Abstract
This paper examines some of the emerging critical civil society debates in relation to the one-state solution being the most appropriate geo-political arrangement for the articulation of freedom, justice and equality in Palestine-Israel. This is done with reference to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ 2012 statement in support of a bi-national state and the ensuing critiques it attracted from Palestinian supporters of the one-state position. Drawing on these debates which have largely revolved around Jewish Israeli rights to political self-determination in Palestine-Israel, this paper proposes that alternative versions of self-determination as cultural rights for the established Hebrew-speaking national community represent a more inclusive form of self-determination in the eventuality of decolonisation.
Highlights
An example of this is Jeff Halper’s (2013) response to Abunimah and Barghouti’s critique of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)’s 2012 binational proposal where he argues that the position that Jewish Israelis have no right to selfdetermination in Palestine-Israel
The above considerations of Jewish Israeli identification in relation to belonging, binationalism and self-determination in Palestine-Israel acknowledge the validity of ICAHD’s bi-national position, in as far as it is a recognition of the recurrent ethno-centric set-up in Palestine-Israel
While the resulting advocacy for cohabitation in a single democratic state, signalling a move away from the discourse of ethno-national separation embodied in the two-state solution paradigm, is to be welcomed, it is, important to remain cautiously optimistic
Summary
In the past two decades, largely due to disillusionment with the Oslo Peace Process, debates and discussions surrounding a one-state alternative to the impasse in Palestine-Israel have been gaining momentum among Palestinian activists and thinkers, as wells as a growing number of critical Israelis and international observers, including a number of contributors to Antipode (Abunimah, 2006; Bisherat, 2010; Farsakh, 2011; Hilal, 2007; Loewenstein and Moor, 2012; Long, 2006; Mavroudi, 2010; Raz-Krakotzkin, 2011; Said, 2006; Tilley, 2005). As a stateless people, the Palestinians have largely relied on the mercy of inter-governmental consensus, various nonviolent and violent guerrilla tactics, local, national, and international campaigns, and more recently, the transnational BDS campaign for civil rights in Palestine-Israel (Atran, 2010; Barghouti, 2011; Khalidi, 1997, 2006; Said 1984, 1988, 2006; Qumsiyeh, 2010) It is for this reason that examining ongoing civil society debates and visions acts as a means to give voice to the silenced Palestinian narrative and the marginalised voices of critical Israelis who reject dominant state-centric framings of Palestine-Israel. Growing one-state co-advocacy suggests possible convergences between Palestinians and critical Israelis; or, to paraphrase Amnon RazKrakotzkin (2011:21), visions of bi-national cohabitation point to the potential decolonisation of Zionism and an alternative Jewish national existence, and de-facto Jewish-Arab cohabitation, in Palestine-Israel
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