The Bi-National Solution


From the margins of the socialist and liberal left of Israel and the Occupied Territories a whispering can be heard. Disenchantment with the failure of Oslo and the once celebrated 'Peace Process' is leading, once more, to the discussion of alternatives long thought buried. Tentatively, cautiously, activists are beginning to revive old slogans. "One Land for Two Peoples" is whispered at the margins of the awful conflict which is tearing Israel and Palestine apart. Bi-nationalism: the idea of a secular state or federation: a National Home for both Jews and Arabs, is once again gaining currency amongst a significant minority of progressive activists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

Bi-nationalism emerged in the 30s, and during the years immediately preceding Israel's declaration of independence as a movement seeking rapproachment between Arabs and the Jewish Yeshuv. Throughout this period its proponents included the United Workers Party and the Communist Party of Israel. Meanwhile Judah Magnes, Martin Buber and others articulated their binational stance from the respected Ihud (Unity) organisation. Left Zionists foresaw a binational arrangement under which Jews could coexist peacefully with their Arab neighbors, all the while enjoying unrestricted immigration rights which would gradually result in a Jewish majority throughout all of Palestine. Non-Zionist Jewish leftists were attracted by the secular and conciliatory principles of binationalism. As opposed to a ‘purely Jewish State' they foresaw a Jewish National Home within a binational republic. Bound by powerful internationalist convictions, at all times they strove for Arab-Jewish rapproachment. It is a tragedy that these idealists found themselves overtaken by events, and by the failure of the binationalist compromise to win significant support amongst the Arab community.

With Israel's successful war of independence in 1948, the face of Yishuv politics was utterly transformed. Standing now from a position of military strength and internationally accepted statehood, the ethical concerns of the binationalists were swiftly marginalised. The most glaring question posed by the formation of the Jewish state was that of the status of Israeli Arabs and the fate of approximately 700,000 Arab refugees, many of whom had been directly expelled. During the years that followed the conciliatory trends in Israeli politics continued to fade further and further into the utmost margins. When Israel responded to aggressive posturing by Egypt in 1967 by waging a 'lightning' Six Day War and occupying the Palestinian territories, the seeds of future tragedy were sown. The eventual Palestinian response to this occupation was the forming of the PLO in 1964: an organisation whose main faction, Fatah, aimed at replacing the Jewish State with a secular Palestinian state with both Jews and Arabs as citizens. Isolated and powerless to realise its political ambitions, the PLO resorted to a long and bloody campaign of terror. At all points, however, this had been met by a steady Israeli response of state terror, culminating today in a brutal war of attrition where both sides attempt to break the other's resolve, exacting an awful toll in innocent blood.

And yet today, as the Middle East draws nearer and nearer to the edge, there are voices once again speaking in favour of the binational solution. Lama Adu-Odeh, for instance, has urged a shift of focus for Palestinians from ‘national self determination’ to ‘constitutional liberalism’. Liberalism, she argues, must ‘trump’ Zionism. Struggle would thus be oriented towards ‘rights of citizenship’, both in Israel proper, and in the Occupied Territories. Foreseeing a struggle more akin to the American Civil Rights movement, Adu-Odeh supposes such a strategy could win greater sympathy not only internationally, but even within Israel, whose citizens proudly view their country as the only democracy in the region. Running gun battles and suicide bombings would thus be replaced by peaceful mass action. Radicals may even prefer a variation on the liberal appeal, instead appealing to principles of socialist internationalism.

For Adu-Odeh, the ultimate aim is for Palestine to become ‘a federal state of Israel’ where Palestinians enjoy full citizenship rights. Under such circumstances, Palestinian refugees would be free to return to their homeland, while a generous fund would be established to compensate others for years of dispossession. By making this fund as generous as possible, Israel could prevent the kind of massive population movements which it fears might be destabilising as a consequence of lingering ill will. Furthermore, such a fund could finally give Israel closure on an issue which has undermined its legitimacy, and pricked the consciences of radicals and liberals for decades. If Israel does not move soon on this issue, however, it will be too late, and the stain of this injustice will mark Israel forever more.

Certainly, it is true that if liberalism must trump Zionism, it must also trump Arab nationalism. Israelis and Palestinians with a shared moral vision in this regard would need to steel their resolve in the face of possibly violent opposition. In the final analysis, the key to peace is building good will, and the binational vision will not be able to be realised until this is achieved. To this end, the kind of provocations we have seen since the collapse of Oslo must be put to an end. Palestinian self rule must be extended, and settlement construction put to a complete and final halt. Israeli economic aid and cultural exchanges with Palestinians must serve as to basis on which such good will can take root. In the meantime, and until the awful cycle of violence ceases, we would be well advised to heed the advice of Noam Chomsky. The binational solution might not seem viable in the current climate of hate and terror, but it is up to those of us with such a shared moral vision to keep the idea alive, working unrelentingly for the day in which it is.


Tristan Ewins

(the author is a long-time member of the Victorian Socialist Left of the Australian Labor Party)

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