This is a very important article that deserves a wide readership. I have frequently felt uncomfortable by the way that Western anti-Zionists tend to project our own ideas of "liberation" onto the Palestinians, without any real understanding of what it would take to establish a free Palestine.
My pleasure. It just happens to be a great, truly forward thinking analysis that presents a perspective which I think a lot of us have already considered - the viability of one state - but which I, at least, haven't previously seen laid out. You're pointing out a fundamental disconnect between what (well-meaning) Leftists want on the one hand, and what's feasible on the other, particularly in light of what Palestinians, themselves, want and need. This should be presented to good outlets with a bigger reach, like Electronic Intifada and Palestine Chronicle, for them to chew on as well.
It was actually published in Mondoweiss first (the article is linked at the very top of this page), but maybe next time we will try submitting to another one of these publications.
I think the examples of Zimbabwe and South Africa are important comparisons for a one-state solution. The power structures remained intact and now the white elite scream bloody murder at any thought of redistribution of land and/or wealth. I think Frantz Fanon's definition of decolonization where the last shall be first and the first last is a noble aim in this regard.
Speaking for those of us in Ireland, there is a political outlook in what the left say about Palestine because of the six counties and because it has brought together such a wide spectrum of people and then there is what we say in our own spaces in what decolonization is etc. Perhaps that's a cynical view, but it would be my experience.
Thanks for the article, Lara! Some unflitered thoughts I had along the way:
Regarding holding organizations accountable for their monetary support post-liberation: they could be penalized and have to pay some kind of a fine (reparations) to Palestinians.
Because Zionism's foundation is supremacy, a one democratic state with equal rights will naturally cause settlers who benefited from the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide to emigrate away from Palestine. And the right of return would leave the demographics as majority Palestinian, which will organically revert the way of life and cultural fabric back to Palestinian values rooted in caring for the land and community.
I would love for more dialogue to happen between Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, 48, and diaspora to be able to truly understand each other's perspectives and lived realities more.
I would add that a question that I almost never see addressed – not in the Global North and the Anglosphere, anyway – is "what on Earth?" is either the world at large, or a liberated Palestine, going to do with the multitude of habitual psychopathic killers that will either remain in Palestine, thereafter, or be dispersed in the aftermath of the eventual collapse of the present criminal Ethnosupremacist State of Israel?
.
I will only comment that, while the global community is more-or-less split (unevenly, I believe) between that part of the populace who vehemently oppose Israel's genocide of the Palestinians, and those who either proactively or tacitly support Israel's genocide; insofar as far too many people still seem to find the endless murders carried out by the Ethnosupremacists completely acceptable – as long as they are conducted "over there" and to "people who are not us" – it seems to me that they have NOT considered the effects that will undoubtedly ensure when such habitual murderers might ultimately be forced by circumstances to disperse globally until they end up in communities where they are right next door to themselves.
.
A year or so ago, I witnessed a short phone video released on social media of what anyone in the Global North or Anglosphere might take to be an extraordinary event to witness, but which is clearly quite commonplace in occupied Palestine – and which has been commonplace there since occupation began.
.
The event I witnessed on the video took place in a Russian airport, apparently – an encounter between a returning settler colonialist with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship. The settler colonialist, on seeing a Palestinian family walking through the concourse, picked up one of their children, raised the child above his head, and, quite literally, dashed the child against the ground.
.
All of this extraordinary violence was visible on the video. I say "extraordinary" – but only extraordinary within the Anglosphere and the Global North. In occupied Palestine, this is quite ordinary, is it not? And tolerated as such by many citizens of the Global North and the Anglosphere, and most certainly by their ruling classes.
.
The psychopath was arrested. The child was taken to hospital and treated for brain injury. What became of the child and their injuries, I do not know.
.
When I witnessed this event, I thought to myself… So, what will the communities of the Global North and Anglosphere experience when the countless multitudes of habituated Ethnosupremacist psychopathic murderers in occupied Palestine today, disperse from there, following the collapse of the State of Israel?
.
Lara Kilani offers us a further thought to consider: following liberation -- for its day will surely come – should the Palestinians people be obliged to be inflicted with the continuing presence of the same habituated Ethnosupremacist psychopathic murderers who killed and tormented so many of their brethren for so many years? And who are likely to do so again?
.
Are Lara points out, the so-called liberals of the West do seem to be asking the Palestinians what are their wishes in this matter. And that failure incorporates into any future arrangement of Palestine, the same failure that Western liberals have inflicted on Palestine for generations.
This article, by Lara Kilani, is, by far and away, one of the most profound essays I have read in the last two years, regarding the Palestinian community's own efforts to analyze and come to terms with the deep contradictions inherent in attempting to undo the decades of criminality that have perpetrated against them by the Ethnosupremacist Colonial Settler state of Israel, and which look to be continually perpetrated against them by the colonial setters on almost proposed path into the future.
.
I cannot recommend Lara's article enough. For anyone concerned about the present and future dire circumstances confronting the Palestinian community, this essay is a must-read.
You are very welcome, Lara. I hope to see more good essays from you. With that in mind, I have suscribed to your Subtack newsletter. Warm regards, Sean Bodhivajra.
Beautifully written, incisive and crucial analysis. Particularly grateful to read this at a time when liberals, right wing and mainstream forces alike are working overtime to whitewash narratives of liberation, demonize the resistance, and force normalizing liberal Zionist bile - rhetorical and material - on Palestinians more aggressively than ever. Thank you so much for this reference point and political clarity, Lara.
Excellent. Enlightening. Thank you. Makes perfect sense. I see the problem with fresh eyes. Not sure how militarised Israel can be dismantled sufficiently and the deprogramming of brain infected psychopathy of Zionist cultists can ever be achieved to not always be a constant threat to Palestinians. Complete sovereignty for Palestinians must be achieved.
Good article. The only point to be made about Tucker Carlson is that he is racist, sexist, transphobic and a supporter of US hegemony so any pronouncements he makes on Palestine are to be seen in light of this. If Beiner and co. only emphasised antisemitism, so far so typical!
In the one state, Jews would soon become a minority and lose control of the government.
Best is to go for the two-state solution which will require an international force to secure the borders and keep the peace. Then further reform is always possible, the options clearer and the strategies more viable.
This is a very important article that deserves a wide readership. I have frequently felt uncomfortable by the way that Western anti-Zionists tend to project our own ideas of "liberation" onto the Palestinians, without any real understanding of what it would take to establish a free Palestine.
This is some vital analysis! Thanks, Lara and GSC!!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read it, Jeff!
My pleasure. It just happens to be a great, truly forward thinking analysis that presents a perspective which I think a lot of us have already considered - the viability of one state - but which I, at least, haven't previously seen laid out. You're pointing out a fundamental disconnect between what (well-meaning) Leftists want on the one hand, and what's feasible on the other, particularly in light of what Palestinians, themselves, want and need. This should be presented to good outlets with a bigger reach, like Electronic Intifada and Palestine Chronicle, for them to chew on as well.
It was actually published in Mondoweiss first (the article is linked at the very top of this page), but maybe next time we will try submitting to another one of these publications.
I think the examples of Zimbabwe and South Africa are important comparisons for a one-state solution. The power structures remained intact and now the white elite scream bloody murder at any thought of redistribution of land and/or wealth. I think Frantz Fanon's definition of decolonization where the last shall be first and the first last is a noble aim in this regard.
Speaking for those of us in Ireland, there is a political outlook in what the left say about Palestine because of the six counties and because it has brought together such a wide spectrum of people and then there is what we say in our own spaces in what decolonization is etc. Perhaps that's a cynical view, but it would be my experience.
Thanks for the article, Lara! Some unflitered thoughts I had along the way:
Regarding holding organizations accountable for their monetary support post-liberation: they could be penalized and have to pay some kind of a fine (reparations) to Palestinians.
Because Zionism's foundation is supremacy, a one democratic state with equal rights will naturally cause settlers who benefited from the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide to emigrate away from Palestine. And the right of return would leave the demographics as majority Palestinian, which will organically revert the way of life and cultural fabric back to Palestinian values rooted in caring for the land and community.
I would love for more dialogue to happen between Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, 48, and diaspora to be able to truly understand each other's perspectives and lived realities more.
Great article .
.
I would add that a question that I almost never see addressed – not in the Global North and the Anglosphere, anyway – is "what on Earth?" is either the world at large, or a liberated Palestine, going to do with the multitude of habitual psychopathic killers that will either remain in Palestine, thereafter, or be dispersed in the aftermath of the eventual collapse of the present criminal Ethnosupremacist State of Israel?
.
I will only comment that, while the global community is more-or-less split (unevenly, I believe) between that part of the populace who vehemently oppose Israel's genocide of the Palestinians, and those who either proactively or tacitly support Israel's genocide; insofar as far too many people still seem to find the endless murders carried out by the Ethnosupremacists completely acceptable – as long as they are conducted "over there" and to "people who are not us" – it seems to me that they have NOT considered the effects that will undoubtedly ensure when such habitual murderers might ultimately be forced by circumstances to disperse globally until they end up in communities where they are right next door to themselves.
.
A year or so ago, I witnessed a short phone video released on social media of what anyone in the Global North or Anglosphere might take to be an extraordinary event to witness, but which is clearly quite commonplace in occupied Palestine – and which has been commonplace there since occupation began.
.
The event I witnessed on the video took place in a Russian airport, apparently – an encounter between a returning settler colonialist with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship. The settler colonialist, on seeing a Palestinian family walking through the concourse, picked up one of their children, raised the child above his head, and, quite literally, dashed the child against the ground.
.
All of this extraordinary violence was visible on the video. I say "extraordinary" – but only extraordinary within the Anglosphere and the Global North. In occupied Palestine, this is quite ordinary, is it not? And tolerated as such by many citizens of the Global North and the Anglosphere, and most certainly by their ruling classes.
.
The psychopath was arrested. The child was taken to hospital and treated for brain injury. What became of the child and their injuries, I do not know.
.
When I witnessed this event, I thought to myself… So, what will the communities of the Global North and Anglosphere experience when the countless multitudes of habituated Ethnosupremacist psychopathic murderers in occupied Palestine today, disperse from there, following the collapse of the State of Israel?
.
Lara Kilani offers us a further thought to consider: following liberation -- for its day will surely come – should the Palestinians people be obliged to be inflicted with the continuing presence of the same habituated Ethnosupremacist psychopathic murderers who killed and tormented so many of their brethren for so many years? And who are likely to do so again?
.
Are Lara points out, the so-called liberals of the West do seem to be asking the Palestinians what are their wishes in this matter. And that failure incorporates into any future arrangement of Palestine, the same failure that Western liberals have inflicted on Palestine for generations.
.
.
This article, by Lara Kilani, is, by far and away, one of the most profound essays I have read in the last two years, regarding the Palestinian community's own efforts to analyze and come to terms with the deep contradictions inherent in attempting to undo the decades of criminality that have perpetrated against them by the Ethnosupremacist Colonial Settler state of Israel, and which look to be continually perpetrated against them by the colonial setters on almost proposed path into the future.
.
I cannot recommend Lara's article enough. For anyone concerned about the present and future dire circumstances confronting the Palestinian community, this essay is a must-read.
.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read the article, Sean! I appreciate your thoughtful comments and engagement with the piece.
.
You are very welcome, Lara. I hope to see more good essays from you. With that in mind, I have suscribed to your Subtack newsletter. Warm regards, Sean Bodhivajra.
.
Beautifully written, incisive and crucial analysis. Particularly grateful to read this at a time when liberals, right wing and mainstream forces alike are working overtime to whitewash narratives of liberation, demonize the resistance, and force normalizing liberal Zionist bile - rhetorical and material - on Palestinians more aggressively than ever. Thank you so much for this reference point and political clarity, Lara.
Excellent. Enlightening. Thank you. Makes perfect sense. I see the problem with fresh eyes. Not sure how militarised Israel can be dismantled sufficiently and the deprogramming of brain infected psychopathy of Zionist cultists can ever be achieved to not always be a constant threat to Palestinians. Complete sovereignty for Palestinians must be achieved.
Good article. The only point to be made about Tucker Carlson is that he is racist, sexist, transphobic and a supporter of US hegemony so any pronouncements he makes on Palestine are to be seen in light of this. If Beiner and co. only emphasised antisemitism, so far so typical!
Thanks for the the well presented article, Lara
In the one state, Jews would soon become a minority and lose control of the government.
Best is to go for the two-state solution which will require an international force to secure the borders and keep the peace. Then further reform is always possible, the options clearer and the strategies more viable.
The same international forces have supported Israel for the last century though, why would the same arrangement now be any different?
Rope around yer neck
i agree