TERRY CRAWFORD-BROWNE: A free Palestine from the river to the sea

Millions of people all over the world are appalled by Israeli bombings of hospitals, schools and refugee camps, plus the deliberate starvation inflicted on Gazans. Their horror is further compounded by mealy-mouthed US proposals at the UN Security Council and elsewhere of “humanitarian pauses” while it continues to supply weapons to Israel.

Just as apartheid SA eventually became “too much hassle” for the Americans, so too the global backlash to Israeli atrocities is belatedly prompting even US President Joe Biden’s war-obsessed administration to reassess its alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu and Zionism. The present war in Gaza will probably also mark the end of the 500-year era of European imperialist and racist domination, and its replacement by the “Global South” association of Brics+ countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

The US and European governments have been complicit for 75 years (and longer) with barbaric Zionist Israel’s intentions to eradicate Palestinians from their land. The British government’s Balfour Declaration in 1917 proposed to give Palestine to Zionist Jews on the preposterous notion that Palestine was a “land without people for a people without a land”.

In fact, Muslim, Christian and Jewish Palestinians had lived together harmoniously for centuries and, in unity, rigorously opposed the Balfour Declaration, to which Lord Balfour arrogantly declared: “We do not propose to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants.” 

As highlighted by documentary films such as Roadmap to Apartheid, the parallels between apartheid in SA and Israel-Palestine are glaring. The UN Security Council in 1977 unanimously agreed that SA apartheid constituted a threat to international peace and security. That decision was hailed at the time as “the most significant development in 20th century diplomacy”.

Paying lip service

In the 30 years since the Oslo Accords the world (disgracefully including the SA government) has paid lip-service to the so-called two-state solution. The US and EU have colluded with and funded the Israeli occupation by 750,000 illegal settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the consequences of which include the practical reality that an apartheid two-state solution is now a non-starter.   

Not only would the two-state solution perpetuate existing “petty apartheid” humiliations of Palestinian Israeli citizens, it would also enforce “grand apartheid” bantustans in the West Bank and Gaza. In short, if apartheid in SA was unacceptable to the international community in 1977, why should it be inflicted on Palestinians in 2023? Zionist apartheid is a recipe for recurring wars instead of peace. The core of British colonial policies was “divide and rule”, which has subsequently been adapted by US neoconservatives in pursuit of that country’s financial and military hegemony throughout the world. 

The alternative of a one-state solution “from the river to the sea” is, ironically, pursued by both the Israeli government and many Palestinians, including Hamas. At the recent UN General Assembly, Netanyahu exhibited a map of Israel that extended from the river to the sea, annexing Gaza and the West Bank as well as Jerusalem. The Zionist government’s one-state solution assumes an apartheid country of Jewish domination in which Palestinians would be second-class and impoverished citizens. A Zionist objective since the 1920s has been to make life so miserable that Palestinians would emigrate.   

Nonetheless, the reality is that Israel-Palestine is one country “from the river to the sea”, and it has proved absurd to pretend otherwise. In contrast to the Zionist agenda, the Palestinian one-state solution promoted by the Palestinian National Initiative is committed to “fight for freedom and to a struggle for the creation of a just and democratic society in a single state where all citizens have equal rights”.

One-state solution

Mustafa Barghoutim, the PNI’s secretary-general, declares: “It is clear that the Oslo agreements are no longer viable, and that the Palestinian Authority, having been weakened and delegitimised by Israel, is isolated and severely unpopular amongst the Palestinian population. A growing number of Palestinians believe that the only solution left is a single democratic state on the whole of historic Palestine without occupation, apartheid or discrimination.

“For decades there have been Palestinian leaders who have called for the establishment of one democratic state in Palestine where Jews and Palestinians can live together with equal rights. Nothing can justify settler colonialism that is harmful to both the Palestinian and Jewish peoples. Confronted with a project aimed at the elimination of the Palestinians as a nation, we have remained resilient, determined not to give up our homeland.” 

Under pressure from the US and British governments, the UN General Assembly in 1947, by a vote of 33 to 13, approved resolution 181 and the partition of Palestine into two states, plus a separate Jerusalem and Bethlehem zone under international administration. It is now glaringly evident in 2023 that the decision was a disastrous mistake.

Partitions of former British colonies including Ireland, India and SA also proved to be dismal failures.  Instead of peace those partitions, like the one in Palestine, resulted in recurring conflicts and wars.  Israel was granted membership of the UN in 1949 on condition that it complied with resolution 194, which confirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.  The General Assembly in 1974 passed resolution 3236, further asserting the right of return as an inalienable right. 

As defined by sections 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Israeli government conduct towards Palestinians meets the legal criteria of a) genocide, b) apartheid as a crime against humanity, and c) war crimes. The Zionist state of Israel is not only an apartheid state and thus illegitimate, but its deliberate and barbaric genocide of Palestinians represents a massive threat to international peace and security. 

With the General Assembly now composed of 193 countries, it is time for the Global South to unite for peace and to revoke resolution 181 as a tragic and ill-considered error and, in addition, to make urgent and massive restitution to the Palestinians by immediate recognition of a democratic and secular state from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea.  

• Crawford-Browne is with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.