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.

Enlaces
Press release
17/05/2010
Haifa – At a time when prospects for a settlement that concedes basic Palestinian rights are blocked, interest in the one democratic state solution is witnessing an unprecedented growth. Wide sectors of Palestinians, in historic Palestine and exile, have adopted it, while international support for it is increasing daily. In this context, a committed group of activists is vigorously putting the final touches on the Second Haifa Conference for the Return of the Palestinian Refugees and for the Secular Democratic State in Historic Palestine.
8 years- It’s been 8 years now since Ahmed Saadat, is jailed by Israel- and in Israel.
17/05/2010
Even though the Palestinian Supreme Court declared his imprisonment unconstitutional, and Amnesty International protested against his unfair trial, he has been sentenced to 30 years of jail. He is on the Hamas request list of prisoners to be exchanged against Gilad Shalit.
Haifa 2 Conference
13/05/2010
We, the undersigned, support the call of the preparatory committee of the 2nd Haifa conference for the return of the Palestinian refugees and for the establishment of a democratic secular state in historic Palestine.[see link]
23/04/2010
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For the benefit of all: The democratic secular solution will unite all the Palestinian people, after decades of fragmentation and exile, through the realization of their right to self-determination by rebuilding their lives as a free people in their homeland, free of all forms of oppression and injustice. At the same time, this is also the best solution for the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, following the failure of Zionism to guarantee their peace and security, as they were falsely promised by consecutive Israeli governments.
For the return of Palestinian refugees and the democratic secular state in historic Palestine
15/04/2010
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In recent years there were a number of conferences concerning the subject of the right of return, which had a basic role in expressing and consolidating a growing political and public consensus in support of the return of the Palestinian refugees to their lands and homes from which they were forcibly displaced during and after the Nakba. The Haifa conference is a qualitative addition to these efforts, proposing a specific political framework, logical and moral, for the implementation of the right of return.
Second Haifa Conference for the Return of the Palestinian Refugees and for the Democratic Secular State in Historic Palestine, 28–30 / 5 / 2010
23/03/2010
A first consultative meeting was held, in response to the initiative of the Abnaa elBalad Movement, on 27/2/2010. It was followed by the second meeting on 19/3/2010 where the “Preparatory Committee” was formally established. About 20 activists from different organizations and movements, as well as independents, took part in each of the meetings.
2nd Haifa Conference, 28-30/5/2010
24/02/2010
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The only program for the relieving of the suffering of our people and for a solution of the conflict is the restoration of the patriotic and national rights of the Palestinian people, the adoption of the principles of democracy and human rights as the base for a solution and rejection of and resistance to ethnic cleansing, oppression and racism. It means the return of all Palestinian refugees to all the areas from which they were expelled and the constitution of one democratic secular state on all of the Palestinian national soil.
for the Right of Return and the Secular Democratic State in Palestine
20/06/2008
Final programme
08/05/2008
and the right to return to historic Palestine

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