoples" demonstrate. But here we hit up against
Palestinian resistance. While the vast majority of Palestinians recognize
the permanent presence of Jewish Israelis, to be forced to acknowledge them
as a national group places Palestinians in a position of having to
legitimize settler colonialism in its Zionist form, which is a bridge too
far. Offering to protect the "collective rights" of groups to maintain any
type of community they wish within the framework of a multi-cultural
democracy (which may include communities of ethnic Russians, African
asylum-seekers, foreign workers who remain, anti-Zionist ultra-orthodox Jews
and others) gives Jewish Israelis the collective security they seek as a
minority while facilitating the forging of a common civil society.
The Challenge: Forging a Common New Civil Society
Having ensured the integrity of collective identities and associations, the
thrust and primary energy of our vision of a single state is directed
towards building a shared civil society. Indeed, it is the breaking of the
"bi-"national model that allows people to move out of rigidly bounded
ethno-national blocs into a more integrated, fluid and shared form of civil
society. As the years pass and both citizens and communities of
Palestine/Israel develop a sense of mutual trust, inter-connectivity and
security, as younger generations emerge for whom life in a common civil
society is normal, a common civil identity will invariably emerge and
expand. Attracting primarily the younger generation and the more secular
middle classes, an inclusive civil society would take root as a shared
national life becomes routinized through common citizenship and political
life, collective experiences arising out of daily life, civil marriage,
integrated communities and schools (for those who choose them), shared
languages, a common media, common holidays and symbols that arose from
shared national existence, etc., etc. We aspire not merely to a new
political entity but to a new society.
(Image: Jeff Halper)
Decolonization, Restoration and Reconciliation
While achieving a just political settlement is our most urgent task,
establishing a just and working state and civil society requires three more
difficult processes: decolonization, restoration and reconciliation.
Decolonization does not end the moment one people ceases dominating the
others. Indeed, that is the moment it begins. It then continues until all
forms of domination - economic and cultural as well as political and legal -
are rooted out. Decolonization requires a country to be completely
reimagined and reinvented so as to be as egalitarian, inclusive and
sustainable as possible. This means, of course, restoring to the expelled,
excluded and oppressed their rights, properties (actual or through
compensation), identities and social position. Only then can the third
process, reconciliation, be pursued. We therefore "bracket" the still open
wounds of the Nakba, the Occupation and the suffering they have caused so
that we may reach an agreed-upon political settlement.
The Issue of Secularism
Virtually everyone involved in the ODSC project supports the idea of a
secular state. Yet we recognize that the majority of both the Palestinian
and Jewish Israeli populations are not secular: the vast majority of
Palestinians can be defined as moderate to strict Muslims and Christians,
while 58% of Jewish Israelis define themselves as religious, ranging from
ultra-orthodox to "traditional." "Secular," then, can be a red-flag term
making it even more difficult to "sell" an already daunting program.
Still, we believe that most people will accept a liberal democracy if we
make it palatable, if we build in progressive elements but not rub their
faces in them. Our program thus avoids the term "secular state," but
presents such a state de factoin two senses. First, it specifies that the
authority to govern and pass laws emanates from the electorate, the people;
what is left unsaid is that religious law (halakhah, sharia, ecclesiastical
law) may continue to pertain within its religious communities - no one will
ban religious marriages, for example - but will accompany, not displace,
civil law where people choose to observe it. And second, there will be no
official state-sponsored religion or religious authority.
Implications for the Region
Finally, the new state will exist in an extremely conflicted, autocratic and
under-developed Middle East, albeit a region with great progressive
potential as demonstrated by the massive (yet failed and repressed)
uprisings in favor of democracy. It cannot exist in a vacuum. Sovereignty
and borders, refugees, water, security, trade and economic development,
tourism and the environment - these are only a few of the issues that are
regional in scope. We envision a country that will join forces with all
progressive forces in the Arab world struggling for democracy, social
justice and egalitarian societies free from tyranny and foreign domination.
Although this may sound utopian at a time when the region is in a melt-down,
the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict will eliminate a major
source of polarization and militarization in the region, thus releasing
positive forces of development and conflict resolution.
These are the main issues at stake, in our view, and I believe the approach
we lay out here has great potential in bridging the deep differences and
mistrust between our peoples. Our overall program, prefaced by a Preamble
that sets out the historical context and being strategized by our members,
is as follows:
THE ODSC PROGRAM FOR ONE DEMOCRATIC STATE BETWEEN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA AND
THE JORDAN RIVER
Haifa
April, 2018
PREAMBLE
In recent years, the idea of a one democratic state as the best political
solution for Palestine has re-emerged and gained support in the public
domain. It is not a new idea. The Palestinian liberation movement promoted
this vision in the PLO's National Charter until it entered the peace
negotiations in the late 1980s. In the wake of the Oslo accord and other
historical developments, the PLO shifted its support to the two-state
solution as the basis for a future peace, a vision endorsed by all the
Palestinian parties represented in the Israeli Knesset as well.
The One Democratic State Campaign logo
But the two-state solution is dead, buried under Israeli settlements and
other massive "facts on the ground," the world's governments unwilling to
exert the pressures needed to create a viable Palestinian state. This
history clearly indicates that the only way to bring peace and
reconciliation to Palestinians and Israelis is through the decolonizing
historical Palestine based on granting equal rights, upon the full
implementation of the Palestinian right of return and on the creation of a
mechanism for rectifying past injustices. This is the urgent need of the
moment.
As a result, several organizations and individuals have reintroduced the
one-state idea over the past decade with models varying from bi-nationalism
to a liberal, secular democracy. They are all united, however, in the belief
that a substantially just political settlement can today only be achieved
through the creation of a single state - a democratic state to replace the
single apartheid state Israel has already imposed on the entire country.
The basic principles of liberation offered by the PLO in its 1968 charter
still form an important element in the vision of those now engaged in
formulating and advancing the one-state solution. There is a strong
consensus among us that only decolonization and the rectification of past
sins, in particular the right of Palestinian refugees to return to a
democratic country, can bring equality, self-determination, reconciliation,
prosperity, peace and justice to the land.
The following program of the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC) provides a
basis for consolidating a one-state solution. In it we seek to garner
support from both Palestinians and Jewish Israelis for our joint struggle
for this vision. This is the only way we will end the ongoing the ongoing
colonization, racism and hatred that are destroying our lives, to prevent
and reverse the takeover of Palestinian land and its burial under
settlements. Only an inclusive democratic state, thoroughly decolonized,
will provide for a future for all our children, a future of peace, justice
and equality in all of historic Palestine.
THE ODSC PROGRAM
1.A Single Constitutional Democracy.One Democratic State shall be
established between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as one
country belonging to all its citizens, who will enjoy equal rights, freedom
and security. The State shall be a constitutional democracy, the authority
to govern and make laws emanating from the consent of the governed, in which
all of its citizens shall enjoy equal rights to vote, stand for office and
contribute to the country's governance.
2.Individual Rights.No State law, institution or practices may discriminate
among its citizens on the basis of national or social origin, color, gender,
language, religion or political opinion, property, sexual orientation or
other status. A single citizenship confers on all the State's residents the
right to freedom of movement, the right to reside anywhere in the country,
and equal rights in every domain. All mechanisms of governance, law
enforcement and security shall be thoroughly integrated on the basis of
individual merit, including the military and internal security and police
forces. The IDF and other Israeli security and police forces will be
replaced by newly constituted national forces.
3.Collective Rights.Within the framework of a single democratic state, the
Constitution will also protect the collective rights of Palestinian Arabs
and Israeli Jews to freedom of association - national, ethnic, religious,
class or gender - within the framework of a common state and democracy.
Constitutional guarantees will ensure that all languages, arts and culture
can flourish and develop freely. All citizens shall have equal rights to use
their own dress, languages and customs, to freely express their cultural
heritage, and to maintain such cultural institutions as universities,
museums, theatres, newspapers and all other forms of communication. No group
or collectivity will have any privileges, nor will any group, party or
collectivity have the ability to leverage any control or domination over
others. Parliament will not have the authority to enact any laws that
discriminate against any community under the Constitution.
4.Right of Return of Restoration and of Reintegration into Society.In
accordance with UN Resolution 194, the State recognizes the right of
Palestinian refugees - those who currently live in Palestine/Israel, all
those who were expelled over the past century, their descendants and all
others of the Exile/Diaspora - to return to their country and to the places
from where they were expelled, to rebuild their personal life and to be
fully reintegrated into the country's society, economy and polity. To the
most practicable degree, the private property of the refugees shall be
restored and/or compensation arranged. Restoring the rights of the
Palestinians will be done while respecting the rights and protections of all
citizens under the law. Normal procedures of obtaining citizenship will be
extended to others choosing to immigrate to the country.
5.Constructing a Shared Civil Society. The State shall nurture a vital civil
society in which common educational institutions, civil institutions such as
marriage, and both the Arabic and Hebrew languages will be official
languages. The State will not establish or accord special privilege to any
religion, but shall provide for the free practice of all religions.
6.Economy and Economic Justice.Our vision seeks to achieve justice, and this
includes social and economic justice. Economic policy must address the
decades of exploitation and discrimination which have sown deep
socioeconomic gaps among the people living in the land. The income
distribution in Israel/Palestine is more unequal than any country in the
world. A State seeking justice must develop a creative and long-term
redistributive economic policy to ensure that all citizens have equal
opportunity to attain education, productive employment, economic security
and a dignified standard of living.
7.Decolonization, Restoration and Reconciliation. The liberation of
Palestinians and the creation of a genuinely equal and inclusive society
entails more than just a political settlement or new governmental
arrangements. It requires a process of thorough decolonization, a
reimagining and reinventing of the country in a way that fundamentally
alters relations of domination. This includes what Fanon and Ngugi call the
"decolonization of the mind." Only then will a process of national
reconciliation be possible.
8.The Commitment to Human Rights, Justice and Peace.The State shall uphold
international law and seek the peaceful resolution of conflicts through
negotiation and collective security in accordance with the United Nations
Charter. The State will sign and ratify all international treaties on human
rights and its people shall reject racism and promote social, cultural and
political rights as set out in relevant United Nations covenants.
9.Our Role in the Region. The ODS Campaign will join forces with all
progressive forces in the Arab world struggling for democracy, social
justice and egalitarian societies free from tyranny and foreign domination.
In particular, the State shall seek democracy and freedom in a Middle East
that respects its many communities, religions, traditions and ideologies,
yet strives for equality, freedom of thought and innovation. Achieving a
just political settlement in Palestine, followed by a thorough process of
decolonization, will contribute measurably to these efforts.
10.Our Global Responsibility.On a global level, the ODS Campaign views
itself as part of the progressive forces striving for an alternative global
order that is just, egalitarian, inclusive, pluralistic and sustainable, one
in which exploitation, racism, repression, wars, imperialism and colonialism
give way to respect for human dignity, human rights, freedom, a just
distribution of wealth, equal access to resources and a sustainable
environment.
