Why in the News
The Green Party of England and Wales has become the first mainstream Western party to call for “a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine”, a one state solution. It revives the case that the two state solution, the basis of diplomacy including India’s, is dead, and that only one shared state can bring lasting peace.
What is the two state solution, and what is proposed instead?
- Two state solution: A Palestinian state would sit beside Israel on the borders before the 1967 Six-Day War, like splitting a disputed house into two flats. The Oslo Accords (1993) made it the basis of talks.
- One state solution: A single secular, democratic state across historic Palestine, with Israelis and Palestinians as equal citizens.
- Green Party resolution: The party, with only five MPs, also declared Zionism, the movement for a Jewish homeland, a form of racism. Jewish groups called it antisemitic.
- Israel’s response: Israel said the party legitimises terrorism and barred its Jewish leader from entry.
- The takeaway: One state has entered mainstream Western politics just as support for two states is collapsing.
Why is the two state solution called dead?
- Israeli leadership: Israel’s Prime Minister says Israeli security leaves no room for Palestinian sovereignty. This states openly the outcome 30 years of policy produced.
- No opposition mandate: With elections imminent, Israel’s opposition offers no clear mandate for Palestinian statehood.
- Collapsing public support: Israeli backing for two states has fallen to 17% in recent Pew surveys, after the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation on Gaza.
- Fragmented West Bank: Thirty years of hilltop settlements, military outposts and fences have broken the West Bank into a patchwork that cannot hold a state with a sustainable economy.
- Settlers cannot be moved: Moving about 750,000 Israeli settlers back within Israel’s legal borders is close to impossible.
Can Israelis and Palestinians share one state?
- Cost of occupation: Israel cannot occupy Gaza indefinitely, and occupation makes it a global pariah. Weakening Hamas militarily does not end the humiliation and despair that feed militancy.
- Sceptics’ objection: Decades of trauma divide the two peoples too deeply to share one country.
- Choice for both peoples: Israelis face an armed, hostile neighbour or integration with 5.5 million Palestinians. Palestinians face a hope of their own country or equal rights in a prosperous state.
- Arab citizens of Israel: About 2 million Arab citizens already live in Israel fairly peacefully, but as second class citizens.
- Zionism’s founders: Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, imagined in his 1902 novel Altneuland (“Old New Land”) a secular state where Arab citizens voted and sat in parliament.
What do other divided societies show?
- Belgium: A constitutional framework guaranteeing protections for each group holds its linguistic and cultural divisions together.
- Northern Ireland: After decades of sectarian violence, former enemies share power in a system overseen by Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
- South Africa, Bosnia and Lebanon: These arrangements are imperfect, and fragile in Lebanon. They still show shared governance works better than endless war.
Challenges
- Demographic fear: Israeli Jews fear being outnumbered, so few Israeli parties will campaign for one state.
- Law that privileges one people: Israeli law defines the state by Jewish identity. Eg. The Basic Law on the Nation State (2018).
- Fragile power sharing: Shared rule can freeze divisions. Eg. Lebanon’s confessional system repeatedly paralyses government.
Way Forward
- Guaranteed group safeguards: Write protections for each community, underwritten by foreign powers both sides accept.
- Green resolution as catalyst: Use it to build consensus on one state offering peace, dignity and equal rights.
- India’s lead: India’s historic support for Palestinian rights outlasts its recent tilt towards Israel. It can lead on one state and regain a central place in multilateral diplomacy.
Conclusion
The two state framework has lost its political base in Israel and its territorial base on the ground, yet no government backs one shared state. Whether a government, India included, adopts the idea beyond a minor party’s resolution will decide if it enters diplomacy.
India and the Israel-Palestine Question
- Early recognition: India was the first non Arab country to recognise Palestine, in 1988, and treated the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as its people’s sole legitimate representative.
- De-hyphenation: India opened full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 and keeps independent ties with both sides.
- Stated position: India backs “a sovereign, independent Palestine coexisting with Israel” and funds West Bank schools and IT centres under the India-Palestine Development Partnership.
Matching Previous Year Question
“[2018] The term “two-state solution” is sometimes mentioned in the news in the context of the affairs of (a) China (b) Israel (c) Iraq (d) Yemen ANSWER: (b)”
