Lesson from Oslo: A one-state solution
JVL Introduction
Hamada Jaber and Ofer Neiman look at how the Oslo Agreement which was meant to be a staging post has, thirty years on, become fixed and oppressive.
After three decades it has become a repetitively quoted basis for a two state solution which is increasingly phantasmagorical. The control it gave to the majority of the West Bank as Area C is interpreted by Israel as authority to build settlement after settlement regarded by the rest of the world as illegal and abusive.
Their One State Foundation argues the only way forward from the impasse and an end to violence is “a comprehensive framework which would grant all those residing between the river and the sea equal rights in a shared land.” Mutual acceptance of that framework would allow the necessary negotiation on arrangements and an end to Apartheid.
This article was originally published by Il Manifesto Global on Wed 13 Sep 2023. Read the original here.
Our lesson from the Oslo process: A one-state solution for Israel-Palestine
Loading article text…
I suggest anyone who is in any doubt read my article ‘Birthright sold for a mess of potage’ a reference to the biblical story of Jacob and Esau in the October 1993 issue of National Labour Briefing in a debate with Julia Bard of the Jewish Socialists Group.
Everything I predicted (bar the pull-out from Gaza) has come true with a vengeance. At the time I was in a distinct minority as most Palestine solidarity supporters saw Oslo as the dawning of a new era.
Why? Not because I have a crystal ball but because I understood that Zionism was founded as a settler colonial movement whose goal was establishing a state on the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael), not half or 3/4 but the whole of what they considered their patrimony
https://tinyurl.com/dx6rjhk6
“none of the major Israeli or Palestinian political parties, including most parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, have endorsed this solution.”
In fact this has been the position of the PFLP since 1968 as far as I’m aware. The PFLP is the second biggest grouping in the PLO behind Fatah, so I find it bizarre that this claim is made.
I have always been a proponent of the one-state solution and supporter of the PFLP, since well before the Oslo accords, which where clearly one of the most elaborate guises that “kicking the can down the road” ever assumed.
I recommend my friend Mazin Qumseyih’s book “Sharing the Land of Canaan” on this subject.
It’s an idea whose time has come but it is by no means a new idea.
Yes that makes sense. But does not address the problem of disarming those who want to keep on killing. Read “Son of Hamas”! It’s not that Israel rejects a one-state solution more that it does not know how to protect the jews from the arabs – and vice versa.
A single democratic state appears to be the only solution to this disastrous legacy of British colonial self-interest, instituted after the First World War.
I am surprised and delighted at the level of support amongst both Israeli’s and Palestinians, even though neither yet consists of a majority. It at least shows that many of those at the sharp end of this meddling by Western powers, are willing to think beyond the limitations of their leaders.
Unfortunately, the USA and UK (and the Labour Party in particular) will be very unwilling to give up the supposed two-state solution as it provides a fig leaf which barely covers their own interests in perpetuating Israeli dominance which projects their power in the region.
Palestine’s fate now depends on how successful organisations like JVP can be in turning the ‘Jewish vote’ in the USA against supporting the existing apartheid project.
As I’ve commented before on this site, sometimes published, Jews in Israel are not going to unilaterally commit suicide which is what your concept of one-state involves. And we all have relatives there so why would be endorse that. Please list examples in the ME, apart from Israel, of a democratic states with human rights and freedom of speech etc. A two-state solution, even with all the different interpretations, is still the only game in town.
I cannot see a One State solution being successful.
In practice the numbers of votes will be in favour of Palestinians as they have the largest population and Netanyahu and past leaders have all recognised this.
Whereas a two State solution, with clear borders, will give the Palestinians full autonomy over their own Country.
PS, the Border should be as close to the original border, in my view, this is the only solution with a chance of success.