Isratine
 Isratine  (Idea)   | |
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| Proposed Middle Eastern state (portmanteau of Israel and Palestine) |
Isratine also known as the bi-national state is a proposed unitary, federal or confederate Israeli-Palestinian state encompassing the present territory of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Depending on various points of view, such a scenario is presented as a desirable one-state solution to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, or as a calamity in which Israel would ostensibly lose its character as a Jewish state and the Palestinians would fail to achieve their national independence within a two-state solution. Increasingly, Isratine is being discussed not as an intentional political solution – desired or undesired – but as the probable, inevitable outcome of the continuous growth of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the seemingly irrevocable entrenchment of the Israeli occupation there since 1967.[1]
Contents
Gaddafi plan
The Gaddafi Isratine proposal intended to permanently resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through a secular, federalist, republican one-state solution, which was first articulated by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, at the Chatham House in London and later adopted by Muammar Gaddafi himself.
Main points
Its main points are:
- Creation of a binational Jewish-Palestinian state called the "Federal Republic of the Holy Land";
- Partition of the state into 5 administrative regions, with Jerusalem as a city-state;
- Return of all Palestinian refugees;
- Supervision by the United Nations of free and fair elections on the first and second occasions;
- Removal of weapons of mass destruction from the state;
- Recognition of the state by the Arab League.
Federal Republic of the Holy Land
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's proposal was eventually incorporated in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's "White Book" of 8 May 2003, which served as his official guide to address the Arab–Israeli conflict and how to solve it. Despite the suggestion of "Federal Republic of the Holy Land" as the name of this hypothetical new state, the name Isratine, a portmanteau of the names "Israel" and "Palestine", has been used as a "working title" for the notion of a single state in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Palestinians and Jewish inhabitants of all three having citizenship and equal rights in the combined entity.
Avoiding partition
Muammar Gaddafi again championed the "Isratine proposal" in an op-ed article for the New York Times as the "only option" for a solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The timing of the article approximately coincided with the inauguration of Barack Obama as US President and with the cease-fire that apparently marked the end of the Gaza War (2008–09). Gaddafi argued that this solution would avoid the partitioning of West Bank into Arab and Jewish zones, with buffer zones between them.[2]
Solution is Isratine
In his speech to the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2009, Muammar Gaddafi proposed Isratine as the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
With regard to the Palestinian situation, the two-State solution is impossible; it is not practical. Currently, these two States completely overlap. Partition is doomed to failure.
These two States are not neighbours; they are coextensive, in terms of both population and geography. A buffer zone cannot be created between the two States because there are half a million Israeli settlers in the West Bank and a million Arab Palestinians in the territory known as Israel.
The solution is therefore a democratic State without religious fanaticism or ethnicity. The generation of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat is over. We need a new generation, in which everyone can live in peace. Look at Palestinian and Israeli youth; they both want peace and democracy, and they want to live under one State. This conflict poisons the world.
"The White Book" actually has the solution; I hold it here. The solution is Isratine.
Arabs have no hostility or animosity towards Israel. We are cousins and of the same race. We want to live in peace. The refugees should go back. You are the ones who brought the Holocaust upon the Jews. You, not we, are the ones who burned them. We gave them refuge. We gave them safe haven during the Roman era and the Arab reign in Andalusia and during the rule of Hitler. You are the ones who poisoned them; you are the ones who annihilated them. We provided them with protection. You expelled them. Let us see the truth. We are not hostile; we are not enemies of the Jews. And one day the Jews will need the Arabs. At that point, Arabs will be the ones to give them protection, to save them, as we have done in the past. Look at what everybody else did to the Jews. Hitler is an example. You are the ones who hate the Jews, not us.[3]
Johan Galtung
Johan Galtung, the father of peace research was an early proponent of the idea of a joint state. His vision for the peaceful transformation of the Israel/Palestine conflict stresses the important recognition of the 'need to enter a new element, a new dimension and way of thinking.' Based on the model of the European Community as it was created in 1958, Galtung suggests a 6-state solution. He proposes the creation of a Middle East Community including Lebanon,Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt along with Israel. These states would thus be brought into joint cooperation and dialogue. Galtung has stressed equal rights as a key to peace within this conflict, and proposes the creation of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. Furthermore this stems, Galtung points out, from a fundamental principle in peace practice and theory: 'if you want something in relation to the other parties be willing to give that to the others too.'[4]
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References
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