The Failure of the Two-State Solution

Diplomats, politicians and activists alike have long laboured under the assumption that a two-state solution is the only path to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But as this conflict continues unabated, and violence and instability deepen, it seems that the ideal of two states coexisting alongside each other and the ever-elusive goal of peace slip further from reach. The Failure of the Two-State Solution examines the impasse in the Israel-Palestine conflict, exploring the reasons behind the breakdown of attempts to establish a meaningful Palestinian state. This book therefore points to another - until recently unthinkable - option: a single bi-national state in Israel-Palestine, with all inhabitants sharing in equal rights and citizenship, regardless of ethnicity or faith. Hani A. Faris has drawn together a wide-ranging and in-depth analysis of the historical and current situation in Israel-Palestine. By analysing the history of the conflict in Israel-Palestine and its numerous peace initiatives, this book demonstrates how the current deadlock has been reached.
With a nascent Palestinian state hampered by Israeli security policy and internal political divisions and the continuing expansion of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, it is argued here that the viability of the two-state solution seems to have run its course. And so highlights the one-state solution as an option, and debates and develops the organisational steps and strategies, on a local and international level, that would enable the construction of a bi-national state. With scholars from the US, Europe, the Arab world and Israel analysing the possibility of a one-state solution and the shortcomings of the two-state track, this is an important and ground-breaking book for students of Politics, International Relations, Peace Studies and Middle East Studies and all interested in the resolution of this seemingly intractable conflict.

Auteur

Hani Faris is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science at The University of British Columbia. He has written extensively on Arab nationalism, the Middle East in world politics, Zionism, Lebanese politics, the history of the Palestinian issue and Third World development.

Contenu

1: Delimiting the One State Idea (Hani Faris)

PART I: Is the Two State Settlement Feasible?
2: The Deeper Politics of Jewish Settlements (Virginia Tilley)
3: A Radicalized Space: Social Engineering in Jerusalem (Saree Makdisi)
4: Building a Palestinian State under Occupation: Reassessing the Oslo Process (Husam Zomlot)
5: Is the Two State Solution Still Viable? An Overall Assessment of the Present Situation (Naseer Aruri)
6: Israel's War on Gaza: Zionism's Pyrrhic Victory? (Nancy Murray)

PART II: Ideologies and the Idea of a Historic Settlement
7: Deconstructing the Zionist Settler Narrative and Constructing an Alternative (Gabriel Piterberg)
8: In the Golden Age of Constantinian Judaism - The Future of the Indigenous Jewish Prophetic: Israel, Ethnic Particularism and Universalist Values (Marc Ellis)
9: Challenging the Consensus Favouring the Two-State Model (Ali Abunimah)
10: A Blueprint for a One-State Movement: A Troubled History (Ilan Pappe)

PART III: Practicalities in the Search for a Resolution of the Conflict
11: The Rights of Palestinian Refugees and Territorial Solutions in Historic Palestine (Susan Akram)
12: The Geographic and Demographic Imperatives of a Single State (Salman Abu Sitta)
13: Mizrahi Feminism and the Question of Palestine: Two States or One? (Smadar Lavie)

PART IV: Mobilisng for a Solution
14: Mobilising Palestinians in Support of One State (George Bisharat)
15: Mobilising Israel and the World Jewry for the One-State Solution (Norton Mezvinsky)
16: Palestinians in Israel and Binationalism: Escape from the Impasse (As'ad Ghanem)
17: Reversing Defeat Through Non-violent Power (Nadia Hijab)
18: Building Movements for the One-State Solution in Palestine and the Arab World (Leila Farsakh)
19: Awakening the American Conscience about Israel/Palestine (Joel Kovel)
20: Building an International Movement to Promote the One-State Solution (Ghada Karmi)

Appendix
Select Bibliography
Index