LeVine Mark - One Land: Israel and Palestine as Parallel States

MATHIAS MOSSBERG AND MARK LEVINE

This volume analyzes the possibility and feasibility of establishing two parallel states, Israel and Palestine, on the same territory, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Two state structures exercising sovereignty over the same piece of land is an idea that has not previously been explored in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflictor almost any other setting, for that matter. At the heart of such a political arrangement is the still-novel idea of states responding primarily to their citizens, and only secondarily to their territory. In such a scenario, state structures would be separate and independent, but would have to take each other into account in most if not all major policy decisions and their broader function. Sovereignty over the broader territory would be both divided and shared between the two governing authorities and the bodies politic they represent.

This study, and the project it grew out of, is a provocation against conventional thinking, against the Middle East peace process as we know it, and against the main actors in the region and outside. The aim is not to provoke for the sake of provoking, but to study new thoughts and ideas that can contribute to opening a way forward toward a truly just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The study is also a provocation against established understandings of concepts such as sovereignty and state and against some of the most fundamental principles of international law the way we are accustomed to interpreting it.

As we write these lines, the peace process, which has now lasted for more than thirty years, has not yielded any results that can constitute a solid foundation for an end to conflict, or even building stones for such a foundation. Many observers have come to question whether there was ever any intention, at least on the part of some actors, to achieve results, or the peace process was instead meant to deflect interest and energy, not least the interest and energy of the international community, while the decisive action of the conflict was taking place on the ground and outside the limelight.

Our ideas are thus designed not merely as an alternative to the reality of deadlock and bleak prospects for progress that have for so long characterized the peace process. Even in the event that the process reaches fruition and produces a final status agreement that includes the creation of some sort of Palestinian state (as this book enters production, Israeli and Palestinian diplomats have just met for the first time in three years in Washington, D.C., ostensibly toward that end), we believe the conventional notions of dividing sovereignty territorially likely cannot support the long-term viability of either an independent and autonomous Palestinian state, or a healthy and productive relationship between two states divided so within the territory of historical Palestine/Eretz Yisrael. A truly just and lasting peace between Jews and Palestiniansthe only kind that can ensure security and development for both peopleswill require a new political architecture and even a new system of thought and interaction, one that ensures both the greatest possible autonomy and the fairest and most flexible level of integration and mutual support.

We anticipate that the concepts discussed in this book could enter into the already rich debates about the contents of metaconcepts such as sovereignty and territoriality, yet our main ambition is not to contribute to the development of theory in the areas we are engaging. On the contrary, this study is an attempt to focus on a specific conflict in all its particularities and to address this conflict in a new way that is specific to its histories and present dynamics. Nevertheless, we hope and believe that the ideas discussed here have the potential to be applied to other territorial conflictskin the Middle East and elsewherethat remain unresolvable within the traditional, territorially grounded nation-state framework.