Yousef Munayyer
36 μ¢¤³£ ¬μμ¬
In order for such a state to function,
those constitutional principles would have
to be considered foundational, and they
would be subject to a very high bar for
amendment—say, a requirement o at
least 90 percent approval in the legislative
branch. This would ensure that basic
rights could not be altered by means o a
simple majority and would prohibit any
one group from using a demographic
advantage to alter the nature o the state.
A transition to a new system with
equal rights would require a kind o trust
that cannot be built as long as victims o
oppression, violence, and bloodshed over
the decades feel that justice has not been
done. So the new state would also need
a truth-and-reconciliation process
focused on restorative justice. For
inspiration, it could look to past eorts
in South Africa and Rwanda.
Some will dismiss this vision as naive
or impractical. To them, I would ask:
More naive and impractical than un-
scrambling the omelet that the Israeli
occupation has created? How many
more decades o failure must we endure
before we can safely conclude that
partition is a dead end? How many more
people must we condemn to oppression,
violence, and death?
The idea o equal rights for Israelis
and Palestinians in a shared state has been
around for decades, perhaps as long as
have eorts to partition the land. But it
has always been cast aside to accommo-
date the demands o Zionism, even at the
expense o peace. Countless lives have
been lost, and generations have had their
rights denied, all while partition has
become less and less realistic. Neither side
can aord to go on this way. Now is the
moment to adopt the only genuine way
forward: equal rights for all.∂same. When the country was founded in
1948, Zionist leaders were trying to
expedite the arrival o more Jews, prevent
the return o Palestinians, and seize as
much land as possible. They had no
interest in deÄning citizenship criteria,
rights, or constraints on government
power. So instead o writing a constitu-
tion, the Jewish state instituted a series o
“basic laws” in an ad hoc fashion, and
these have acquired some constitutional
weight over time.
In place o that legal patchwork, which
has been used to protect the rights o
some and to deny the rights o others,
Israelis and Palestinians should work
together to craft a constitution that would
uphold the rights o all. The new constitu-
tion would recognize that the country
would be home to both peoples and that,
despite national narratives and voices on
either side that claim otherwise, both
peoples have historical ties to the land. It
would acknowledge the Jewish people’s
history o being persecuted and the
paramount importance o ensuring that
all citizens, regardless o religion, ethnic-
ity, or national origin, have a right to
safety and security. And it would also
recognize the wrongs done to Palestinian
refugees and begin a process to repatriate
and compensate them.
A new constitution could oer citizen-
ship to all the people currently living in
the land between the river and the sea and
to Palestinian refugees and would create
pathways for immigrants from elsewhere
to become citizens. All citizens would
enjoy full civil and political rights, includ-
ing the freedom o movement, religion,
speech, and association. And all would
be equal before the law: the state would
be forbidden from discriminating on
the basis o ethnicity or religion.