Sixty years ago the Palestinians suffered their Nakba
(catastrophe), which led to many fleeing or being expelled to
neighboring Arab countries, but they continue to nurse the dream of
returning home and of having a state of their own. Upon the
devastation of Palestinian lives, the Jewish people realized their
own dream with the creation of the state of Israel, their
deliverance from persecution in Europe and their return to their
land after 2,000 years of exile, according to the biblical
tradition. So far, the Palestinians, Jews, Arabs and the
international community have failed to make peace and stability
prevail in the historic land of Palestine. Five wars have followed
the 1948 war and dozens of resolutions have been passed and as many
negotiations projects set in motion, but these only brought more
destruction and exacerbated the hatred and rancor on both sides. A
major reason for this failure is the fact that these negotiations
and agreements have been dominated by vested interests and the
balance of power, ensuring the continuation of Israel's occupation
of the whole of historic Palestine and leaving the Palestinian
people without so much as full autonomy.
Historic Palestine was the property of its people: the Palestinians
- Muslims, Christians and Jews who lived together in peace and
harmony. However, the Zionist movement inspired religious
nationalist Jews to exercise total sovereignty over the land of
Palestine - not only for purposes of worship - to the extent that
many believe the land of Israel extends from the Euphrates to the
Nile. The religious Muslims and the nationalist Arabs, for their
part, dream of the liberation of the whole of historic Palestine
from the river to the sea, denying any right for the Jews there.
What solution could then bridge the chasm between these two
extremes without leading to further bloodshed and suffering? Any
just and peaceful solution must be firmly anchored in respect for
human rights as well as respect for the national aspirations of
both sides to the conflict.
The Historic Land of Palestine
It is a given that freedom of religion cannot be denied either on
religious grounds or by international charters. Thus, the Muslims'
belief that the land of Palestine is Muslim and a Muslim waqf
cannot be disputed; by the same token, the Jews' belief in the
biblical land of Israel cannot be disputed, either. Even the
geopolitical concept that Palestine is Muslim or the biblical land
of Israel cannot be contested because it, too, springs from the
same religious conviction.
Political Sovereignty and Individual and Collective
Property
With all the failed negotiations throughout the decades, it has
become imperative to change the bases of the negotiations, to
eschew short-term utilitarian approaches and to seek solutions
predicated on the respect for human rights on the individual and
collective levels. The suggested principles below could form a
basis for the achievement of a genuine and lasting peace:
1. The recognition by Israel and the Palestinians that both
sides have a right to self-determination. This recognition should
be public, frank and unequivocal. Thus, each side will recognize
the other's right to a political, cultural and religious
identity.
2. The right of the Palestinians and the Jews to a state of
their own is an expression of their right to self-determination. It
does not suggest the seizure by one side of the property of the
other in order to establish a state on it.
3. The historical narrative and the divergent ideologies of
the Palestinians and the Jews regarding Palestine - being either
Muslim and a Muslim waqf, or the biblical land of Israel - are not
subject to change since they are integral to the belief systems of
each side.
4. The cycle of violence and the imposition of solutions by
force cannot produce a lasting and sustainable peace between the
two sides.
5. Any peace between Palestinians and Israelis has to be
fair and just and provide the greatest number of individual and
collective rights to each side, especially with regard to Jerusalem
and the refugees.
6. Israelis and Palestinians sharing sovereignty over the
historic land of Palestine in a just and equitable manner is the
only practical way out of the conflict, ending the cycle of
violence.
7. The Jews and the Palestinian refugees who have emigrated
or fled from their country of origin must regain their full rights
to the properties they left behind, have their nationalities
restored, and be allowed to return to their countries of origin
whenever they so wish.
8. The final agreement should provide means guaranteeing the
protection of the national identity of the Israeli and Palestinian
minorities remaining on either side.
9. The final agreement is to be signed by the State of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leading to
the establishment of a democratically elected government of the
Palestinian state.
10. Any subsequent conflict arising between the Palestinians
and the Israelis should be solved in accordance with the principles
of justice and equity.
The Currently Proposed Solution: The Two States
Since the solution on the table at the moment is the two-state
solution, it is best to work within the parameters of this proposed
solution:
* Borders
The maximum demands of the Palestinian policymakers at this stage
is to secure international and Israeli recognition of the right of
the Palestinian people to a state of their own, with East Jerusalem
as its capital, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution
242; the dismantlement of the Jewish settlements; and the return of
the Palestinian refugees to their homeland according to a just
solution based on UN General Assembly Resolution 194. On the other
hand, Israel has fragmented the whole West Bank and split it
completely from the Gaza Strip, politically and geographically. And
even an Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state according to
United States President George W. Bush's vision is recognition on
paper only - and it comes with former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's 14 reservations.
It is this writer's contention that a just solution cannot be based
on the intertwining of UN Resolutions 242 and 194 because of the
issue of refugees, the availability of the land area and the Jewish
settlements. The ambiguity of Resolution 242 - withdrawal from "the
territory" or "territories" - is now common knowledge. Sadly, the
legal interpretation adopted so far depends on the balance of power
and not on justice. Even if Resolution 242 is adopted, the
Palestinian state will, in the best-case scenario, be on only 22%
of historic Palestine, which cannot absorb all the Palestinians
from the Diaspora - neither on the physical nor the demographic
levels. Therefore, far from leading to a lasting solution,
Resolution 242 will turn Palestine into a tin of sardines, without
natural resources, without hinterlands, and without a viable
economy. This is a recipe for war between it and Israel, albeit at
a later stage.
* The Palestinian Refugees and Resolution 194
The Palestinians have been claiming the right of return for the
past 60 years, and, as a civil society, we will keep on doing so.
However, the Palestinian negotiators must also have at hand
alternatives and suggestions that can be implemented on the ground.
The path of war is no more a strategic option for the Arab nations,
not even as deterrence. The only remaining option is that of peace,
and in order to put in place an implementation mechanism, the
following incontrovertible facts must be considered:
1. The right of return, individual or collective, cannot be
implemented peaceably except with Israel's consent.
2. Assuming Israel allows the refugees to return within its
present borders, the result will be only more suffering for the
refugees:
a. The refugees who will return to Israel will still be refugees in
their own country. After 60 years of hardship and exile, they will
once again find themselves without a Palestinian nationality, and
out of our own free will we will foist upon them the Israeli
nationality with all this entails: military service, raising the
Israeli flag and singing the Hatikva (the Israeli national
anthem).
b. For the Israelis this solution constitutes a demographic threat
of which Israel is extremely wary. The future demographic imbalance
inside Israel will eventually lead to a civil war between
Palestinians and Israelis - unless Israel becomes a democratic
state for all its citizens and not a Jewish state.
It should be noted that UN Resolution 181- which the Jews accepted
at the time - is the basis for the establishment of an Arab state
alongside a Jewish one, and it is the only resolution that gives
the Jews the right to establish a Jewish state. Now Israel wants to
wrest international recognition for a Jewish state on 78% of the
land in the eventuality of a settlement based on Resolution 242.
The recognition at this stage of the Jewishness of the state gives
Israel the right to transfer to a future Palestinian state the
Arabs who have remained in Israel, or to engage in land swaps that
lack international legality, but will be a solution imposed by the
stronger party on the weaker. In this context, a wise move for
Israel would be to relinquish the idea of a Greater Israel in favor
of a pure Jewish state on about 50% of the land of historic
Palestine. As for the Palestinian policymakers, they should put it
to Israel that its objective of having a Jewish state can
materialize only through its recognition and implementation of the
Partition Plan.
* The Foundations for an Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Agreement
An Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement must incorporate basic
principles for a sustainable resolution and for the dissemination
of a culture of peace between the two sides.
1. Building a culture of peace among the Jewish
people:
a. The conviction that the Palestinians are a people who deserve
self-determination and have the right to a viable state with full
sovereignty over its land, sea and air;
b. A public recognition of this fact and its dissemination among
the Jewish people inside and outside Israel;
c. The recognition that the creation of the State of Israel is the
prime cause for the Nakba of the Palestinian people. Implicit is
the admission that Israel drove the Palestinians out and
appropriated their lands and properties for its creation;
d. The recognition of the right of the Palestinians of historic
Palestine to their individual properties and Israel's obligation to
register said properties in their names;
e. The recognition of the principle of the right of return for the
Palestinian refugees and for their compensation for the ordeal they
have endured for 60 years; and
f. Convincing the Jewish people of the necessity of concluding a
just peace that will include solving the problematic issues of
Jerusalem, the refugees and the settlements.
2. Building a culture of peace among the Palestinian
people:
a. The recognition that the Jewish people have the right to
self-determination;
b. The recognition that the Jewish people have the right to a
Jewish state, with the proviso that they respect the national,
religious and cultural rights of the minorities in it;
c. The recognition of an Israeli state within borders agreed upon
in a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians;
d. The undertaking not to drive out or dispossess the Jews in
retaliation for what has befallen the Palestinian refugees;
and
e. The recognition of the right of the Jews to return to the Arab
countries from which they have fled.
Only a peaceful solution to the conflict based on mutual rights,
will put an end to the violence and suffering on both sides, and
will lay down the foundations for the prosperity and well-being of
the two peoples.