Manifesto to Resolve Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Robert Simons

The only feasible way to resolve the conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Zionist Jews as just as possible is to create a new federal State of Palestine by merging Israel, Jordan, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and the West Bank into one territory. This federation will be formed by including these national states as well as the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

This persistent and predominant conflict in the Middle East has lasted for more than a century with no end in sight. With the establishment of the Zionist movement in 1897, an important impulse was given to Jewish immigration to Palestine. The fact that nearly a million Palestinians lived in Palestine was generally ignored. With financial and practical support from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and other Jewish funds from the rest of the world, Palestine was colonised by the new immigrants.

After 2,000 years in the Diaspora, Eastern European Jews, influenced by violent outbursts of anti-semitism, believed it was time to return to Zion, their “national homeland”, promised in 1917 by the British government as the colonial power in Palestine to Chaim Weizmann, who became the first president of the Jewish State.

With the fable of “a people without a land for a land without a people”, they demonstrated in the spirit of colonialism rigged out with zionist ideology that they were in a historical state of denial about the existence of Palestinians in Palestine.

Colonialism and Annexation

Peace negotiations, led by the United States, came to nothing. The so-called peace process has stalled for 25 years and is, in fact, a dead letter.

Israel has been waging an intensive campaign for 50 years to colonise the West Bank.

With the construction of some 280 Jewish settlements with over 750,000 settlers, the Jewish state is well on its way to realising the intended annexation of the occupied territory.

On the West Bank, Israel has built 100 kilometres of roads exclusively for Jewish settlers and their sympathisers.

The occupied Arab part of Jerusalem, like the Golan Heights, has already been annexed by Israel.
The oppression of the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and the 250,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem has for years turned into a gradual campaign of ethnic cleansing.

While Palestinians in Jerusalem do not receive building permits from the Israeli authorities, evictions are the order of the day.

In retaliation for acts of terror and under pressure from Jewish nationalists, Palestinian homes over the years have been razed to the ground.

The call from nationalist politicians and Jewish settlers to annex the entire West Bank is getting louder by the day.

The Israeli government has so far refrained from a formal annexation, as the demographic ratio would be to the detriment of the Jewish population.

Under Israeli military occupation, the West Bank has, however, already been de facto annexed. The hidden policy of ethnic cleansing has been gradually continuing.

Spiral of Violence

The deadlocked peace process and the annexation of the West Bank envisaged by Israeli leaders necessitates a radical change in thinking about the conflict, which has been more than a century old.

A two-state solution, still trumpeted by Western diplomats, has been superseded by Jewish colonisation.

The policy of murder and manslaughter of Palestinians and other cruel practices carried out by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers, which are commonplace in the occupied territories, must stop, as must violent Palestinian acts of resistance and terror. The injustice done to the Palestinians is tolerated by Western powers.

Resolutions in international bodies such as the UN or rulings by the International Criminal Court in The Hague are of no use. The West has watched for too long without intervening.

Status Quo

The long-standing status quo in the relationship between Jews and Arabs in Palestine must be broken.
With the ongoing Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, the Palestinian people are denied the right to self-determination.

With the “nation state Basic Law” passed by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in 2018, Israel as a Jewish state has laid the foundation for the Jewish people under the Jewish people’s right to self-determination to the exclusion of every other people. This discriminatory law establishes that the distinction between Jews in Israel and abroad and non-Jews is fundamental and legitimate.

In this one-sided way, the door has been opened to government discrimination in favour of Jews in colonisation, land exploitation, housing, citizenship, language and culture.

Jewish supremacy in Palestine has been legally substantiated by the Israeli government, the Supreme Court and parliament.

Palestine has been populated for 1000 of years by all kinds of population groups who have practised trade, agriculture and cattle breeding there for centuries.

The Palestinians have been preceded by the Canaanites and the Israelites. After that, Palestine came successively under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic and Roman rule.

The Romans were followed by several Caliphates, the Crusaders and Islamic rule under the Ottoman sultans.

Only in Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed lived more than a century ago a few thousand devout Jews.

Democratic Rule of Law

Israel presents itself as the democratic lawful state in the Middle East.
This Israeli myth is being adopted by Western democratic countries.

From its founding in 1948, Israel manifested itself as a democratic state, which, however, applies double standards in its legislation and with all kinds of discriminatory provisions against the Palestinian population.

Nor can there be a rule of law in a country where legislation has been drafted and is being applied in favour of the Jewish majority.

Israel is a Jewish state, which, at best, tolerates its minorities – about 21% of the population -, but does not grant it the same rights as the Jewish citizens.

Palestinian Arabs do not get the same chances and opportunities as their Jewish compatriots. Discrimination exists in many areas, such as culture, defence, housing, education, land acquisition etc.

Peace Process

The more than 100-year-old conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs must come to an end in any case.

Without a constitution and without democracy, Israel has been pre-eminently a colonialist experiment.
From the start, that experiment was doomed to failure.

The remaining Palestinians became (second- or third-class) citizens and did not receive the same rights as their Jewish compatriots.

In the expanding Jewish state, Palestinian citizens were disadvantaged compared to their Jewish neighbours.

The international community has always taken the view that the parties must reach a solution through direct negotiations.

Peace negotiations based on a two-state solution have been hopeless for many years.

As a result of the intensive colonisation policy in the West Bank, initiated by the Israeli authorities from 1974 onwards, such a solution is unfeasible and, in any case, an illusion.

The peace process exists in name only, but it is no longer realistic.

The nationalist extremists and religious fundamentalists, who have a heavy impact on Israeli government policy, make the two-state solution practically impossible.

The peace process is now completely bogged down and buried. For a comprehensive solution to the almost endless conflict, radical alternatives should be considered.

The necessary change in political thinking requires a global approach of the Western Middle Eastern region with a view to a constructive peaceful future.

Not only Israeli Jews, but certainly also Palestinian Arabs must be able to live in the future in freedom, and security, with equal opportunities and rights and respect for their own national culture and identity.

The millions of Palestinian refugees, who are temporarily housed mainly in camps in the regions surrounding Israel, must be given the option of (re)settling in Palestine.

Just Solution

The national coalition government of the federation will be supported by a parliamentary majority.

Jordan and Lebanon should be part of the federal state, as both countries have a very large Palestinian refugee population.

Both states are also characterised by fragile political fundamentals. In Jordan, the Hashemite royal family cannot simply count on the support of the native Bedouins.

As allies of the United Kingdom in the First World War, the Hashemites moved to Amman only a century ago from the Arabian peninsula.

In Lebanon, not only are ethnic groups at odds with each other, but the religious groups of Sunnis and Shiites, Maronites and Greek Orthodox and others are also divided among themselves.

Moreover, the predominantly Muslim Palestinians in Lebanon are largely excluded from social and political life.

The national parliament will emerge by staggered elections from the regional parliaments of the Länder.

In that way, the different ethnic and religious population groups will, in principle, have parliamentary representation at a national level according to proportionality.

The national government will be responsible for defence, economy, finance, education and science, health, justice, home and foreign affairs, immigration and asylum, agriculture and water management, transport and infrastructure, refugee aid and development cooperation and the national budget.

The regional parliaments of the Länder will be elected by direct elections.

The governments of the Länder, with limited autonomy, will be responsible for culture, religious affairs, sports, social affairs, police, justice and tourism.

Federation

The benefits of such a federation are untold. The border problems will be solved, as the federation will have no internal borders.

After a national reconciliation through a truth commission, war crimes, (state) terrorism and plane hijackings will be a thing of the past.

Upholding and promoting human rights will be a pillar of federal policy.

The separation wall on the West Bank and the fences along the Gaza Strip and the border with Lebanon will be torn down.

Settlers will evacuate Jewish settlements on the West Bank and make their homes available to returning Palestinian refugees.

Arab and Jewish citizens of the federation will legally be allowed to settle anywhere within the new borders. In this way, the Palestinian refugee problem will largely be solved.

With the end of the Jewish colonisation policy, the Jewish settlements on the West Bank are dissolved and handed over to the authorities of the autonomous Palestinian regional state.

The abandoned Jewish colonies will be used for the expected influx of Palestinian refugees mainly from Jordan, Lebanon, and from the camps in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank.

Armed branches of liberation or resistance organisations, like Hamas and Hezbollah, will be integrated in the federation’s national army.

As national holidays, the federation will only celebrate the day of its founding, as well as Christian, Muslim and Jewish New Year.

Länder can add traditional holidays to their calendar according to the needs of the regional population.

Jerusalem as Capital

As the capital of the independent and sovereign federal state, it is a foregone conclusion that the choice will fall on Jerusalem.

As already stipulated at the time of the UN partition plan in 1947, the holy city for three religions will be given a special international status as a “corpus separatum”.

The administration of Jerusalem as the “city of peace” and the supervision of the numerous holy sites in the city will initially be exercised by King Abdullah of Jordan.

Its inhabitants will choose his ultimate successor and the members of the city council. Jerusalem will remain a mixed, multicultural city without divisions.

Churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious sites will only be used by the respective denominations and can be visited by tourists at regular intervals.

A new flag with the olive branch as the central symbol of peace will be designed for the federal state.

The flag will symbolise the solidarity and coexistence of the different peoples and nationalities within the federation.

The same symbolism will be expressed in the national hymn.

Four official languages will be used in the federation: Arabic, English, French and Hebrew.

Economic Development

A common market will emerge within the borders of the federation. Without a brewing conflict, trade, industry and tourism will flourish.

The national economy will experience unprecedented growth and bring prosperity to the population. As port cities, Ashdod, Aqaba, Beirut, Haifa and Tripoli will face busy times.

Infrastructure via rail and road links will be significantly improved. The sovereign federal State of Palestine will grow and flourish.

Thus, it will exert a huge attraction to the Arab neighbours in the Middle East region. Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will eventually want to join the new political and economic alliance. A new dawn will shine out with the establishment of this Middle East Community (MEC).

Peaceful Coexistence

After a century of violence, conflicts, (civil) wars and terrorism, Muslims, Christians and Jews, Shiites and Sunnis, Druze and Bedouins will be able to live together for the first time in peace, freedom and security with a certain degree of well-being and prosperity, on the basis of equal opportunities, political and civil rights, mutual respect and in dignity with respect for human rights.

In the framework of this long-delayed decolonisation process Muslims, Christians, Jews and other ethnicities will be able to build a plural and just society in a secular federation based on the principle of equality for each citizen.

About the Author

Robert Simons

1966 – 1971 Political and social sciences, UvA;
1971 – 1992 Middle East correspondent for Dutch and Belgian media;
1992 – 2000 Foreign editor VPRO TV and NOS News;
1972 – 2005 Documentary filmmaker;
2005 – Today: Living in China (Shanghai & HK), promoting cultural exchange and
writing about China and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.