Creating One State for Arabs and Jews in Palestine

Creating One State for Arabs and Jews in Palestine

Due to the failure of all efforts to negotiate a political settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict, a new vision is developed to address this conflict and achieve peace and security for all.

Palestine Peace Movement (PPM) is an organization to facilitate the creation of one state in Palestine where Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs live in peace as equal citizens; PPM intends to participate in Israeli and Palestinian politics, nominate candidates for parliament, and promote the one-state proposal worldwide, while concentrating on changing public perceptions of Arabs and Jews to support the one-state solution.

PPM gives all individuals the right to join the movement, provided they support Arab-Jewish peaceful coexistence as equal citizens of one state. This allows every committed Israeli and Palestinian to run for office under the PPM umbrella. The new state shall be democratic, secular, and demilitarized. To felicitate the creation of such a state, PPM plans to lobby Arab, Jewish, European, and American politicians, and seek the support of world leaders, renowned intellectuals, and national and international civil society organizations.

The one-state formula calls for the sharing of political power by Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs and major civil society organizations to transform Palestine into one-state for two peoples living side by side in peace.

PPM is a membership organization; all members are entitled to serve on all committees and represent PPM in international forums. However, members who are not citizens of either Israel or Palestine cannot run for office in either state. The following are the main principles and objectives that guide the work of PPM:

1. The creation of a bi-national state in Palestine where Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs live as equal citizens, sharing the same land, resources, and political power.
2. The proposed name of the new state is: “The State of Palestine.”
3. The drafting of a constitution to guarantee sharing powers by Jews and Palestinians while dividing the executive powers between the president and the prime minister.
4. Giving the public the power to elect the state’s president and parliament, while giving the parliament the power to elect the state’s prime minister from outside its ranks.
5. If the elected president happens to be Jewish; the parliament would be required by law to elect an Arab prime minister; and if the president happens to be an Arab, the parliament would be required to elect a Jewish prime minister.
6. The allocation of 25% of the parliament seats to the major civil society organizations, divided equally between the Arab and Jewish organizations.
7. The winning political parties would share the remaining seats according to the votes each party gets.
8. All people holding Israeli citizenship at the time of forming the one-state shall have the right to live in it as full citizens.
9. All people holding Palestinian citizenship at the time of forming the one- state shall have the right to live in it as full citizens.
10. Every person born in Palestine or one of his/her parents or grandparents shall have the “right of return” to Palestine and gain citizenship after one year of residency; all people who meet this condition shall have the same right, regardless of nationality, religion, or color.
11. The Palestinians who lost property in Palestine since 1947 shall have the right to regain ownership of their properties and be free to use, rent, or sell them to whomever they wish without outside interference. However, there will be no forced evacuation of anyone living in Palestine.

The one-state proposal is the only formula capable of overcoming the five major obstacles hindering the two-state solution: the issue of Jerusalem, the borders, Israeli security, Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the Palestinian right of return.  

Declaring Palestine a shared homeland for Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs ends conflict over Jerusalem as it becomes the new state’s capital; it also makes the borders of historic Palestine the borders of the new-state. Giving the Palestinian refugees the right to regain ownership of lost property while having the freedom to rent and sell such property indirectly facilitates solving the right of return and Jewish settlements issues. Since Jews and Arabs lived together in peace in the past, they can live in peace again. Moreover, Jews and Arabs have two of the world’s richest pools of human talent, experience, and worldwide connections to build a dynamic economy and a rich, diversified culture.

The one-state proposal is the way for both Arabs and Jews to reclaim their humanity, free themselves from hatred and enmity, and save their children and grandchildren from the Tsunami of radicalism that continues to gain strength on both sides. Ideological radicalism is the most malicious cancer humanity has ever known; it dies only when it kills the body it inhabits. Therefore, we must work together to foster the immunity of the Arab-Jewish body so that it can resist radicalism, overcome decades of war, and establish everlasting peace in the land of peace.

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