Khalidi’s One-State Democracy

Ahmad Samih Khalidi wrote a concise case for a one-state solution, in the Guardian, in 2003. It’s short enough so here I merely want to highlight some points and offer some thoughts:

-Khalidi talks about “the Zionist left’s continuous attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable”. Who are left Zionist’s? Those aiming to consolidate a Jewish State more or less at the pre-1967 borders. Get it? Critics of Israel, be they Jewish or not are Zionist critics to the extent that they take a position that inevitably entails accepting (tacitly or explicitly) a Jewish majority State in Palestine even though this can only occur “at the expense of Palestinian Arab rights.” (Gilad Atzmon’s criticism of the Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) fits in with this thinking on Zionism. For Atzmon, the IJV is simply Zionism with a different face. One that doesn’t much serve the Palestinian cause but rather one version of the Zionist cause). Given this definition of Zionism, who then would be an anti-Zionist? Those that think Palestine ought to be shared equitably between Jews and Palestinians? Those that think a majority of Palestinians (Christian, Jewish and Muslim) ought to determine the character of this one State be it secular or otherwise?

- Khalidi states that, “The question of whether Zionism can be reconciled with democracy has always been at the heart of the debate on the Palestinian problem.” This much seems certain. Israel is struggling to find a means to ensure it remains both a majority Jewish State and a democratic state. The one-state solution is the democratic solution. All the people of Palestine as equals (well as equal as any democracy allows for …). It is also the solution that would erase Israel’s Jewish majority rule. The two-state solution is the Jewish majority rule solution (whether or not it includes a real Palestinian State). This solution could push off the demographic question [1], at least for the short term. (Related to both the demographic and democratic questions see Israeli Arab group proposes new ‘multi-cultural’ constitution.)

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