Just a couple of years ago, virtually no one in mainstream media wanted to talk about a single democratic state – a one-state solution – in Palestine. That was true even though it was already widely a topic of discussion, debate and indeed acceptance among many Palestinians, within the solidarity movement and beyond.
Now things do seem to be changing. This morning the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) carried a 30 minute interview with me and Daniel Gavron, an Israeli supporter of a single democratic state, on its flagship radio news program The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti.
The program summary:
We started this segment with how US President Barack Obama characterized the fight over the Palestinian National Authority’s bid for statehood. And to some extent, he has a point. Despite the diplomatic battles of the last week, both the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli Government say they are committed to the same goal – two states existing side-by-side in peace. And yet, the two sides don’t seem close to that goal.
So, a handful of Palestinians and Israelis have come to a radical conclusion, saying a two-state solution isn’t going to work and that it’s time to try something different. They argue a single country shared by both Israelis and Palestinians is a better, or at least a more practical, goal. Our next two guests both believe that one state may be a preferable solution – although they came to that conclusion for different reasons and from very different perspectives. Daniel Gavron is an Israeli writer who lives near Jerusalem. And Ali Abunimah is a Palestinian writer and activist who lives in Chicago.
It looks like the ideas captured in the One-State Declaration are finally getting a mainstream hearing.
Worldview looks at Palestinian UN statehood bid
While I am sharing radio interviews, last week I was on Chicago Public Radio’s Worldview, discussing the Palestinian bid for membership of the United Nations as a “state.”
The Worldview interview was prompted in part by my 19 September article in Foreign Affairs “A Formal Funeral for the Two-State Solution.”
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