The Failure of the Two-State Solution – The Prospects of One-State in Israel/Palestine
Pub: IB Tauris 2013, pp 336, with bibliography, index, footnotes etc
Ed Professor Hani A Faris
This book presents nineteen essays, nearly all by academics and scholars, from Israel and Palestine and the wider world. It examines the prospects and problems for both two-state and one-state solutions.
Its starting point is the divided nature of the Palestinian nation, with 1.2 million people is Israel, some 3.9 millions in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and 5.2 millions as external refugees or in the wider diaspora.
It points out that the mere establishment of a state in the West Bank and Gaza will not of itself resolve the future of the refugees or the inferior status of the Palestinians in Israel.
It throws interesting light on the Misrahi, or oriental Jews in Israel, and the role of women among them. Could they combine with Palestinians to demand social justice for all?
The authors encourage both Jews and Gentiles to use moral imagination in perceiving the Jewish people and faith as universalists, blessing both the Middle East and the wider world. This has indeed been the vision of some of the greatest Jews of recent times.
The essays are particularly noteworthy. Salman H Abu Sitta argues that the State of Israel could in fact accommodate a large proportion of the Palestinian refugees, since only 11% of the land surface is populated, leaving 89% for all other uses (of which agriculture only occupies 14.2%).
Professor Ghada Karmi urges the need for a worldwide One Nation campaign and draws parallels with the Anti-Apartheid Campaign, which helped to end white supremacy in South Africa, by insisting on equal citizenship for all. Other authors expose the complete dependence of the Palestinian Authority on funds from outside, and Israel’s manipulation of East Jerusalem.
This is a book that may widen all horizons and help to prevent the future of the Palestinian refugees being forever forgotten
The diaspora of any nation can scarcely be included in considerations of what is best for it, without any affectation.
I would make an exception of that for all those Jordanians who are Palestinian, but they might not. Those Jordanians might now merely consider themselves to be Arab in the context of supporting Palestine, and otherwise Jordanian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizrahi_Jews
Interesting subject indeed. Aramaic, Arabic speaking Jews, Ashkenazi immigrants, 1m of them.
I am tempted to remind everybody of the state building of the
very successful neo-Jewish state of Utah, whose fundamentalist Zionist believers have now declared Cowen, Coen, Cohen tribe to be the fourth tribe of their brand of the Abrahamic faiths.
I wonder whether this has anything to do with the huge losses suffered by Jackohens, the leading international and UK
supermarket chain, when they ventured in to the Californian fresh food market with several hundred stores known as
“Fresh’nEasy”. The number of Mormons
in California needs to be calculated to determine how much of those happy losses found their way back to the Mecca/Jerusalem of SLC (Salt Lake City)for further research in to the genealogies of the tribes of Israel.
I always thought their profits went to Israel, but now I know better!!!
Noah is still invoked for the people of the West Countries of UKfor the time being.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html
Gentiles may be encouraged by this.