Electronic Intifada Founder Advocating Bi-National Solution for Palestine

An American son of Palestinian exiles, Abunimah’s lost cause narrative left University of Arizona activists cold as the Palestinian resistance disappeared into a mangle of demographic numbers which Abunimah declared held the key to the resolution of the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. Ali Abunimah has degrees from Princeton (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (M.A.).

After years of soul searching on the question, Abunimah recently abandoned the two state solution in favor of a new idea called the “bi-national state”, which he claimed could be achieved in five years. He lamented the fact that “We can not change U.S. policy fast enough to save the two state solution.” And that no international coalition exists to pressure Israel into accepting it. Abunimah downplayed armed resistance as a means of obtaining Palestinian rights since it only “made colonization costly but has been unable to stop the occupation or reverse it” and called martyrdom operations “illegitimate resistance.”

Instead, Abunimah devoted his attention to the demographic questions of Palestinian-Zionist relations, which he claimed would ultimately cause the realization within the Zionist bloc of the need for a bi-national state. 

According to census estimates there will be 6.3 million Jews and 8.8 million Palestinians in the Holy Land by 2020, which would force the Zionist entity to act either in terms of ethnic cleansing or in terms of reconciliation.

He admitted that the vast majority of the Zionists reject the possibility of a “bi-national state” in Palestine in favor of ethnic cleansing, which he found “understandable” since he felt Zionists are primarily motivated by fear. 

Although the one state solution was a central plank of the PLO before Oslo, he said, “The PLO never presented anything acceptable to the Israelis.” He went on to assert that it is not because of the benefits of conquest that the “Israelis” reject the bi-national state, but only through the fear of the Palestinians. 

In contradistinction to the PLO charter affirming the unequivocal Palestinian right to the length and breadth of the land, Abunimah’s proposal claims “the key goals of Zionism could be realized” by guaranteeing both the legitimate Palestinian “right to return” and the illegal Zionist “law of return” could co-exist; thereby giving “100% of the land to 100% of the people.”

Abunimah proposed to allay Zionist fears by promising a “reconciliation commission” similar to the reconciliation commission created in South Africa after the ANC broke the back of the apartheid system in 1994. During the “reconciliation” in South Africa, the criminals behind the racist apartheid system were granted full amnesty for merely admitting whom they had killed and how they had done it. None of the racist South African rulers ever went to jail for their crimes. “Reconcile not revenge,” he said.

He also claimed that it is the burden of the Palestinians to convince Israelis of the wisdom of the “bi-national state” solution, as “it is the burden of the oppressed to educate the oppressors,” he said. Abunimah praised Norman Finkelstein and urged Jews and Palestinians to sit down and “talk about it, and give it some thought”.

Electronic Intifada was founded in February 2001 by Ali Abunimah, Nigel Perry, Arjan El Fassed and Laurie King-Irani. Electronic Intifada is a 501c3 charitable organization and costs $50,000 per year to maintain, labor donated.

Majdur Travail is the editor of Al-Masakin

(http://majdur.htmlplanet.com)

MT/HG

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