Introduction

Reproduced below is a very interesting and perceptive piece, by exiled Palestinian blogger Nahida Izzat, which does quite far-sightedly raise the possibility of what could be a South African style sellout of the Palestinian struggle through a bourgeois ‘single democratic state’ that would preserve the essence of Zionism – Jewish supremacy – while removing some of the most blatant formal crimes and allowing a formal democracy.

At times the author sounds a bit like Malcolm X in rejecting collaboration and support from Jewish liberals, reformist and liberal-leftists the way Malcolm did to white liberals and leftists in the black struggle in America in the 1960s. She may well alienate Jewish and other Western liberals and even some who are not so liberal with her raising of the possibility that a ‘single democratic state’ under capitalism might be Zionism under a new guise. That’s tough. These questions are up for debate and discussion anyway; all possible outcomes and their likely consequences have to be explored.

Her points about the material, economic and military advantages of the Jewish settlers being preserved in such a bourgeois single state are certainly correct. A single state with formal equality would end the Jewish state and thereby the project of political Zionism in a formal sense.

But under capitalism, you would see a highly unequal society where the Arab majority still suffer from racial oppression in a disguised form, as a predominantly Jewish ruling class monopolized the economy through its far greater wealth and international connections.

The solution to this is permanent revolution; the national and democratic struggles cannot limit themselves to purely ‘democratic’ questions but must go on to expropriate capital in order to really secure real democracy for the oppressed, through the rule of Soviets, organised democratic bodies that organise workers and other oppressed layers as a class.

Only a massive, consciously revolutionary upheaval across the Arab world could assemble enough force behind the Palestinians to destroy the coherence of the Zionist movement in Israel.

This may require the creation of one or more workers states in Arab countries to provide such a force. If the Jewish labour aristocracy in Israel were confronted with such a happening, in unison with another intifada of Palstinian Arabs including so-called Israeli Arabs, it would likely crack.

In the meantime, if a one-state pseudo-democratic ‘solution’ were on the table, it would be a huge shift from where we are now. Such an attempt to fool the masses, if attempted, could lay the basis for much deeper struggles tending towards permanent revolution. In formal terms, it would concede that Zionism for 70 years or more was illegitimate. It would make any new sellout highly unstable since that key principle would no longer have legitimacy.

A collectivised economy based on the social weight of the organised, mainly Arab working class of the region, would expropriate capital in Israel. ‘Israel’ would no longer be Israel but a Palestinian workers state allied with neighbouring workers states. That would resolve the questions of continuing oppression and inequality that Nahida is writing about here.

Thoughts on One Democratic State

By Nahida Izzat

Some activists are worried that my passion for justice and my advocacy for full restoration of Palestinians’ inalienable rights might “alienate” some Jewish supporters. They claim Palestinians desperately need Jewish support.To them I have this to say:

Palestine has now been under the heel of violent foreign rulers since a full Century. Palestinians have always been eager to get international support, including from Jews. Since a full century, the naturally trustful Palestinians were grateful and delighted to give a platform to whomever showed the slightest interest in their cause. Tragically, this resulted in our authentic Palestinian narrative was gradually silenced. Genocidal atrocities are ongoing since a century are ongoing. Our will to self-determination is untamed. Our Right to be sovereign inside our own land, is intact. Our historic, cultural and national identity, is as strong as ever. Yet all is more or less silenced.

Today we have the terribly dangerous situation where the authentic Palestinian narrative is so absent, that it has never been truly heard or appreciated in the West.

Every time an uncompromising authentic Palestinian voice steps up assertive and strong, it is quickly muffled and tucked away, as to not offend Jewish supporters or to not scratch their sensitivities.

Unconditionally and almost religiously pro-Palestinian organizations have sought Jewish approval in every event, every talk, ever letter, every petition, every motion and every campaign. This went on for decades. I know it from first hand experience, and also from the many Palestinians who echo this same disturbing experience almost globally.

Whenever an authentic Palestinian voice steps out of the narrow confinement of such censored discourse, they are immediately reprimanded and told in no uncertain terms that they have crossed the lines defined by Jewish “supporters”. When a Palestinian refuses to be terrorized by such Thought Police, he or she faces defamation, blacklisting, ostracism, and even threats.

On the day of signing of Oslo agreement, I remember sitting on the staircase in shock, sobbing for the rest of the day, for I knew what is to come. Yet the pro Palestinian camp with all its Jewish “supporters” in control, embraced the move. Palestinians were deceived into believing that a Palestinian state will come into being within five years. They were led to believe the Palestinian problem is on the verge of being resolved once and for all, and closure was eminent, nothing could have been further from truth. And the genocidal slaughter continued, worse then ever. And it continues today.

For the twenty five years that followed, “israel” used the “peace process” to proceed with it’s undeclared aims of total colonisation of West Bank and Gaza. The number of settlers sky rocketed and settlements have multiplied many folds over, making it impossible for any Palestinian state to exist on a land infested with and totally disconnected by Jewish only settlements and Jewish only roads.

In the present, “israel” has managed to totally conquer Palestine by war and terror. It has created a new reality on the ground, by annexing most of the land of historic Palestine, reducing Palestinian areas into fragmented open prisons where Jewish “israelis” can kill-at-will. “israel” together with its international Jewish support network has reduced and degraded the Palestinian population from a formerly radiant, self-sufficient, productive, cohesive, cooperative affluent society into an aid-dependent, traumatized, unproductive, poverty stricken population. The degradation is even practiced by distributing free narcotics to the Palestinian youth!

Despite having achieved their Jewish Zionist goals of total dominance over land and population, the geo-political circumstances are rapidly changing.

Increasingly, the strategists and think tanks of the Jewish state realise that they have passed the highest moment of success, and that the world community in spite of some coerced puppet governments, is vary rapidly turning against the Jewish state. They began to feel the heat, of growing isolation, of world disdain. In this context, the next logical step from the perspective of their think tanks and strategists, is to seek the total finalization of their Zionist project, by seeking legitimacy from the rightful natives, through legalization, and through mass campaigns to gain “the hearts and minds” from world community by any artifice necessary.

Such step would guarantee their permanent presence in Palestine while securing themselves with “peace treaties’. And while the Arab Muslims remain majority in greater region, their total hegemony and dominance; financial, economical, militaristic, technological, administrative, educational, would be guaranteed.Their next strategic move would be to offer a luring “solution” which would lure Palestinian support by nominally less oppression, by feigning “equality” while knowing that in reality their hegemony will remain de-facto, due to the huge economical, technological, industrial, and of course military gap between the two groups. Nothing, absolutely nothing in the Jewish state exhibits a willingness to relinquish any part of their control over all apparatus of power in the region. And it is an irrefutable fact, demonstrated by a century of nefarious “facts on the ground” that the Jewish Zionists who invaded Palestine and their aggravated offspring, will never voluntarily relinquish their weaponry, military, and aggressive violence.

Add to this unsettling scenario the most horrific component of ideological supremacy which would no doubt manifest in an explosion of settler violence against Palestinians who are seen as mere slaves created only to serve Jews.

That horrific deception is a strategic move already has a name. “One Democratic State”,  “with Equal Rights to All its Citizens”. Very easy to be deceived by such a lofty romantic title, except that it is a cruel misnomer, a sirens’ song to fool and victimise, one last lethal time.

“It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled” as goes the adage sometimes attributed to Mark Twain

Leading Palestinians by the nose​, dangling the carrot of “One Democratic State” and ​promising them of a “bright” ​joined ​future​ with their persecutors,​ while knowing fair well that the promised crumbs will never come to fruition, exactly as the crumbs of Oslo, due to the fact-on-the-ground dominance coupled with lethal ideological supremacy​.

“ODS-Equal Rights”,​ is not only an act of egregious deception, it is designed to perpetuate wars and genocide, by rewarding sadistic terrorists, thus it is an act of betrayal to humanity.