Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Two-state option not viable for Palestine

“There are different kinds of minorities. The notion of an Egyptian state for the Egyptians, a Jewish state for the Jews, simply flies in the face of reality. What we require is a rethinking of the present in terms of coexistence and porous borders.”

–Edward Said, 1999

For several years now, objective observers of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have realized, and sounded off, that the current situation is moving in an irreversible path away from any possibility of two separate states as a lasting solution to the conflict.

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Indeed, a solution of two states has been neither realistic nor viable, though it has been most popular, even among Palestinians and Israelis, since the occupation of the rest of Palestine in 1967.

The elusiveness of the two-state solution is perhaps its most glaring deficiency. There is no consensus on the borders of the two states. Many consider the West Bank and Gaza to be the de facto territory for the Palestinian state. But little mention is being made of the fact that massive blocs of Israeli colonies, highways restricted to Jews only, Israeli army installations and the new separation wall that isolates more than half of the West Bank from its urban centers are serious, irreversible obstacles that prevent a territorially contiguous state in the West Bank. As a result, a Palestinian state that falls into this description of the West Bank will be nothing but three large Bantustans or ghettos.

The establishment of two states on different pieces of mandate Palestine is a time bomb. It negates the Zionist project and the Palestinian aspiration of liberation, both calling for their prospective states in all of mandate Palestine. Such a solution will leave behind two states in an arms race, with ambitions towards the other’s land and resources.

The separate states scenario leaves many problems unsolved. The proposed distribution of land and resources is grossly disproportionate. The Palestinians, roughly half of the population, will be squeezed in 20 percent of mandate Palestine at best. All the major aquifers and other resources will be annexed by the Israeli state. The crowded Palestinian state will severely lack natural resources, employment opportunity, an independent economy and the ability to accommodate the return of any significant portion of the Palestinian refugees living outside Palestine.

The ultimate and perhaps the only viable solution to the crisis that is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the bi-national, federal union of a primarily Palestinian states coexisting with a primarily Jewish state distinguished by porous borders, that ultimately guarantee free movement of population and products, equality under the law and right to residency irrespective of ethnic or religious affiliations. Israel and Palestine must represent a federal union that unites them politically, economically, in external security and other international affairs.

In 1947, the United Nations issued resolution 181, known as the partition plan, for it mandated the division of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. This partition was carried out, though rather disproportionately, along population distribution lines. Areas mostly populated by Palestinians constituted the lands for the Arab states, and land populated by the new Jewish immigrants constituted the new Jewish state.

The borders of the new federal states would be drawn along the current population distribution and have at heart the UN Security Council resolution. The Palestinian state would retain sovereignty over all areas that have a predominantly Palestinian population. Similarly, the Jewish state will comprise of all area that are predominantly populated by Jews.

The territorial reconfiguration of the new federal union offers solutions to several sticky issues, in particular accommodating the returning refugees whose numbers cannot be handled in the densely populated West Bank and Gaza. Under the new configuration, the Palestinian state will be able to absorb the bulk of the returnees. Additionally, the Arab heritage and Palestinian identity of the Palestinians citizens of today’s Israel, about 1.4 million of them, will be preserved by incorporating them into a Palestinian state that would better attend to their needs and concerns.

Furthermore, since Israel fears the demographic growth of the Palestinian population and being faced by the choice of minority rule or relinquishing power, the Israeli state will be established on land that is primarily Jewish-populated.

Years of failed proposals and initiatives should at least inspire us to rethink the approach. The bi-national proposal addresses deep-rooted issues, not merely symptomatic ones. Hence, it holds true promise.

Fayyad Sbaihat ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in chemical engineering.

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