A move from the dominance of the territorial struggle to a redefinition of the national struggle, from the discourse of self-determination to that of freedom and democracy, provides one way out. If history cannot serve as a common basis for legitimisation, let us consider doing so on the basis of mutuality and equality. In other words, on the basis of equal political and civic rights in one state, with one-man, one-vote.
One can almost hear the sheer panic in former prime minister Ehud Barak's voice as he argues that the Palestinians may demand not two states for two peoples, but one state west of the Jordan river: "But," he warns, "that single state will have to be in the spirit of the 21st century: democratic, secular, one-man, one-vote. One-man, one-vote? Remind you of something? Yes. South Africa. And that's no accident. It's precisely their intention."
As it happens, having espoused the two states for some three decades, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority are desperately clinging to the fading prospects of a viable partition. But let us suppose that the Palestinians do "demand" one-man, one-vote as in South Africa. What is the argument against?
Barak is not alone in not really having an answer. The best that the influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman can do is caution his American Jewish readers that if they think it is hard to defend Israel on college campuses today, "imagine what it will be like when their kids have to argue against the principle of one-man, one-vote".
(Ahmad Samih Khalidi, "A One-State Solution: A Unitary Arab-Jewish Homeland Could Bring Lasting Peace to the Middle East," _The Guardian_, Monday September 29, 2003, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1051598,00.html>. Ahmad Samih Khalidi, <aswk at yahoo.com>, is a Palestinian writer and former negotiator and a senior associate member of St Antony's College, Oxford.) *****
-- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>