Forward to the past: the 'one-state solution': Jonathan Spyer provides an Israeli perspective on the Israel--Palestine conflict.

• Author: Spyer, Jonathan
• Position: Commentary on article by Hugh Steadman, 'Solving the Palestinian problem'

One of the by-products of the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process of the 1990s has been the reemergence into public debate of older strategies for the solution of that conflict. Perhaps most noticeable among these is the strange re-birth of the Arab nationalist idea of the dismantling of Israel as a proposed method for the final settling of the dispute. This idea, which has come packaged throughout the years in various ideological and theoretical costumes, was present in muted form also at the height of the Oslo process. Since September 2000, however, it has returned to a prominent place in discussion in Palestinian and pro-Palestinian circles in the West and the Arab world. The recent article by Hugh Steadman, 'Solving the Palestinian problem' (NZIR vol 30, no 2), represents one of the latest additions to the already considerable literature advocating this position.

This position, which has had various names throughout its long career and is now generally known as the 'one- state solution', has not yet returned to its former status as the official stance of Palestinian nationalism. Nevertheless, support for it among Palestinian intellectuals is high. The recent political advancement of the Islamist Hamas movement among the Palestinians is likely to increase the focus on it. Hamas, of course, has remained a steady opponent of the idea of Palestinian rapprochement with the Jewish national movement throughout. It has consistently and unambiguously advocated the replacement of Israel by an Arab state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Hamas would like such a state to be an Islamic Waqf (endowment). (1) But it shares with the secular advocates of this idea a central assumption: namely, that for peace in the Middle East to become a possibility, one of the disputant sides--the Israeli Jewish side--must surrender its sovereignty, with its people entering an uncertain future as a subject population to victorious Palestinian nationalism.

This is a curious, counter-intuitive idea. Conflict resolution, after all, usually consists of a messy compromise which entirely satisfies neither side. The idea of the two-state solution, favoured by the international community, represents such a compromise. The 'solution' advocated by Steadman, however, would involve the complete victory of one of the disputant sides, and the disappearance of the other (of its own volition, apparently) as a sovereignty bearing nation. This idea has deep roots in Palestinian and broader Arab national thought, which must first be considered if it is to be understood.

Approved goal The termination of the Jewish state of Israel, and its replacement by a Palestinian Arab state was the openly declared intention of Palestinian nationalism in its earliest incarnations. Thus, the Palestinian National Charter, adopted by the fourth PNC in July 1968, (2) declares its ambition as the 'liberation' of Palestine in order to 'destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence'. This liberation is to take place via the means of 'armed struggle' and, it is implied, will result in the departure from the country of all Jews not resident in it before the Balfour Declaration of 1917.

The charter explicitly rejects 'all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine'. It also clearly bears the influences of the pan-Arab nationalism prominent at the time. The Arab nation is called upon to 'mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine'. Jewish claims of historical or religious attachments in the land are described as 'incompatible with the facts of history' and indeed the very claims to peoplehood of the Jews are derided and dismissed.

The PLO itself was formed in Cairo in 1964 (three years prior to Israel's assumption of control over the West Bank and Gaza). But the Palestinian National Charter of 1968 is the first serious attempt to codify the aims of Palestinian nationalism. It does this in stark terms. The aim outlined in it is the nullification of Israel's sovereignty, which is seen as based on a false premise--namely, the claim of the Jews to peoplehood. Since Israeli-Jewish nationhood is seen as fraudulent, it follows that the generally accepted rights of bona fide...