Shlomi Fish

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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is probably the single gravest problem in Israeli external politics, at present. (and naturally of Palestinian external politics) So far its solution eluded the minds of most politicians of both sides. This article will propose just that, for both sides. One editorial note: “Palestinians” in the context of this article are the Palestinian Arabs who live in the west-bank and Gaza. I do not refer by it to the other members of the Palestinian people living outside the occupied territories. (unless explicitly said otherwise) (Note that this article is based on an older and unofficial essay that the author of these line wrote in his online diary. Its content is still relevant, but otherwise superseded by this essay. )

Before we begin proposing a solution let’s enumerate the various elements of the current situation, be they problematic or not, and explain what’s wrong with them. A Partial Palestinian Autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza - there’s a Palestinian governing body that controls a large part of the occupied territories directly, and affects the rest of the Palestinians. It is headed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (or the PLO for short). Many Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Territories - there are many such settlements, each contain several settlers, and they are all heavily protected by the Israeli armed forces. Palestinian Terrorists perform many acts of terror against Israelis. Israeli Soldiers and Settlers are killing many Palestinians. Israel supplies relief to the Palestinians so they can survive. Israeli soldiers are protecting the Jewish settlements. This is a huge consumption of resources to the Israeli military. The Israelis are Blaming the Palestinians. Most Israelis believe that the Palestinians are responsible for the current situation. The Palestinians blame the Israelis. I don’t know that for sure but it seems logical to assume this.

This section will cover several logical and ethical principles that are necessary for formulating a proper solution. It will explain why they hold and also briefly cover their implications.

A Person has a basic right to live everywhere he chooses and can support himself. Depriving a person of his home or banishing him is immoral, because you put a gun against his head and ask him to leave against his will. There are many implications to this. One of them is that the Palestinians should be allowed to live in the territories as well as Israelis in Israel. Furthermore, the Jewish settlers should be allowed to stay in the settlements, if they can allow their own protection. There is a claim that one can deprive members of different people from the right to inhabit a certain land because the ancestors used to live there. This claim does not hold. Any person can settle anywhere he pleases. This ends the Zionist claim that Palestine belongs to the Jews. Or the Palestinian claim that they are the rightful owners of the Palestine.

On the other hand, forcing a person to protect someone against his will is immoral. This is simply because it goes against the free will of the person who does the protection. (you put a gun against a person’s head and tell him “Protect someone else!”). The implications of this are that Israeli soldiers who at the moment are, against their will, protecting settlements should not be required to do this.

It should be noted that a person has a basic right to bear arms, and carry weapons. Again, this is part of the freedom of the individual.

A person or group of persons who routinely blame their own problems on others are behaving irrationally. By all means, every group should take responsibility for its own problems. It is evident that the Palestinians blame the Israelis for their problems and vice versa and that’s not good.

This is a short-term solution to the problem. However, Israel has many other constitutional problems that make a permanent resolution problematic. They will be discussed in the next section. Israeli soldiers should be given a choice of whether or not to protect the settlements. A soldier may decide against protecting the settlements at any time. This is in accordance with the fact that no-one can force a different person to protect someone. Those soldiers who will opt out of protecting the settlements will serve in the territorial Israel exclusively. The settlements can either remain using only their own self-protection and that of the soldiers who are willing to protect them, or its settlers can choose to relocate to Israel, where they be given alternative homes. (as their right as Israeli citizens) Preferably: stop giving relief to the Palestinians. If it implies establishing a Palestinian state, so be it. That way, the Israelis will no longer need to support the settlements, which are a huge waste of resources, and can safely exit out of the settlements. Protecting Israel against attacks would be easier from within the territorial Israel, without having to protect tens of settlements and their inhabitants.

Israel has a constitutional problem that prevents proper external relationship with Arabs. The problem is that Israel has constitutional racism and its bylaws discriminate against non-Jews in many ways. For proper Justice and Liberalism this constitutional racism needs to be eliminated. Otherwise, Arabs have a legitimacy to think Israel is their enemy, as it is clearly and constitutionally discriminates against them. The most important discrimination is in the immigration laws. At the moment, Jews can get automatic citizenship, while becoming an Israeli citizen for non-Jews is much more complicated. This has to be changed into one unified law for both Jews and non-Jews. The best option would be to allow anyone to enter Israel, and to work there, while giving citizenship to a person regardless of his religion or nationality after he or she has proved that he’s worthy of it. At the moment, there are only religious marriages, divorces, adoptions, etc. in Israel. This completely disallows Jews marrying non-Jews and other such anomalies. To resolve this problem, Israel must establish civil marriages, divorces and adoptions and other marital law. Arabs are at the moment exempted for army service, while Jews are obliged to serve there. To solve it either the army should be mandatory for everybody, or voluntary for everybody. The best solution is to eliminate the draft completely and enact a voluntary service. At the moment, there is also a discrimination in government funding between Israeli Arabs and Jews. This must be resolved. It should be noted that Israel is the land of the Israeli and not the land of the Jew. Eliminating such factors, may not completely eliminate the anti-Israeli sentiments that many Arabs have, but it will certainly help. At the moment, there’s a lot of evidence that serves as the basis for such sentiments.

Remember the peaceful and prosperous period of time a few years ago? There were few acts of violence, Palestinians cooperated with the Israelis, and Palestinians prospered. Palestinians should strive to re-enact this period. The Palestinian solution is simply to stop the terrorist acts. They are better off bargaining without them. Such acts only increase the Israeli hostility and hatred towards the Palestinians. The are many non-violent forms of opposing the occupation that are more effective (refer to Mohandas Gandhi and the Indian Opposition.) So Palestinians should not sanction terrorists and other activists, and those who are should quit.

The Geneva Accord is not adequate as it is three serious flaws: It advocates disarming the terror organizations. I don’t see how it can be done efficiently and the right to bear arms also come to mind. I would advocate the opposite: give arms to each and every Palestinian. That way, they will be less afraid of the terror organizations, who in turn would be much more afraid of them. (you could allow all Israelis to carry arms as well, for good measure.) It advocates forcibly evacuating the Israeli settlements. By all means the Israeli Settlers have a right to live there as every lawful person has a right to live anywhere. The entire concept of immigration regulation and “fathers’ land” is wrong. What is wrong is forcing other people to protect them living there. (as force is always wrong) This distinction must be understood and followed. Last, but probably most important is that it requires the mutual cooperation of both sides. One cannot expect the other side to follow his part of the deal, while my suggestion does not require the cooperation of the Palestinians.

A suggestion was made to build a separation fence, protecting Israel and the settlements from the Palestinians. This suggestion is wrong from the following reasons: It is still based on the assumption that the problem lies in the Palestinians. The Israelis fail to take responsibility for their own problems. Due to the fact that all the settlements are aimed to be included in Israel’s part of the fence, it would be 1000s of kilometres long in a 250*100 kilometre area. A huge and costly construction project. It will be a huge environmental disaster. Can potentially become a large defence problem. (at times of war). Will make a lot of legitimate traffic very difficult. Will make a lot of legitimate traffic very difficult. May not prevent the terrorist acts entirely - most suicide terrorists passed through border-passings. It is much less effective than withdrawing from the occupied territories. It is not something that Israel is allowed to do, according to International Law, and the status of the occupied territories.