Only one state between the river and the sea can end apartheid

Yousef Munayyer, former executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, wrote in a Foreign Affairs column in 2019 that the two-state solution has become "little more than a fig leaf for the United States and other great powers to hide behind" as they allow Israel to proceed with apartheid. 

Certain of the two-state solution's failure, Munayyer advocated for a one-state solution where both Palestinians and Israelis will live with equal rights and dignity. 

The failure of the two-state solution in ending the crisis between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea and hence questioning its viability in bringing peace to the holy land, however, is not new. 

Former US Secretary John Kerry was one of the major high profiles involved in the Israel-Palestine peace process to admit that the two-state solution would no longer be viable after two years. He said this in Congress in 2013. 

Around eight years down the road, today, as Israel continues to shell Palestinian territories, kill innocent Palestinians including children in hundreds; as Hamas continues to shell thousands of rockets inside Israel, the two-state solution remains all but in paper, and as a 'fig leaf' of excuse for the western politicians.

The idea of two-state solution was born in the Oslo Accords signed by the Israeli government led by Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation - PLO's Yasser Arafat. It genuinely ignited hope for peace in the conflict zone for a time being. 

But there was serious opposition to the accord both in Palestine and Israel. 

The critics in Palestine found the accord humiliating as the PLO remained content with only 22% of the land and it recognised Israel's right to exist without a clear roadmap about how a Palestinian state would be formed. 

In Israel, on the other hand, the accord was seen as an obstacle to the country's expansionist ambitions. 

The hardliners in Israel were not happy giving a dime to the Palestinians whom they expelled from their homes and whose land they colonised. 

Within a few years, PM Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. 

Ever since, Israel saw many prime ministers. Each of them spearheaded illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

In the 26 years between signing the Oslo Accords and the six-day war of 1967, the number of Israeli settlers grew to around100,000 in the occupied lands. 

But in the 26 years following the Accord, the number of settlers increased at least four times. 

An estimation says that around 700,000 Israeli settlers now live among the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

At present, under the right-wing PM Netanyahu, Israel apparently abandoned any pretence of seeking a two-state solution. 

If the Sheikh Jarrah eviction drives – that initiated the current violence – surprises you, let us remind you Benjamin Netanyahu's pre-election promises to annex Jordan Valley and every Israeli settlement in the West Bank that covers around 60% of the West Bank area. 

The remaining 40% are some sparsely isolated lands. 

So, what remains for the Palestinians to form a state? Nothing. 

Yet, the weak Palestinian leadership continues to seek a separate state knowing that the land they would have would not be enough for Palestinians to survive on. 

Also, it does not solve the Israeli apartheid on the land between the river and the sea. 

It is not only the Palestinians living in occupied West Bank, Gaza or the refugees elsewhere who are the victims of Israeli apartheid.  

The authority in Palestine is not considering the apartheid that the Arab citizens of Israel face every day. Even the Arab Jews of Israel are victims of the Israeli apartheid. 

In 2018, the Knesset passed a nefarious law called the Nation-State Law that discriminates against minorities, runs counter to democratic values, and undermines the principle of equality. 

It laid down the foundation of a majoritarian system in Israel, robbing the rights not only of the Palestinian citizens of Israel but also that of the Mizrahis, the middle-eastern Jewish citizens of Israel. 

On January 1, 2019, 60 prominent Mizrahi activists filed an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the apartheid law. 

Orly Noy, a Mizrahi activist said, "We are petitioning because (the Nation-State Law) also discriminates against us." 

It damages their connection with roots, culture, and language. It also damages "our ability to understand ourselves as a natural part of the geopolitical environment, which Israel very systematically tried to destroy." 

The colonial project of Israel thus supersedes any idea of religion or culture as the Zionists argue in creating the Jewish-Muslim divide between the people of holy land.

Like Israel's government paints the eviction drives in Sheikh Jarrah as a 'real estate' dispute to seize the land, the religious cards have been used in the same connotation to drive millions of Palestinians out of their homes. 

The Palestinian leadership, both the PLO and Hamas, will need to understand this and stop playing the game in Israel's way. 

Years of conflicts, violence and losses did not earn the Palestinians anything. 

They only reached from one 'Nakba' to another, one ethnic cleansing to another, gave the Israeli Zionist government excuses to kill thousands of innocent lives; and at the backdrop of the two-state solution doomed to fail, the western leaders had the privileges of fig-leaf-excuses to hide the Israeli colonialism.

It has been used as a tool for three decades by now to hide the Israeli government's apartheid. So, for good riddance, it has to go. 

Now, what promises the success of the one-state solution? It does not promise an immediate success. 

It will take years if not decades to end the Israeli apartheid created over nearly a hundred year. 

But when Israel spared no land to invade, dreaming on a separate state that has no chance of fulfilling the basic demands of the Palestinians is like living in a fool's paradise.

The settlers would feel threatened by actual progress in talks when it comes to the one-state solution since they care more about grabbing land than democracy and human rights. 

But the Israeli government is not necessarily the only evil on its way to destroying peace. 

The authority in Palestine will also need to come out of the cocoon they made out of greed to control territories and people, like other Arab authoritarian regimes. 

They need to lead people to the true solution, or resign from leadership to let the new generation to lead ahead. 

The new movement should be to end apartheid in the holy land and form a united country where people of all faiths live with equality and dignity.