One-state solution

Binational solution is a term most often used in reference to a proposed resolution of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Proponents of a binational solution to the conflict advocate a common state in historic Palestine shared between Jewish and Arab populations. All of the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza would be annexed to Israel, with their Palestinian Arab inhabitants given citizenship and an equal status to the Jewish and Arab citizens of present-day Israel. The new state would have a secular character rather than being dominated by Judaism or Islam.

The idea is, as with virtually every other aspect of the conflict, immensely controversial. It has been around for decades with relatively little impact, but in 2003 the looming demographic crisis of a majority Arab population in Israel-Palestine brought the binational proposition back to centre stage.

Binationalism in British Mandate Palestine

Binational proposals for a common Jewish-Arab state in Palestine have existed since at least the 1920s. In 1925, the journalist Robert Weltsch established Brit Shalom (Covenant of Peace) to promote Jewish-Arab understanding in Palestine. Brit Shalom, which functioned until 1933, stood on a platform of creating "a binational state in which the two peoples will enjoy equal rights as befits the two elements shaping the country's destiny, irrespective of which of the two is numerically superior at any given time" (from their first publication Our Aspirations, 1927). It had a few hundred members, mostly European-born intellectuals. The general concept of binationalism was to be adopted by other minority Zionist groups, like Hashomer Hatzair and Mapam, Kedmah Mizracha, the Ichud and the League for Jewish-Arab Rapprochement.

According to the historian Susan Lee Hattis, binationalists sought to recognise the reality of a majority Palestinian population in what is now the territory ruled by Israel. They supported "not the ideal but the reality, and if this reality is not grasped Zionism will fail. Brit Shalom were not defeatists who were willing to make any concession for the achievement of peace, they simply realized that the Arabs were justified in fearing a Zionism which spoke in terms of a Jewish majority and a Jewish state. Their belief was that one need not be a maximalist, i.e., demand mass immigration and a state, to be a faithful Zionist. What was vital was a recognition that both nations (the Arab and the Jewish) were in Palestine as of right."

One of the most prominent and forceful early advocates of binationalism was Professor Martin Buber, a renowned scholar in the field of Jewish tradition and literature. In 1939, shortly after he emigrated from Germany to British-ruled Palestine, he replied to a letter by Mahatma Gandhi, who thought that "Palestine belongs to the Arabs" and the Jews "should make that country their home where they were born." Buber rejected this idea but agreed that there needed to be a consensus between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. He wrote that Jews and Arabs must "develop the land together without one imposing his will on the other. We considered it a fundamental point that in this case two vital claims are opposed to each other, two claims of a different nature and a different origin, which cannot be pitted one against the other and between which no objective decision can be made as to which is just and which is unjust.

"We considered and still consider it our duty to understand and to honor the claim which is opposed to ours and to endeavor to reconcile both claims... We have been and still are convinced that it must be possible to find some form or agreement between this claim and the other; for we love this land and believe in its future; and seeing that such love and faith are surely present also on the other side, a union in the common service of the land must be within the range of the possible"

Binationalism was never implemented in practice. Its proponents were always a minority within the Zionist movement and the idea was generally rejected by the Arab national movement, which saw little to gain from it; the Arab leadership were (not surprisingly) opposed to their people becoming a minority in what they saw as their own country. Official Zionist policy advocated a "Jewish state" - not precluding democracy or civil rights for resident Arabs, but ensuring that the country which would have a Jewish ethnic majority and political leadership. Successive Israel governments have pursued a policy known as aliyah (literally "ascent" in Hebrew) to encourage Jewish immigration to Israel and thus the preservation of a Jewish ethnic majority in the country.

References

• Hattis, Susan Lee. The Binational Idea in Palestine during Mandatory Times. Haifa: Shikmona, 1970.
• Leon, Dan. Binationalism: A Bridge over the Chasm. Palestine-Israel Journal, July 31, 1999.
• Mendes-Flohr, Paul R. A Land of Two Peoples: Martin Buber on Jews and Arabs. Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith, 1994.