The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the day the state of Israel declared independence, days ahead of the official end to the British Mandate in Palestine in 1948. While there were some minor conflicts and skirmishes between the Arabs and the Jews prior to 1948, those ongoing tensions erupted into a full civil war and countless bloody battles that have claimed the lives of many innocent people and have dominated the international political arena for over seven decades. Peace efforts to bring a resolution to the world’s most intractable conflict, including proposals for a three-state solution, a two-state solution and one-state solution have all failed. And with all these failed attempts, the two sides could not be further from and more pessimistic about reaching a lasting resolution that would address the Palestinian aspiration for a statehood and the Israeli concerns for security. A one-state solution remains the most viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it offers the Palestinians the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for a statehood and it gives the Israelis the security blanket that they have been looking for. Further, this solution would address some of the most complicated obstacles to peace such as settlements in the occupied territory, Palestinian right of return, and sovereignty over Jerusalem. Both sides will live in a binational state with equal rights under a free democracy. The conditions for an independent Palestinian state is no longer feasible due to the inexorable and irreversible advance of the settlements, Israeli civilian communities built on lands occupied by Israel, in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. The number of settlers in the West Bank has more than tripled since the Oslo Peace Agreement that was signed in 1993 by the Palestinian authority and the Israeli government. The agreement called for the cessation of hostilities and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the pre 1967 border, which marks all the Palestinian territories that were annexed by Israel during the 1967 War, which included the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Those areas make up roughly 22% of historic Palestine under the British mandate. Moreover, since the Oslo Accord, the number of illegal settlers living in the West Bank has increased from 110,000 to 341,000, and the number of settlement outposts has jumped from a handful to over 96 outposts (UNOCHA 2012). As of 2012, the percentage of West Bank land that has been ceased for the illegal use of settlement now stands at a staggering 42% of the total West bank area. This means that 341,000 settlers control 42% of the land in the West Bank, which is going to be part of any negotiated Palestinian state, compared to only 58% under the control of 2.8 million Palestinians. The Israeli government does not only keep a blind eye on the on the illegal land grab by settlers, but they also have adopted a policy of encouraging more settlers to relocate to settlement in the occupied territory by offering them a long list of generous benefits and incentives. Further, the Israeli Defense Forces afford the settlers the protection to usurp more land. This systematic infringement of the right of property, which is manifested in the seizure of a roughly 42% of the Palestinian land in the West Bank, have dealt a serious
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The situation on the ground, however, tells a different story as decades of futile negotiations that produced a number of elaborate agreements and initiatives ranging from the Oslo Accord in 1991, the Beirut summit in 2000, the Roadmap for peace in 2002, to Israeli–Palestinian talks in 2007 and 2009. None has culminated in addressing the pressing issues argued by both sides. I do not think that their demise could be attributed to lack of a political will by either side, but rather because the issues of the settlement, right of return and sovereignty over Jerusalem are complex and are not easy to tackle because of the significance of these issues to the Israelis and the Palestinians. The only viable solution to all of these issues is the establishment of a binational state with citizenship and equal rights in the combined entity for all inhabitants, without regard to ethnicity or
The situation on the ground, however, tells a different story as decades of futile negotiations that produced a number of elaborate agreements and initiatives ranging from the Oslo Accord in 1991, the Beirut summit in 2000, the Roadmap for peace in 2002, to Israeli–Palestinian talks in 2007 and 2009. None has culminated in addressing the pressing issues argued by both sides. I do not think that their demise could be attributed to lack of a political will by either side, but rather because the issues of the settlement, right of return and sovereignty over Jerusalem are complex and are not easy to tackle because of the significance of these issues to the Israelis and the Palestinians. The only viable solution to all of these issues is the establishment of a binational state with citizenship and equal rights in the combined entity for all inhabitants, without regard to ethnicity or