Where Are We Now?
My Current Thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict [Summer 2020]

On Tuesday, July 21, 2020, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a virtual roundtable discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Titled “One State, Two States, or None At All: Where Do Israelis and Palestinians Go From Here?” the event was hosted by Aaron David Miller and featured Shlomo Ben Ami (former Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs), Nabeel Shaath (former prime minister of the Palestinian Nationality Authority), and Tamara Cofman Wittes (an American scholar whose emphasis is on the Middle East). 

While watching the live stream, and also thinking about some comments I made to an advisor last week, I had some realizations about the conflict. During my college course on the conflict, my professor emphasized that Israel has two key characteristics that are rare to find in the Middle East: it is a Jewish state, and it is a democratic state. When talking about a two-state or a one-state solution, I think these two characteristics need to be addressed. 

If Israel wants to keep both its Jewish and its democratic characteristics, then a two-state solution is needed (and the borders need to follow the plan created in 1967). Because with the current occupation of the West Bank (the Gaza Strip is its own entity to be dealt with due to Hamas) and the very real possibility of annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Israel is showing and has shown that they will not give citizenship to Palestinians living in the West Bank. Therefore, they are not a democratic state. 

However, if Israel wants all of the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea, then they are going to have to give up their Jewish characteristic and allow Palestinians full rights that Israeli citizens are allowed to have. This will keep their democratic characteristic true to them. 

Personally, I am in favor of a one-state solution and officially uniting Israel-proper with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (I know a lot of things have to be settled for that to happen). All Palestinians should be granted full citizenship and should be allowed to participate in the government (voting, running for office, etc.). I know this goes against everything that Israel is supposed to be: a Jewish state. But it currently can't call itself a democratic state, too, if they continue down the path they are as they violate human rights against Palestinians. 

That all being said, I do believe that the Jewish people should have a place to call home, and I am not advocating for them to leave Palestine. But the history of how they got there in 1948 is messy, and both many Israelis and Palestinians have died since 1948. The atrocities the Jewish people have gone through for thousands of years is evident enough, for antisemitism has always been alive; but it doesn't give them the right to push the Palestinians out of the land that they have called home for hundreds of years. 

I fully believe that Jews and Palestinians have a right to return to the area and live there. The walls that separate the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Israel-proper need to be torn down. If a one state should come about, the new nation formed will have to be renamed, and both Hebrew and Arabic should be the official languages. 

At the end of the day, I want both Israelis and Palestinians to live peacefully among one another. There’s been enough death, enough conflict, and everyone deserves to live with human decency of going to school, going to work, and growing old surrounded by friends and family. Doesn’t everyone deserve that?

To watch the full livestream via YouTube, click here. 

Originally penned July 21, 2020.