Last night I attended a talk given by Jeff Halper, a man I met 9 years ago when he was attending a hearing in Chicago on Israeli violations of human rights. He spoke last night primarily about a one state solution for all the people of Palestine/Israel.
Jeff was born and spent his youth in the U.S. before moving to Israel and becoming a citizen there in 1974. He is active in the Israeli Campaign Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD) that rebuilds Palestinian home demolished by Israel. Israel uses demolitions as a way of evicting Palestinians citing Israeli laws that prevent any construction in Palestinian areas. Jeff mentioned in his talk that ICAHD had over the years rebuilt 300 homes, but that Israel had demolished 50,000 since 1967. I took a look at my post about Jeff from 9 years ago and noted the figure for demolitions at the time was 24,000 so Israel has been very busy.
On this trip to the states, Jeff is also promoting his new book, War Against the People, that tells of the large worldwide market for Israeli military and security related hardware. He told us that Israel is the second largest arms supplier to China and he displayed a map of the world indicating all the places where Israeli items from Kfir jets to crypto-analytic software are sold. Israel promotes its products as tested and proven which Jeff told us means used upon the Palestinians.
With all this income from exports, one has to wonder why the United States is providing Israel with $38 billion in military hardware over the current ten year long "memorandum of understanding" signed by President Obama. The answer is, of course, that the great majority of that money must be spent on U.S. military equipment. It is a gift both to Israel and U.S. military contractors.
Jeff spoke passionately for 90 minutes, letting us know what I already knew, that the two-state solution offered in what were claimed to be peace talks and the solution that is automatically voiced by U.S. politicians who know it is a safe position to take, is dead. He showed a map of the West Bank that makes it obvious that there is no place for a Palestinian state. Israel never intended such a state to be and has always refused to call its rule of the West Bank an occupation since in the view of most Israelis the land is Israel's that just happens to have Arabs living on it...for now.
If not two states, then the future must be one state for all the people, not just Jews. In answer to what the state might be called, Jeff joked it might be "Palestein" but the concept is quite serious. The group associated with the promotion of the idea was founded by 100 people, Jews and Arabs, including Jeff, called One Democratic State Campaign (Facebook) and has a ten point political program outlining what ODSC stands for...
1. a single constitutional democracy
2. the right of return for Palestinian refugees
3. individual rights shared by all
4. collective rights (no discrimination against any community)
5. immigration open to all
6. construction of a shared society (institutions open to all)
7. economic justice (ending the current full services for Jews and substandard service for Arabs)
8. commitment to human rights, justice and peace.
9. joining with those in Arab countries who long to see democracy in their states as well
10. joining the international community of progressives supporting an alternative global order that
stands for egalitarianism and the end of intolerance, oppression and wars
I see nothing in this list I would disapprove, but as I mentioned in a question I asked Jeff, the government of Israel, one that has been repeatedly supported by a majority of Israelis, stands four square for sustaining the oppressive apartheid system they conduct at present. The road to implementation of a single state for all will be rough and cannot make progress without the support of the United States, which, though it claims to be for liberty and justice for all, backs the opposite in Israel.
