#one-state

A simple Israel-Palestine one-state flag

When people say they want a two state solution to the Palestinian Question what they are in fact calling for is a three state solution - Israel, West Bank and Gaza (and indeed that is effectively what we now have).  The study of how nation-states formed, sustained themselves or failed suggests that logistically, physically and politically, the concept of one nation-state of Palestine separated into two geographically distant parts and with a hostile nation between them is not a recipe for long term stability or viability.  Returning to the 1967 borders, even if Israel respected those borders, would seem at first like some kind of belated justice but where is the justice in re-establishing a nation divided from the onset?

I used to call for a 'One-State Solution' but now I realise that the only way to make that work would be to neutralise Jerusalem as a symbolic capital of Israel or Palestine.  Jerusalem would have to be its own independent nation-city-state as I have depicted in this image.  If Jerusalem is separate then what I am proposing becomes a two-state solution of Palestine, State of Israel and Jerusalem, International City of Faith.

However, for this solution to work, Israel would have to accept a new name, the Palestinian right to return (if not to original homes then at least to the country as equal citizens) and would have to write a new inclusive constitution that guarantees equal political and legal rights for all citizens regardless of faith, colour, origin or ethnicity.  It would mean new laws, new passports and new infrastructure such as changing signs to be at least bi if not tri-lingual (Hebrew, Arabic and maybe English)

This is actually a big deal. Ariel is essentially a settlement-city in the middle of the West Bank. The controversy really embodies the political rift in Israeli society at the moment, but its further evidence of how the current government's policies are killing the viability of a two-state solution.

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Tuesday, July 17 2012|Dahlia Scheindlin

Blithely ignoring a bitter academic and political controversy, the Committee for Higher Education (CHE) in Judea and Samaria voted Tuesday evening to grant the Ariel University Center of Samaria (also referred to as Ariel College) the status of a fully accredited university. After a few more formalities, the West Bank institute, established in 1982, is expected to be accredited beginning this autumn.

Along with the Ariel Cultural Center, this decision drives home Israel’s permanence in the West Bank. It also represents the bizarre military takeover of academia – since formally the IDF commander of the Central Command, the highest authority in the West Bank, has to approve the accreditation. For those who have never lived under occupation, there has rarely been a policy move that looked and felt so much like the actions of a military regime. Further, the new University will surely cater exclusively to Israeli citizens, as it does today. In other words, within the West Bank, it serves the minority and dismisses the minority – call that what you will.

As the school celebrated – animated fireworks burst cheerily on its website – a wide range of outraged public figures lashed out on both political and professional grounds. Earlier this yearone thousand professors signed a letter opposing the move, concerned about the inability to fund Israel’s seven existing, cash-starved universities.  Remarkably, the head of the Weizmann Institute of Science said that he would boycott the college should recognition be approved, Haaretz reported. To face down this opposition, Finance Minister announced that he had personally earmarked NIS 100 million for the college so that the money would not come from the education budget. “He set that money aside some time ago,” said Beni Reuven Levy, Dean of the School of Architecture, proudly, in a phone interview Tuesday evening. It’s hard to imagine where that money did come from.

Manuel Trajtenberg, the erstwhile government emissary to the J14 protest, is the chairman of the government’s Budget and Planning Committee. He was so incensed at what he viewed as a purely political move devoid of all pretenses of professionalism, that he sent an angry memo to the head of CHE-Judea/Samaria, attacking its legitimacy and writing that the move would “fatally harm academia,” according to Haaretz.

Even the regular Committee for Higher Education opposed recognition. Luckily for the college, CHE’s authority does not extend to the West Bank. The Committee for Higher Education of Judea and Samaria was established in 1997 and stepped in handily. Education Minister Gidon Saar of Likud also gave the CHE-J/S full and public support.

Reporters from state-run media outlets could barely contain their excitement, treating the news as a sweeping national drama. “The Center has been waiting for this for years,” crowed the announcer on Reshet B radio, explaining without a trace of irony that the drive for recognition goes all the way back to 2005.

Dean Levy of the School of Architecture was in a very magnanimous mood Tuesday evening. He brushed aside accusations that the school is an exclusive institution for the ruling minority in the area: “It is 100 percent incorrect to say that.” He described the vast diversity of the student body, noting that the college has the highest percentage of Arabs of all Israeli schools, including some from East Jerusalem and surrounding villages. They all have blue Israeli ID cards. Palestinians? “The university is open to people from other places, but none of them ever applied. We assume that it’s because they are afraid of their neighbors, or for ideological reasons, but as far as we’re concerned, it’s open.”

Member of Knesset Zahava Galon, head of the Meretz party, scoffed at that. Ariel, she told me by phone, is off limits for Palestinians very simply because it is an Israeli-controlled settlement. Just as a West Bank Palestinian can’t go to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv easily, they are equally unwelcome in Ariel. For her, the move reeked of hypocrisy. “It’s a higher education committee approved by people in uniform, so what is the substantive meaning? It’s unbelievable.” She called it a sign of the government’s true program of “creeping annexation,” and remarked that it would legitimize the global movements calling for the academic boycott of Israel.