One democratic state for Palestine

Campaign
End Israeli apartheid
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Palestine is the symbolic centre of all conflicts within the imperialist-capitalist world system. It exemplifies that (neo)colonial domination, let alone the grab of land by the West, evokes resistance. The two-state formula “land for peace” (read: partial return of land for the end of resistance) has failed as Israel sticks to its goal to take it all.

Apart from the fact that Zionism will never accept a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel, even in such an imagined case Israel would remain an Apartheid state. Maintaining its Jewish character necessarily means to either oppress or once again expel the native Arabs (the completion of the “ethnic cleansing” that had started with the Nakba in 1948). A Palestinians state, even a Bantustan-type one, would facilitate the justification of the completion of colonisation.

Peace can only be achieved if the right to self-determination of the oppressed and colonised is realised. A democratic state grants this right also to the colonising people, provided that they accept to abandon their colonial prerogatives.

The continued ideological strength of Zionism flows from its capacity to pose as a victim. While the West believes that they have atoned for the Holocaust, those opposing Western rule are accused to come close to commit another Holocaust. Thus the enlightened, liberal and democratic civilisation of the West (Israel included, as it bulwark) acts in self-defence against the barbarian aggressors symbolised by Muslims. This is how “the only democracy in the Middle East” tries to justify is exclusion and displacement of the Palestinians. We refute this contortion and we demand nothing more than realising their claim: democracy – but for all, including Palestinians as well as the millions of refugees.

The last decade of the Second Intifada and the US global war has brought about important changes. Not only that few people continue to believe that Israel will concede a Palestinian state worth its name. After 1989 this was the only significance of left Zionism that had remained and which has since lost its attraction. Its ideological decay for the first time opens a space even within Israel for the one-state position among a post-Zionist environment. This very fact of Jewish forces in favour of one democratic state helps to weaken the Zionist narrative.

The one-state solution is, however, no recent invention. It is the historic demand of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). While it was weakened by the later PLO’s turn towards a negotiated settlement with Zionism, the failure of such a settlement has put it back on the agenda of the Palestinian and Arab resistance. Hamas has not endorsed the one democratic state, yet it has evolved as the strongest Palestinian force, as it has pledged to continue the resistance. Today the support for one single democratic state among Palestinians and Arabs – whether secular or religiously inspired – is once again growing.

Around this renewed movement for one single democratic state in Palestine we struggle to unite across the globe, after hard years of isolation while upholding this position, especially in the aftermath of Oslo., As Israel symbolises the oppression exerted by imperialism and capitalism, the movement for one democratic state provides a general platform for unification against the US empire.

Links
Founding Statement
01/09/2013
The popular movement announced its establishment on May 15, 2013, (The Nakba Day), in Ramallah.
Opposes current talks with Israel
25/08/2013
Dr. Haidar Eid is Associate Professor in the Department of English Literature, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza Strip, Palestine. Dr. Eid is a founding member of the One Democratic State Group (ODSG) and a member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Jaffa and Ramallah movements come together
20/07/2013
ODS meeting in Ramallah
At the invitation of "The Popular Movement for One Democratic State on the Historic Land of Palestine" (which announced its launch on May 15, 2013), some 25 of the activists of the Jaffa Group for One Democratic State came to Ramallah on Saturday, July 13, to a joint meeting. It was the first meeting of this kind bringing together supporters of a comprehensive democratic solution to the Palestinian cause from both sides of the Green Line. Members of the constituent body of The Popular Movement hosted the meeting, while the visiting delegation included political and social activists, veterans and youth, artists, academics, Arab and Jewish opponents of Zionism.
2nd Palestine Solidarity Conference Stuttgart 10-12 May 2013
16/02/2013
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The People Demand a Change of the Political System in Historic Palestine
Protagonists of the Palestine solidarity will get together
14/07/2012
The support to the Palestinian liberation struggle always has been in the heard of the Anti-imperialist Camp. Therefore this year’s camp in Assisi, Italy, scheduled for 23-26 of August will feature a debate on the future of the Palestine solidarity movement.
First manifestation for one democratic state in Palestine
20/12/2010
Ali Abunimah, Ilan Pappé and Sophia Deeg
End of November 2010 a historic conference under the slogan “Separated in the past – together in the future” took place in Stuttgart, Germany. As the last years saw increasing difficulties to rent representative venues for pro-Palestinians events the organizers moved to a secure hall in the periphery which was completely overcrowded with some 200 participants. There were rumors that the organizers had to refuse another 200 applicants.
Closing document of the Palestine solidarity conference “Separated in the past – together in the future”
16/12/2010
From 26-28 November 2010, over 200 participants came together for a “Palestine Solidarity Conference”. The theme of this three-day conference, with the title Separated in the past – together in the future, was “Barriers and Perspectives for a just solution” of the conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinians.
Interview with Abu Obaida Shakir, representative of Islamic Jihad in Lebanon
02/09/2010
Abu Obaida Shakir
In the frame of the Sumud mission to the Ain el Hilweh refugee camp in July/August 2010 we met Abu Obaida Shakir, IJ’s spokesman for the camp.
Haifa conference amid decay of left Zionism
28/07/2010
From May 28 to 30, 2010, the “Second Conference for a Secular Democratic State in Historic Palestine and the Right to Return” took place. Both regarding the number of participants as well as the political broadness the conference was a considerable success. The obvious failure of the two-state formula, the unabated Zionist land grab has completely unmasked “left” Zionism. More and more people, including Jews both from within Israel and across the globe, embrace the perspective of one common democratic state no more colonising the Arabs.
Letter by Abnaa elBalad Movement
09/06/2010
Dear Participants and Supporters of the 2nd Haifa conference for the Return of the Palestinian Refugees and the Democratic Secular State in Historic Palestine,

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