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Follow Us on TwitterELLIS: What comes next – the Jewish/Palestinian Diaspora 19Oct13 October 19, 2013
by Marc H Ellis - MONDOWEISS - 16 October 2013
This post is part of “What Comes Next?: A forum on the end of the two-state paradigm.” This series was initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace as an investigation into the current state of thinking about one state and two state solutions, and the collection has been further expanded by Mondoweiss to mark 20 years since the Oslo process. The entire series can be found here.
There is no doubt in my mind that any resolution of the Israel/Palestine imbroglio will involve Israel as a state and a Jewish one at that – whatever that means beyond a Jewish majority or empowered minority within the boundaries of Israel.
I’m not saying such a resolution is right or just. Still, the search for a way out of a “Jewish” state is misguided. Put simply, it’s a waste of time.
Israel isn’t going down and it won’t be abandoned. No political player in the Middle East wants Israel to cease to exist. The Western world won’t allow it. The desire of these two regions for Israel’s continued existence has similar and different rationales. Nonetheless, they have come together in a bond unlikely to break apart for the foreseeable future.
Where Israel’s borders will be remains indeterminate and, as even John Kerry has pointed out, that’s a problem for Israel to maintain a Jewish majority. But Israel could cease to have a Jewish majority and still control the political and economic system. Nonetheless, the nub of Israel’s expansionist problems resides with demographics. As with any state, Israel’s ethical concerns are confined to thinkers and activists without power.
No doubt Israel will keep the issue of final borders open as long as it can. This means that Palestine will continue to disappear. In this scenario what comes next is impossible to predict. What may be next will partially be determined by when “next” is. The longer the various peace processes drag on the less Palestine there will be.
Though Palestine is disappearing, Palestinians remain. This means that Palestine Without Borders is coming into existence. In a Palestine without borders the Palestinian population continues to increase within an expanded Israel. If there is already one state, Israel stretching from Tel Aviv to the Jordan River, there are more Palestinians than ever before under Israeli control and living, however unjustly, with Jewish Israelis.
This non-separation is disguised for now by a policy of apartheid, one that continues to gain strength and reach in Israeli politics. But the seeds of non-separation were there from the beginning – within the recognized borders of Israel. Extending them now is foolhardy for those who want apartheid to be permanent. Nonetheless, Israel continues to forge forward. Israel believes that the future is hers.
Nadia Hajib’s take on things, is important. She leaves the overt political and nation-state arena for the moment and concentrates on grassroots foundations for social change: keeping Palestinians on the land, the continuing critique of Zionism, placing a cost on occupation and discrimination and educating around the One State option. On the One State option, she makes an important observation: “While much is known about what a two-state solution would look like, if it could be achieved, less is known about one-state. It would be important to address fears that one-state would lead to the elimination of Israel – it wouldn’t. But it would challenge ethno-religious privilege, which has no place in either one or two states. Whichever one supports as the hoped for solution, that is a vital point to make.”
Working without a political framework – the title and theme of her reflection – is crucial. But what binds the framework people are working with? What is that framework? Does it evolve or need to be constructed? What will keep people committed to the framework over the long haul and in the face of intense criticism and physical actions against it?
Over the past months many theories about resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been floated. All come up short. The deficiencies are palpable, especially when they rely on overt political formula. The ones that seem reasonable and have the least possibility of success feature “common interests” themes. The common interests of Israelis and Palestinians – ecology, liberal politics and religious fundamentalism – can go either way. They’re more likely to go nowhere. Projecting common interest themes into political reality, would Israel/Palestine be more likely to end up as a liberal secular society or a regressive fundamentalist bulwark?
There are no easy answers but one possible framework to work on is the linkage between Jews and Palestinians in Israel/Palestine and Jews and Palestinians in their respective Diasporas. What might evolve is a Jewish/Palestinian Diaspora that features Jews and Palestinians all over the world who seek a more just and equal way of life in whatever political framework Israel/Palestine moves toward. Thus today’s political framework is bypassed but the possibility of influencing a future political framework is preserved. In any case, in the Jewish/Palestinian Diaspora, Jewish and Palestinian concerns, values and ethics can be spoken and enacted in the face of the violence and oppression of the present political reality.
Where there are no options forward, keeping hope alive is crucial. In Israel/Palestine there will be another day. The Jewish/Palestinian Diaspora has to be ready for that day.
Marc H. Ellis is an author, liberation theologian, and Associate Fellow to the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace, Costa Rica.
Thank You.
