What is to be Done?

A 10-Point Guide to a single state for all

One Democracy will not be organised from Washington. It must make its own way by grass-roots struggles and solidarity actions 

International recognition of Palestine is the very least that Palestinians are due. However, a viable, sovereign Palestinian state and the right of all exiles to return home is not achievable in any carved-out separate state, even on the 1967 borders. When this becomes crystal clear, a demand for Civil Rights in One Democratic State will be the only way forward for the resistance movement. These are some of the actions and ideas we offer for action:

1.  Dissolve the Palestine Authority, which is running the Occupation for Israel, held tight by the purse-strings of hostile entities. The PLO must lead the struggle against the occupation, not help to administer it.

2. Campaign for civil rights in one secular, pluralist democracy based on UN standards and rights, with no evictions or transfers, an end to internal and external exile, and no internal borders. This may initially entail formal annexation. In reality this happened many years ago, but it suited Israel to avoid the publicity and obligations of legal annexation, which would tie its hands and clearly reveal its gross, full-frontal apartheid. Israel can only get away with repression, theft and dual law because the OPTs’ status is ambiguous, so it can play “divide and zone”, and “talk and build”. In a “greater Israel” (however offensive that sounds), how would they then justify the Jewish-only roads, the wall, the checkpoints? How would they explain why a whole section of the population lives above the law, free to run private armies and attack and vandalise their neighbours? And how could they deprive millions of people of the right to vote and still claim to be a democracy?

3.  Propose that UN standards of human and civil rights for all would be ring-fenced from “majority takeover”, in order to facilitate trust and eliminate demographic competition. When a one state constitution has been adopted by majority votes of all component sectors, any proposed changes would need to be passed by a very substantial majority.

4.  Promote grassroots, civil and political struggle, and reconciliation and restitution of past and present wrongs.

5.  Build  a united coalition now from all sectors in Israel, in the occupied territories and among exiles, that can fight on all levels (including electoral contests and social justice protests) for a vision of multi-cultural Democracy instead of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and separation. Organise contacts at all levels between Palestinians and Jewish Israel to work on the practical application of unification in different spheres of civil life, and in the interim to demand equal treatment for all within housing, health, education, citizenship: “social justice for all”.

6.  Seek mass support for these principles among Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and within Israel; and press all governments that support Palestinian rights to give their backing to these ideas.

7.  In the interim, demand an immediate end of West Bank occupation and the siege of Gaza and for release of all prisoners of the struggle.

8.  Insist on decision by a popular vote of all Palestinians, wherever they are, on any “negotiated” re-partition of Palestine.

9.  Campaign for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions to isolate Israel as a whole commercially, diplomatically, academically and culturally, and to demand compliance with UN and EU rules, standards and resolutions and for one law to apply to all within historic Palestine.

10.  Press Jewish and solidarity organisations internationally to debate and be informed about the One Democratic State and to accept that it is a positive way forward which can bring justice to Palestinians and release Jews from the moral debts that the “Jewish State of Israel” has incurred.