Why I Believe In a One-State Solution?

From my Album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/psakhanizza/2346250530/

22:00 PM on a visit to a friend’s house inside of the Tulkarm Refugee Camp. 

A miniature ‘square’ inside of the camp was jam-packed with sweaty wild dancers, the smell of cigarettes and secretly consumed booze, and an ear-piercing music all came to a sudden halt with an unexpected power outage. “Once unlucky, always unlucky”, whispered the young men as they left the wedding referring to the unlucky groom. Moments later, as I reached few blocks down unlit alley, the music was back and blasting. I was told that a neighbor had a car battery ready to use in case of an emergency.

With so many numerous examples like this, Palestinians would be an example to be followed by humanity in their natural ability to adapt! Like a line of working ants suddenly disrupted by a rock, they somehow manage to find creative ways to circumvent around obstructions which they always foresee. Considered the Giants since before times of the Philistines, they have coped with any living circumstances no matter how dire or how extravagant.

Perhaps a trait acquired with time knowing that over 25 different civilizations/ powers have ruled/ occupied this landscape. Even under Israel, the residents of the West Bank and Gaza found ways to continue living regardless of blockades, siege, or war. A good example would be the tunnels in Gaza dug following the full blockade as the only way to spare Gaza from an inevitable humanitarian crisis, famine, and even an ultimate annihilation.

This is why I do not believe in a two-state solution, why I believe that Palestinians live under Apartheid and why I believe in a one-state solution.

This may sound unconventional to few, but no matter how illegal Israeli colonialism may be, one that is achieved through settlements, no matter what names researchers and intellectuals may come up with to crimes and violations committed by Israel or the Palestinians; and with all due respect to the Palestinian rightful owners whose lands were unrightfully taken away from them to make space for young Zionist families, denying them their right to cultivate or to build their lands as they wish: A new solution must be found that does not involve depopulating these settlements, forcing settlers to leave or have the settlements dismantled.

In my opinion, most Palestinians will happily live with a fair compromise that will not deny them the right to their lands in form of cultivation or rent collecting even if settled by Jewish People. But most importantly, never denying them the right to live there if they so wished to as these settlements have already populated an areas that cannot be restored into farming lands and will remain urban forever, whether occupied by Israelis or its rightful Palestinian owners. 

Currently, the West Bank serves as a living example of what a Bantustan looks like. From the window of my house in Ramallah, one may see two Israeli settlements. Those settlements, (il)legally speaking, are located over illegally confiscated lands. Most Palestinians have no access to them, and according to Israel, they are considered an integral Part of the state. These settlements receive funding and all forms of benefits as any other Israeli town or community found inside of the internationally-recognized borders of Israel. Residents of the settlements receive their international mail with the Israeli settlement name and the word “Israel”. Day by day, Palestinian towns and their neighboring settlements start growing towards each other. Ramallah’s view is to those settlements, and those settlements’s view is directed at Ramallah. In a fair world, these settlements will merely be considered the more affluent neighborhoods of Ramallah.

Just as I demand that the Palestinian refugees must return home after sixty years of diaspora and the least reparation they deserve is a true and honest apology for denying them the right to their original homes and rightfully owned land; equally, I do not wish that young Israeli children be denied the right to grow up in their towns of birth. This would prove to be a new failure to both sides. But more importantly, a failure to the coexistence the world is so desperately in need of.

A lesson I learned from simply being Palestinian is that coexistence does have a place among versatile minds and that it must be given a fair chance. The 1967 war might have been a disaster to the Arab armies and to a certain nationalist Arab dream, but it made the Holy Land once again united as one. Anyone living there  had a chance to move freely between Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth.

Perhaps this was what disturbed another certain nationalist Zionist dream: one that did not wish for a peaceful coexistence While few Palestinians and few Jewish people saw the potential of living in a Holy Land that was once again united. 

The two-state solution is a passé in light of the intricately intertwined settlements in the natural fabric of the West Bank Landscape and the current autonomous “cantons” where the Palestinians live. The two-state solution can only be achieved if Israel decided to dismantle settlements many of which have grown into actual functioning towns and cities. Another solution would be for the Palestinians to continue living in their Bantustans and counterfeiting independence while in fact still be completely reliant on Israel, an outsider power, in all matters of survival yet not enjoying most of the most basic rights granted to Israeli citizens, making it impossible to have a permanent final solution.

The one state solution will resolve this dilemma. A South African call for a one-man one-vote. Palestinians spared full-expulsion during the war for Israeli independence were years later granted Israeli passports and provided an example for peaceful coexistence regardless of inhumane martial law that went on for over 17 years following the creation of Israel and often racial discrimination.

We must now promote coexistence and expose racial segregation. Separating both people into racially-dominant countries will only be a true failure for the notion of peaceful human coexistence and if achieved will only create deeper animosity (especially among the to-be uprooted nearly half million settlers and the three million Palestinian refugees who are most likely not going to be rooted back in their original homes inside of the internationally-recognized borders of Israel).  The one-state solution/ or a binational state maybe too idealistic, but it is also the only viable solution for a lasting peace in the Middle East. 
Back to that wedding in the Tulkarm Refugee Camp, it blasted on into the early morning hours. Near-by, the lights of Netanya (Israel's closest major cosmopolitan city to Tulkarm) were glittering in silence.