The shocking level of the recent wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence echoes that a final resolution to the Middle East crisis is vital for the world peace. It is crucial not just to break this cycle of destruction and injustice, but also to deny further proliferation of religious extremism in the region.
Let me say explicitly at the outset that two states choice for Palestine-Israel conflict is, politically, financially, militarily and socially, an unviable or impracticable solution. The term Palestinian territory has been used for many years to describe the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 namely West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Distance from West Bank to Gaza Strip at its narrowest point is just 40 kilometres. But that short stretch of land is across Israel, and Palestinian cannot pass through it without Israeli permission. Residents of Gaza are only allowed to travel to the West Bank in exceptionally humanitarian cases.
Leader Moammar Al-Qaddafi of Libya was the strongest exponent of “one state solution” to the Middle East crisis. The one-state solution refers to a resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through the creation of a unitary, federal or confederate Israeli-Palestinian state, which would encompass all of the present territory of Israel, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. With the exception of the 19 years between 1948 and 1967 when Israel was established and the West Bank and Gaza were under Jordanian and Egyptian control, respectively, it is hard to think of the last time the cities in the hills of the West Bank and those in the coastal plain were governed separately and not part of a shared territorial unit and a one-state reality is firmly entrenched.
There are approximately two million Muslim Arabs in Israel; they possess Israeli nationality and take part in political life. On the other side, there are Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli factories depend on Palestinian labour, and goods and services are exchanged on regular basis
Throughout history, Palestine has been ruled by numerous groups, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimid, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians and Mamelukes. From 1517 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled much of the region. The present religious affiliation of Israeli populations is 74 % Jewish, 18% Muslims and the other 8 % are Christians, Druze, Bahais etc.
The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict began with establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Before Israel became a nation, the majority of people dwelling in the region were Palestinian – Arabs who lived in what was then known as Palestine. On May 14, 1948, Israel was officially declared a state, marking the first Jewish state in history after 2,000 years. The key issues are internal security, borders, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, and Palestinian refugees’ right of return.
Jews and Muslims are cousin brothers descended from Abraham. Arabs sheltered Jews and protected them after maltreatment at the hands of the Romans and their expulsion from Spain in the ‘Middle Ages’. In fact, many of the disagreements between Jews and Palestinians are recent ones. The very name “Palestine” was commonly used to describe the whole area, even by the Jews who lived there until 1948 when the name “Israel” came into usage.
The basis for the modern State of Israel was the historic persecution of the Jewish people which is undeniable. The Jews have been held captive, massacred, disadvantaged in every possible fashion by the Egyptians, the Romans, the English, the Russians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites and, most recently, the Germans under Hitler and rightly deserved their specific native country. But the Palestinians too have a history of persecution and believe that what is now called Israel forms part of their ancestors’ motherland.
A two-state solution is likely to create an unending security threat to Israel. Any circumstance that keeps the majority of Palestinians in refugee camps and does not offer a solution within the historical borders of Israel / Palestine is not a solution at all. An armed Palestinian state, presumably in the West Bank or Gaza, would provide Israel meaningless strategic depth at its narrowest point. Further, a divided Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza Strip would do little to resolve the problem of Palestinian refugees settled elsewhere. The Palestinian-held areas do not have the spaces to accommodate all of the refugees. The compromise is one state for all that would allow the people in each faction to feel that they live in all of the disputed land and they are not deprived of any one part of it.
It is a fact that Palestinians inhabited the land and owned farms and homes there until fleeing in fear of violence and persecution at the hands of Jews after 1948. Another key prerequisite for peace is the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the homes their families left behind in 1948. It is an injustice that Jews who were not originally citizens of Palestine, nor were their ancestors, can move in from abroad while Palestinians who were displaced only a relatively short time ago should not be so permitted.
There are approximately two million Muslim Arabs in Israel; they possess Israeli nationality and take part in political life with the Jewish population, forming political parties and as parliamentarians in Knesset. On the other side, there are Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli factories depend on Palestinian labour, and goods and services are exchanged on regular basis. If the present interdependence and the historical fact of Jewish-Palestinian coexistence guide their leaders, and if they can see beyond the horizon of the recent violence and thirst for revenge toward a long-term solution, then these two communities will realise, I hope sooner rather than later, that living under one roof is the only option for a lasting peace.
“There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate one”. Anwar Sadat
(The writer is a retired Pakistan Army Officer) Email: [email protected]