Reflections on What a Palestinian State Is Worth (original) (raw)

Constitution-Making and State-Building: Redefining the Palestinian Nation

In modern times, the constitution is considered to be the most appropriate legal instrument to perpetuate a political compromise between entities, groups and individuals composing the state. It intends to guarantee the respect of this ‘social contract’ to which individuals and groups adhere, in order to stop reclaiming rights through violence but rather to obtain them through law. Thus, a modern constitution is often conceived as the last act of a revolution. In the Palestinian context, drafting a constitution is not a result of statehood but rather part of the package of preconditions for achieving it. In other words, creating a new state, if not by the use of force – thus by imposition, needs now to be merited. The Palestinian case proves the relevance and dangers of dealing with this approach to constitutions and statehood. In order to have their own state, Palestinians need to prove to the international community that they are serious about liberal democracy and free market poli...

A Palestinian State? The Difference Between Perception and Reality

Palestine: Past and Present, 2019

Despite enduring over 50 years of occupation the Palestinian craving for an independent state has yet to be extinguished. Indeed, both the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have state-building objectives as key facets of their organisational remit. Despite this, there is a widening gulf between perception and reality when it comes to the possibility of an independent Palestine coming to fruition. Utilising key tenets of the state-building process – sovereignty, legitimacy, and nation-building – this chapter analyses critical junctures in the state-building efforts of the PLO and PA. In doing so, the chapter seeks to provide a fresh analytical lens through which to explain why a Palestinian state has yet to eventuate, and to provide an insight into the continuing intractability of the broader Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

"What is a State without the People?": Statehood Obsession and Denial of Rights in Palestine

2020

The Palestinian political leadership’s obsession with the idea of statehood as a means to realise self-determination and freedom has proved to be detrimental to the struggle of decolonising Palestine. By prioritising “statehood under colonialism” instead of focusing on decolonising Palestine first and then engaging in state formation, the Palestinian leadership – under pressure from regional and international actors – disempowered the people and empowered security structures which ultimately serve the colonial condition.

A "Jewish State" or a "State for all its Citizens?": Palestinian Demands for Redefining the Boundaries of the Israeli National Identity and the Jewish Response

İsrailiyat: İsrail ve Yahudi Çalışmaları Dergisi, 2021

The “Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty,” which functions as the country’s de facto constitution, has defined Israel as a "Jewish state," thus putting the equal rights of all non-Jewish citizens within the Israeli polity into question. As a consequence of the Jewish nature of the state, the Jews have been elevated, whether they were citizens or not, into a privileged position over others and governments gave institutional and legal preference to the Jewish majority particularly in the realms of immigration laws, land allocation, and military service. By the 1990s, however, Israel’s citizens of Palestinian descent seemed to find a balance between their Palestinian and Israeli identities and this tendency was accompanied by a growing emphasis on their status as a "national minority in its historical homeland" and a political struggle for collective rights. Challenging the Jewish hegemony, they have persistently claimed to transform the Jewish state into a "state for all its citizens," and, hence, the recognition of their status as a national minority entitled to collective rights, including the right to self-government and equal representation in the governing bodies. What has been the Israeli state response to these demands? Using qualitative data derived from several in-depth interviews with the members of the Israeli political elite conducted in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa between December 2018 and January 2020, this study argued that Israeli policy makers continued to pursue a "security-oriented" policy towards Israeli Palestinians due to their trans-border ethnic relations. As a consequence, the Palestinian demand for establishing a "state for all its citizens," which challenged the Jewish nature of the state, has been seen as a denial of Israel’s right to exist, or to put in discussion the Jews' right to statehood.

Palestinian Statehood: A Step in the Right Direction

In September 2011 the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) sought from the United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem; areas which have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six Day War. In the preceding months campaigning gained momentum, speculation increased as to the outcome and hopes of an end to occupation and a solution to the conflict as a whole were raised. However, while it is easy to get carried away with the symbolism of a Palestinian state being recognised by one of the world’s most respected bodies, there are a number of considerations which must be kept in mind. At best this bid for full United Nations membership is a symbolic step in the right direction towards conflict resolution. However, irrespective of whether it is successful, it will not provide an instantaneous end to occupation nor will it put an immediate end to the grave violations of international law by Israel which persist. Even Chief Palestinian negotiator, Dr Saeb Erekat, has cautioned that “it is just the beginning of a long way towards Palestinian statehood… it does not aim at delegitimising any state, but to delegitimise and isolate the Israeli occupation.” This paper explores in detail the potential successes and shortfalls of the statehood bid.

The State of Palestine A Critical Analysis

The Palestinian national movement reached a dead end and came close to disintegration at the beginning of the present century. This critical analysis of internal Palestinian politics in the West Bank traces the re-emergence of the Palestinian Authority's established elite in the aftermath of the failed unity government and examines the main security and economic agendas pursued by them during that period. Based on extensive field research interviews and participant observation undertaken across several sites in Nablus and the surrounding area, it provides a bottom-up interpretation of the Palestinian Authority's agenda and challenges the popular interpretation that its governance represents the only realistic path to Palestinian independence. As the first major account of the Palestinian Authority's political agenda since the collapse of the unity government this book offers a unique explanation for the failure to bring a Palestinian state into being and challenges assumptions within the existing literature by addressing the apparent incoherence between mainstream debates on Palestine and the reality of conditions there. This book is a key addition to students and scholars interested in Politics, Middle-Eastern Studies, and International Relations.

The “Right to Have Rights”: Partition and Palestinian Self-Determination, Journal of Palestine Studies, 2017

Journal of Palestine Studies, 2017

This paper reexamines the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and the extent to which a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was ever truly possible. Such a reexamination seems all the more pertinent today on the hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. It is also seventy years since the United Nations Partition Plan to divide historic Palestine and fifty years since UN Security Council Resolution 242, which has been the basis for every peace agreement between Israel and its neighbors but makes no mention of or reference to the Palestinian people. The paper argues that the history of the past fifty years reinforces the claim that a State is central to any attempt to fight Palestinian erasure and ensure "the right to have rights," as Hannah Arendt put it, but it argues that such an entity needs to be elevated above the nation, rather than made subservient to it if it is to protect the rights of Palestinians and all those living on the land of Palestine.

THE PALESTINIAN STATE: INTERNATIONAL LEGAL CONTEXT

Sofia University of National and World Economy's Research Papers, 2018

The paper considers some key issues concerning international recognition of the Palestine as an independent state and prospects of its gaining real sovereignty. The conclusion is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an undulating process, so the task of minimizing conflict requires the ability to take advantage of a decline in the level of confrontation, when both sides are ready for mutual concessions.