One Democratic State: Palestine, Israel, or Palestine-Israel?

By Alain Alameddine

Very similar to different colonial endeavors, Zionism has largely succeeded at making the colonization of Palestine concerning the colonizers relatively than the colonized.

Because of the evident failure of the two-state proposal and to the efforts of devoted Palestinians and allies, the “One Democratic State” resolution, the Palestinian individuals’s century-old imaginative and prescient for liberation of their land, is gaining traction once more each in Palestine and overseas.

But the query arises: what “One Democratic State” are we speaking about — Palestine, Israel, or Palestine-Israel? Does its identify even matter? What guiding ideas can assist us undertake and current a political narrative that’s each correct and efficient?

First of All, What’s the Land’s Identify?

The identify of the state administering the affairs of a society residing in a sure territory is, merely, the identify of that territory: The state ruling over Egypt is Egypt, the state ruling over France is France and the state ruling over Thailand is Thailand. What, then, is the identify of the land between the river and the ocean?

The reply to this query is much less contentious than one may suppose: Theodor Herzl, Arthur Balfour, the World Zionist Group, the British Mandate, and the League of Nations referred to as it Palestine. The “Jewish Company for Israel” was initially referred to as the “Jewish Company for Palestine”. Shimon Perez and Golda Meir held Palestinian citizenship. Certainly, Zionists know and admit that “Palestine” has been the land’s identify for over 2500 years.

So, the state’s identify needs to be Palestine — however does it actually matter?

Clearly, the institution of a secular, democratic state requires greater than a change of identify. It implies the whole dismantling of the entire legal guidelines, establishments, administration and insurance policies that discriminate in any method towards non-Jews and that make Israel the settler-colonial, Zionist state it’s.

This contains, amongst others, the “Fundamental Legislation” that states that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish individuals” and omitting any reference to the rights of any non-Jewish residents, the so-called “legislation of return” that discriminates towards non-Jewish non-citizens and allow the continued colonization of Palestine, the denial of the proper of return to tens of millions of Palestinian refugees, the theft of Palestinian land underneath the “Absentees’ Property Legislation” and the “Land Acquisition Legislation”, discriminatory land allotment and administration insurance policies (together with by the use of the Jewish Nationwide Fund and so-called admission committees), segregation when it comes to schooling, segregation when it comes to the distribution of assets and social welfare, tolerance of homicide of non-Jews by the IOF and so-called civilians, the blockade of Gaza, and numerous different elements of occupation (for the skeptical, right here’s a compilation of hyperlinks documenting all of those).

But, does the identify matter? Nicely, if it didn’t, the Zionists wouldn’t have modified it. Names have which means. “Israel”, a Hebrew phrase derived from Judaism and subsequently unique of non-Jews, completely represents the character of the present racist state. Talking of the “democratic state of Israel-Palestine” thus fails to push again towards the hegemony of the settler-colonial narrative.

As an alternative of presenting the battle as one in all natives’ liberation from settlers, it implies the colonizers and the colonized are on equal footing. This normalization with the Zionist narrative that focuses on “peace between two peoples” relatively than “peace via decolonization” additionally places the remainder of our liberation discourse, such because the natives’ proper to armed resistance towards their occupiers, at hazard.

Then again, “Palestine” refers, to not an Arabic or Islamic identification, however to a territory the place Palestinian Jews, Christians, Muslims and others have lived in concord for hundreds of years — proper till the creation of Israel. “Palestine” is thus an affidavit to the plural, multi-cultural historical past of Palestinian society, and a becoming identify to point the character of the democratic state that may operate, not as a battle machine unique to some, however as an equipment to manage the affairs of society, no matter how its residents select to establish.

However wouldn’t that make us lose assist amongst non-Palestinians, notably Jews?

Very similar to different colonial endeavors, Zionism has largely succeeded at making the colonization of Palestine concerning the colonizers relatively than the colonized. It’s straightforward for these politically lively outdoors of Palestine to fall into this entice, as they’re uncovered to political narratives that normalize the existence of a state unique to Jews, and as their “goal audiences” largely include non-Palestinians.

But, when discussing the liberation of Palestine —or of every other land, for that matter— it’s the native inhabitants that needs to be the point of interest of consideration. Failing to take action might garner extra assist from non-Palestinians, however solely on the expense of shedding Palestinian assist and/or “splintering” the Palestinian narrative of decolonization into contradictory and mutually unique narratives.

This stated, talking of a Palestinian state won’t value us the assist of honest non-Palestinians. Let’s put issues outdoors their colonial context: Would non-Belgians who transfer to Belgium or are born there object to the existence or sovereignty of the Belgian state?

Fairly the opposite, reliable residency in a land or naturalization there may be contingent on one’s recognition and assist of the state of the land. In a non-colonial context, non-Palestinians wishing to dwell in Palestine can be welcome to take action underneath the sovereignty of the Palestinian state, i.e. in compliance with its legal guidelines and migration and naturalization insurance policies.

Decolonization implies, merely, a return to Palestine’s pure state of affairs: Palestinian sovereignty on Palestinian land. Any objection to it might subsequently appear to stem from Zionist hegemony that normalizes, not the mere presence of Jews in Palestine (which has been the case for millenia), however the existence of a state unique to Jews in Palestine.

By selecting a reputation aside from the land’s identify, Israel really went even additional than most different colonial endeavors: France dared not change Algeria’s identify to some French identify, the European colons nonetheless referred to as their u.s. the USA of America, and the Afrikaans nonetheless referred to as their apartheid state South Africa. Zionism’s effrontery is not any cause to tone our liberation discourse down. Fairly the opposite. As an alternative of surrendering to the colonial narrative, our liberation discourse ought to search to proper the incorrect by calling a cat a cat, calling settler-colonization settler-colonization, and calling Palestine Palestine.

Relatively than viewing the native Palestinian narrative as an impediment to democracy, justice and peace, allow us to view it as a possibility to current a counter-hegemonic narrative that’s utterly free of identitarianism. To be able to justify its colonization of Palestine, Zionism has obscured actuality by claiming that “Palestinian” and “Jews” are mutually unique phrases.

The fact of the matter is that “Palestinian” refers back to the society residing in Palestine, together with Jews, whereas “Jewish” refers to a person’s faith, tradition or identification, whatever the society they belong to; and that the colonization of Palestine shouldn’t be a non secular battle or a conflict of civilization, however relatively the political alternative of quite a lot of non-natives to supplant a local society as an alternative of integrating it.

It’s this alternative that’s on the root of a cycle of injustice and violence that may solely be ended by the defeat of the settler-colonial enterprise of Israel and the institution of the plural, inclusive, democratic state of Palestine, for all its residents, from the river to the ocean.

– Alain Alameddine is a member of Lebanese political celebration Residents in a State and an activist within the One Democratic State Initiative. They contributed this text to The Palestine Chronicle.