Palestinians are a fact.

When analyzing a conflict, one can look at it from different perspectives. In this post, I will be highlighting a brief view of the practical part of it.

Palestinians and Israelis live in constant state of conflict. Although recently, the major weight has been focused on the Palestinian side rather than the Israeli due to the technological advancement the Latter has and the security measures it takes to protect its citizens. But the question remains until when such measures will be present. No state in the world can maintain such status to protect its people from neighbouring people that live door to door with each other.

Palestinians represent around 4 million -without Arab Israelis- in West Bank and Gaza, it seems at least for me impossible to drive this population out of Historical Palestine and replace them by Israelis. The story differs from 1948 for a number of reasons:

- The Palestinian nationalism has grown, a Palestinian idenity is well shaped and can't be wiped out at all. Palestinians exist whether in Palestine, Israel or outside of both. They are people with different religions, people who share same past and to some extent similar future.

- Movement across borders is not as easy as it used to be before. In 1948, many Palestinians were forced to leave and took Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt as refugee states. The situation is different these days. Neither Jordan nor any of the states above allow Palestinians to settle in meaning that the former will remain in either West Bank or Gaza Strip. And to answer the argument that may say the Palestinians can immigrate to Europe or the US, it seems somehow impossible. First, people in the occupied territories suffer economic exploitation meaning that they might not have the funds nor the assests to obtain degrees or start investments that may allow them to immigrate outside. Second, whether Europe or the US are squeezing their immigration laws in order to limit outside immigration. Therefore it looks hard for me to believe the Palestinians have somewhere else to go to other that Occupied Palestine.

-Palestinians are recognized as people by the International Law meaning that they exist legally and in the eyes of the international community. Ince people are recognized it means that they are entitled to have a state of their own. A state with it's full meaning under International Law.

If Palestinians are here to remain, then we would either encounter a two state solution or a one state solution. Let's assume that the former is what we are looking for. It won't happen for a number of reasons:

- Israel seems to ignore International Law and signed treaties by expanding the settelment activitiy and reducing the possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state.

-Israel doesn't seem to want a Palestinian state since it doesn't allow what is present now: Palestinian Authority to practice any kind of statehood but rather just an authority over specific number of people living in specific number of cities. It is similar to a sherrif operating under the supervision of a bigger authority. Meaning that this authority is here to manage administrative tasks and not any bigger involvement similar to any government of any state.

- Even after the signing of Oslo which implies the recognition of the Palestinians as people therefore entitled to statehood, Israel seems to have problems in accepting that. Looking at the maps Israel promote for itself always include the occupied territories and the Golan Heights. This indicates that although an agreement was signed, at least with the PLO for the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel considers them as part of it state. The question here is: What about the people living in those areas, i.e. Palestinians? As mentioned above, it seems hard to see them leaving or going anywhere else. Israel can not take part of the package and leave the other, if it wants the West Bank and gaza Strip, it should take it with its people meaning incorporating them into the Israeli society as Palestinians. These Palestinians at some point, probably fast enough will connect with the Arab Israeli of 1948 thus creating a bigger national versus Jewish Israeli. This is true, if Israel doesn't want this to happen, then it must insue the creation of a viable Palestinian state on West Bank and Gaza Strip. Another question lies here: Is it still an option? Might be too late for sure an option due to the existence of the settlements randomly in the West Bank and also the fact the The West Bank and gaza Strip are disconnected geographically which might make the creation of a central government a hard task to achieve. Yet Palestinians need to have a state.

Therefore Israel might have to start considering the creation of a one state with Israelis and Palestinians being part of it under a new kind of nationalism. A new form that requires the re-thinking of the concepts of citizenship and democracy that are currently present in the state of Israel.

Do you believe in a One State Solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict? Do you believe in a Bi-National State? Or do you believe in One-Man One-Vote Democracy? Do you believe that the 'Oslo' peace process have failed and with it the idea of a Two-State Solution? Do you believe in equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis under one state? Do you believe in coexistence?

Contrary to popular understanding, the idea of a one-state as an alternative or a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not first emerge after the failure to implement a two-state solution after ‘Oslo’ agreement in 1993.  Rather, it is an idea that originated with Jewish thinkers as Martin Buber before the establishment of the state of Israel and was considered during the early phases of the conflict. After the establishment of Israel, the idea lost its popularity among Israeli politicians; yet the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) adopted a variation of the notion during the late 1960’s and 1970’s.  However, the idea did not gain momentum on the international scene. The idea of a one-state solution has been repeatedly proposed by different parties over different periods of time yet has never gained enough momentum to be considered as an actual possibility or alternative.  A question that follows is: Why?  

In the period after the signing of the Oslo peace agreement in 1993 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, both parties continue to struggle for an acceptable solution. The two-state solution was given a chance to be implemented after ‘Oslo’ however it was considered a failure by many. I quote Sari Nussiebeh when he said “I know that people assume the sun will rise tomorrow, that it will always be possible to arrive at two states, but I don’t think so.” If Israeli and Palestinian leaders fail to sign an agreement on Palestinian statehood in the coming weeks or months, he said, “We will have to prepare ourselves for the next stage.” Today, the idea of a one-state has re-emerged as a solution to the conflict after the failure of previous solutions in establishing two independent states not to mention that Israel, practically does control the daily lives of the Palestinians which highlights the failure of the Palestinian Authority and certain level of integration between both sides.