Alaa El-Mahrakawy

900092397
POLS 356 | Society and State in the Middle East, 1906-Present
Spring 2012
Book Review - Hilal, Jamil, ed., 2007. Where Now for Palestine? London & New York: Zed. xi
+ 260 pp. ISBN 9781842778401.

The Palestine/Israel conflict is one of the longest conflicts of the Middle-East, perhaps
even the world at large, and continues to be the most controversial questions posed throughout
history. The right to self-determination is one that has often been taken for granted, but is one
that the Palestinians have been consistently denied. The two-state solution has been the only
solution discussed by the Israeli government and their Palestinian counterparts
1
. However, the
stalemate in progress towards a solution to this conflict, has led many scholars to consider other
alternatives to the two-state solution. Yet in order to understand the present situation in Palestine,
an examination of how the Palestine/Israel conflict started is crucial.
Upon the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the provinces that were once under Ottoman
control were arbitrarily divided amongst the imperialist powers (Britain and France), with
Palestine falling into the hands of the British colonialist
2
. Nationalism had spread throughout the
Middle-East bringing with it the call for self-determination, and Palestine was no exception to
this movement
3
. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration was issued, committing Britain to the
establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine
4
. Thus with Palestine in the
grips of the British through the mandate system, it became easy for Britain to fulfill this promise.
Zionist Jews flocked into Palestine with the aid of the British, and once the Palestinians realized
that the Zionists were aspiring for national establishment in Palestine, the Palestinian national
movement rose in its urgency
5
. Here it becomes here that the double standards of the British

1
Kurtzer, Daniel. "Reviving The Peace Process." National Interest 117 (2012): page 38
2
Cleveland, William L.. "The Palestine Mandate and the Birth of Israel." A history of the modern Middle East. 4th
ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2004: page 164
3
Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-state solution. Chapter 1: page 1
4
Cleveland page: 244
5
Hilal, J. (2002)
colonialists as well the relative lack of organization of the Arab population in comparison to the
Zionist movement played a large role in the success of the latter
6
. The pinnacle of Zionist
success came with the declaration of the state of Israel in May 1948, on 78% of Mandate
Palestine, with the remaining 22% comprising of the todays West Bank and Gaza Strip
7
. This
day would come to be known in Zionist histography as Independence Day, but for the
Palestinians this day is known as the Nakba, which literally means the catastrophe
8
.
When it was first initiated, the Oslo process was widely accepted as a step forward on the
path towards peace. Signed in 1933 between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and
Israel, Oslo was a compromise for the Palestinians who accepted the recognition of the
occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip as the territory of the
Palestinian state
9
. However, even those 22 % of land allocated to the Palestinians were not
respected by the Israeli state which continued to pursue its colonial settlement activities, and to
solidify its annexation and Judaization of East Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
10
These
alienating policies of the Israeli state have culminated in the death of the mandated negotiations
by the Oslo Accords between the two concerned parties. Published in 2007, Where Now for
Palestine? The Demise of the Two-State Solution, as editor Hilal Jamil stated in his introduction,
feeds on the growing realization among scholars that the Oslo process has died
11
. His insight as
to the collapse of the Oslo process; however, is not as interesting as the collective argument
made throughout the collection of essays in this book that point to the demise of the two-state
solution and the need to find other alternatives
12
.

6
de Figueiredo, Antonio. "The lessons of 1948." New African Aug. 2006: 20
7
Hilal, Jamil Palestine: the last colonial issue Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-state solution.
London & New York 2007:2
8
Ibid. Page 3
9
Ibid. Page 4
10
Ibid.
11
Jensehaugen, Jrgen. 2007. Page 1
12
Ali Abunimah . Book Review. Journal of Palestine Studies. 37. 3 (Spring 2008):100
Ilan Papp highlights that todays geo-political reality in Palestine is one that went
against the will of Palestines native population , who had all considered themselves as Arabs,
including its old Jewish community
13
. The idea of partitioning the land of Palestine only came
with ascent of the Zionist Jews into Palestine
14
. He further stresses the reality that the number of
Palestinians (inside Palestine and in refugee camps) is double the number of Jews inside
Palestine
15
. However, it was the balance of power that weighted in favor of the Zionist desire to
partition to the land
16
. However, there has been a drastic change in the circumstances of
Palestine/Israel since 1948 and the declaration of the state of Israel that make the re-examination
of the two-state solution, one that is also relevant for Israeli nationalists.
For starters, the demographics of Israel have changed, with the number of Palestinians
growing and the number of Israeli Jews at a standstill due to the decline in the number of Jewish
emigrants to Israel
17
. This issue of demography is identified by Asad Ghanem as pivotal to the
Israeli government trying to maintain the Jewish nature of the state through the pursuit of
Judaization policies in Israel
18
. He argued that Israeli annexation of large portions of Arab areas
like the West Bank, changes the demographics of Israel to create an ipso facto bi-national state
19
. Any examination of the Israeli governments foreign policy reveals an unwillingness to
withdraw from the settlements
20
. This fact, in congruence with the growing demographics of
Palestinians inside Israel makes the one state solution the only viable solution
21
.
Sharif El- Musa illustrates that the problems with the two-state solution, lies in the sheer
impossibility of the emergence of a viable Palestinian state for several factors. The first is the

13
Papp,Ilan Zionism and the two-state solution Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-state solution.
London & New York(2007):32
14
Papp, 34
15
Papp:31
16
Papp: 36
17
Ghanem, Asad Israel and the danger of demography Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-
state solution. London & New York (2007): 50
18
Ghanem: 72
19
Ghanem: 52
20
Wall, James M. "Israeli Voices." Christian Century 119.1 (2002): 45
21
Pappe: 44
constantly shrinking geographical space allocated to the Palestinians; whereas he describes
Palestine as a collection of Palestinian Bantustans
22
. James Wall (1999), similarly described
the Palestinian territories, stating that it is understandable that the Palestinians have little
enthusiasm for a state made up of separated enclaves within Israel
23
. The second factor he
mentions is the denial of the Palestinian right of return, which causes tension to flourish among
the Palestinians who wish to return and further frustrates Jordan, which has bared the worst of
the blunt of the refugee problem
24
. The third factor he mentions is the apartheid system
implemented in Israel, which demotes the Arab-Israelis as second class citizens
25
. Finally, he
hypothesizes that the acquisition of a state in Gaza and the west bank would in fact encourage
the Palestinians to press for greater political power, thereby exacerbating national and ethnic
disputes in Israel
26
. Thus for Musa, the two state solution causes more problems than anything
else and the only way forward is through the pursuit of the one state solution. Feeding into this
rhetoric Sufyan Alissa adds another factor not considered by Musa, which is the economic
independence of Palestine. For her all Israeli policies have shaped the nature of economic
development in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
27
. Her critic of these policies is that while they
insure the national security of Israel, they play a huge role in undermining the viability of the
Palestinian economy and its indigenous economic base
28
.
In contrast to the practical issues that are brought up by Musa and Safyan, Karma Nabulsi
adds the touch of justice and the rights of people to self-determination under which the

22
El-Musa, Sharif Searching for a Solution Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-state solution. London
& New York (2007): 211
23
Wall, James M. "Palestinian Bantustans." Christian Century 116.35 (1999): 1211.
24
El-Musa: 211
25
El-Musa: 211
26
El-Musa: 211
27
Alissa, Safyan The Economics of an Independent Palestine Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-
state solution. London & New York (2007): 124
28
Safyan: 124
Palestinian right of return is included
29
. Nabulsi argued that when it was first initiated the PLO
was representative of all Palestinians including the refugees
30
. However, with the Oslo process
and the neglect to address the question of the refugees, Nabulsi argues that the PLO stopped
being representative of its people
31
. Unlike all the other contributors to this book, she sees no
benefit in discussing neither the two-state nor the one state solution until the Palestinian side of
the conflict has real representation
32
. However, some scholars have criticized Nabulsi for not
providing a strategy for her proposed reformation of the PLO
33
.

Though this book provides great insight and a new way to look at the Palestine/Israel
conflict, it seems to be missing some key ingredients. From the onset, the contributors in this
book wrote with some bold assumptions. First, they assumed that the audience already accepts
that Israel has committed many violations of international law, which is clear in the analogies
drawn up comparing Israel to apartheid regimes in South Africa. They also wrote with the
assumption that the audience accepted for fact that Israel escapes punishment only because it has
continually been sponsored by a world power (first Britain then the United States)
34
. Naturally
these assumptions are not accepted by the Israeli government nor the Israeli people. Thus for the
purpose of advocating for a bi-national one-state solution this book approaches half of its
targeted audience- the Israeli citizens- in the wrong manner.
Another weakness of this book is its purely abstract nature. The contributors of this
volume approached the issue of the two-state solution from different angles and identify
different obstacles to its actualization. The arguments provided in this book in favor of the one-

29
Nabulsi, Karma Justice as the way forward Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-state solution.
London & New York (2007): 233
30
Nabulsi: 235
31
Nabulsi: 244
32
Nabulsi 250-251
33
Abunimah :102
34
See page 5: Jamil argues that the PA accepted inclusion of the issue of statehood in the final status negotiations
because it had assumed mistakenly, that Israel would try to deal with the final status issues on the basis of
international law, thereby to some degree redressing historic justice, and not on the basis of the balance of power,
as in fact Israel did.
state solution are very strong, yet what this book fails to offer is a systemized process by which
the one-state solution can be reached.

Works Cited
Ali Abunimah . Book Review. Journal of Palestine Studies, Volume 37, Number 3 (Spring
2008), pp. 100-102,
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=400AAC8397CB7E163817

Cleveland, William L.. "The Palestine Mandate and the Birth of Israel." A history of the modern
Middle East. 4th ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2004. 239-271. Print.

Cleveland, William L.. "World War I and the End of the Ottoman Order." A history of the
modern Middle East. 4th ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2004. 149-170. Print.

de Figueiredo, Antonio. "The lessons of 1948." New African Aug. 2006: 20+. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 15 Mar. 2012.

Hilal, J. (2002) The Formation of the Palestinian Elite (in Arabic), Ramallah and Amman: and
Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Centre.
Hill, Jaml, Ilan Pappe, et al. Where now for Palestine?: the demise of the two-state solution.
London: Zed, 2007. Print.
Jensehaugen, Jrgen. "Hilal, Jamil, Ed., 2007. Where Now for Palestine? London & New York:
Zed. Xi + 260 Pp. ISBN 9781842778401." Journal of Peace Research 46.2 (2009): 286-
7.Web.
Kurtzer, Daniel. "Reviving The Peace Process." National Interest 117 (2012): 38-46. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
Wall, James M. "Palestinian Bantustans." Christian Century 116.35 (1999): 1211. MasterFILE
Premier. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
Wall, James M. "Israeli Voices." Christian Century 119.1 (2002): 45. MasterFILE Premier.
Web. 15 Mar. 2012.