Years have passed without any discernible progress toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and few reasons exist to feel optimistic that things will change for the better. Israel’s far-right government embraces an uncompromising position toward the Palestinian cause, while Palestinians themselves have little confidence in their own leaders.
This reality prompted four scholars of the Middle East to argue the two-state solution is long dead and that Israel exists as a one-state reality. In an essay in Foreign Affairs, the four authors say Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank is tantamount to apartheid. Their essay prompted several responses accusing the authors of ignoring Palestinian responsibility for the absence of peace. Gaza, for instance, has been ruled since 2007 by Hamas, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 1997. Israel maintains a blockade of Gaza and strict control of its entry and exit points.
In this episode of History As It Happens, George Washington University political scientist Michael Barnett defends his and his co-authors’ argument that Israeli rule resembles apartheid and explains their position that policymakers and analysts should drop the illusion of a possible two-state solution to a conflict that dates to the creation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948, if not earlier.
“That single state is one in which Jews have political power and representation, but then there are another 5 million [non-Jews] who live in Gaza and the West Bank who don’t have citizenship. We argue that it’s akin to apartheid… Israel has a different set of laws and a different set of politics for those who are Jews versus those who are non-Jews,” said Mr. Barnett, who co-edited “The One-State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine?”
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