The Possibility of a One-State Solution in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Perspectives and Challenges

Jakarta –

Israel and Palestine is at war. Indonesia expressed its support two-state solution or ‘two-state solution‘, namely supporting the establishment of the State of Palestine and the State of Israel which coexist peacefully. Apart from that, there is also the idea of ​​’one country’ or ‘one-state solution’.

Edward Said, a Palestinian-American political activist and thinker in post-colonial studies, argued that a ‘one-state solution’ is the best solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. In his writing in The New York Times, January 10, 1999, he envisioned the establishment of a new state that does not discriminate and treats Jews and Arabs equally.

However, Edward Said’s dream country must be a democratic and secular country, no longer carrying the sectarian concepts that have colored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The concept of Zionism is a dangerous concept that needs to be eradicated. In the future, people who live there will no longer be members of an ethnicity or race, but will be citizens living together.

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“Both the idea of ​​Greater Israel as the land of the Jews given to them by God and of Palestine as an Arab land that cannot be separated from the Arab homeland need to be reduced in scale and exclusivity,” wrote Edward Said.

He reflected on the political situation of apartheid (racism) in South Africa. If South Africa can try to create a country that is democratic and no longer racist, Israel and Palestine must also be able to. Edward Said admitted that Palestinians were ‘victims’ because they were victims of Jews who in the 1940s were affected by the Holocaust by the Nazis in Europe. Also, Palestinians are ‘refugees’ because they are refugees who are being pushed by the influx of Jewish immigrants from Europe fleeing the Holocaust, and also being pushed by the Zionist movement.

Is a one-state solution possible?

Lecturer in International Relations (HI) at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (Fisipol) UGM, Riza Noer Arfani, said that a ‘two-state solution’ is already difficult to realize, let alone a ‘one-state solution’. He also found no similarities between the conditions of apartheid South Africa and Israel-Palestine.

“The context is different. When Jews came to the region, they intended to establish a state. In 1947 the State of Israel was created with British assistance via the Balfour Declaration (1917),” said Riza to detikcom, Friday (3/11/2023).

UGM Faculty of Social and Political Sciences lecturer Riza Noer Arfani, Friday (27/10/2023). Photo: Long Day Wawan S/detikJogja

He considers the two-state solution to be more reasonable than the one-state solution. Unless what is meant by ‘a new state’ is the state of Israel which eliminates Palestine entirely, perhaps that could be a humanitarian horror which certainly should not happen. On the other hand, democratic ‘one country’ is like a utopia.

“The one state solution of establishing a democratic state is even more impossible. Rather impossible,” said Riza.

Professor Hikmahanto Juwana, Professor of International Law at the University of Indonesia (UI), also does not view the ‘one-state solution’ as a real solution. He estimates that Palestine does not want to form a democratic state with Israel.

“Palestine is the one who doesn’t want to be certain. How come the land of the Palestinian people is being shared. What is the form of government? Israel founded its state on the land of the Palestinian people,” said Hikmahanto.

UI International Law Professor Hikmahanto Juwana in a discussion on ‘Citizens Without Citizens’ at the Para Syndicate office, Jakarta, Friday (19/8/2016) Photo: Ari Saputra

As for Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip and has an active paramilitary wing, actually also wants to establish ‘one state’, but not a democratic-secular state but just Palestine. Hamas is an Islamist organization. Iran, a country that diligently defends resistance against Israel, also rejects the ‘two-state solution’.

“Palestine stretches from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean), no less,” said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as reported by Al Jazeera on October 2 2011.

PFLP or Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the communist faction in Palestine, rejects the two-state solution. The PFLP wants to establish a democratic and secular state. Muammar Gaddafi’s son from Libya, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi, once put forward the concept of a one-state solution called ‘Isratin’ or ‘Israel-Palestine’, namely a bi-national, secular and federal state.

(dnu/isa)

2023-11-03 15:33:20
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