On April 1st, Dr. Menachem Klein, Senior Lecturer at Israel's Bar Ilan University, spoke at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. The program was titled "A New Approach To The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict", and was under the joint sponsorship of the Foundation For Middle East Peace and Americans For Peace Now.
Even though Dr. Klein, personally, is a supporter of the two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian (I/P) conflict, he believes that Israel is presently acting as a de-facto one-state that rules all mandatory Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in an undemocratic fashion. While many Israeli and U.S. experts believe that the main challenges of the I/P conflict relate to the ineffectiveness of President Mahmoud Abbas, the corruption of Fatah, or the terroristic nature of Hamas, Dr. Klein feels that the chief problem is the one-state control by Israel. Undoing this control, especially in the West Bank, is the key to resolving the conflict.
Dr. Klein is a Senior Lecturer in Bar Ilan University's Department of Political Science and a Senior Research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. He is a Board Member of B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. In 2000, Klein served as an external expert adviser for Jerusalem Affairs and Israel-PLO Final Status Talks to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also served as a member of the political advisory team operating in Prime Minister's Office. Since 1996, Klein has been active in many unofficial negotiations with Palestinian counterparts, and he is a signatory to the Geneva Accord. He holds a PhD in Middle East and Islamic Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his main fields of research are: The PLO’s policy and ideology; Jerusalem as a frontier city; and the ambivalent relationship between intellectuals and politicians. In 1993 and 2002 he was a fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. Dr. Klein is the author of several books, including "Jerusalem: The Contested City", "The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status", and "A Possible Peace Between Israel & Palestine: An Insider’s Account of the Geneva Initiative".
Below is a summary of Dr. Klein's lecture. The transcript can be viewed at this Foundation Of Middle East page.
The I/P conflict has been an ethnic conflict for 120 years. Between 1949 and 2002, Israel tried to change this into a conflict which could be resolved with the establishment of a definitive border. After the collapse of the Oslo process in 2000, Israel believed there were no Palestinians with whom it could agree on a border. As a result, the conflict reverted back to its original ethnic dimensions. In reaction to the violence of the second intifada, the Israeli security establishment reoccupied the West Bank, demolished the Palestinian Authority (PA), and established itself as the ruler over that region.
Today, President Abbas' West Bank regime is an Israeli protectorate that is funded by foreign donors. His authority is limited to what Israel allows, and effective power is in the hands of the Israeli government. The improvements that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has achieved are within the Israeli system of control and have Israeli approval. The strengthened PA Security Forces in Jenin and Hebron serve Israel's security needs, and are part of Israel's overall strategy of control.
Also, the Security Barrier, or Wall, is used as a tool of security and control over the Palestinians. Many believe that the Barrier is there in order to define a border. Since large numbers of Israeli troops and settlers are on the east side of the Wall and the existing settlements are expanding, Israel would have to evacuate them in the future if it was used as a final border. The Wall, in reality, is used to split the Palestinians into multiple communities.
The Wall has divided the Palestinians into four distinct groups within the region of the conflict. There are Israeli-Palestinians, who are full Israeli citizens, have the right to vote, and have delegates in the Knesset. Even thought they have more rights than other regional Palestinian communities, they are unequal with respect to Israeli-Jews. There are East Jerusalem-Palestinians, who are not citizens of Israel, have only residency permits, can vote in Municipal elections, but cannot vote in Knesset elections. These Palestinians are cut off from the West Bank by the Security Barrier.
There are West Bank-Palestinians who live in the five percent of the West Bank located west of the Security Wall. They are cut off from Jerusalem by the Wall and are forbidden to visit Israel. Lastly, there are West Bank-Palestinians who live on West Bank land east of the Barrier and are cut off from their brethren on the west side of the Wall. Additionally, there are Gaza-Palestinians who are completely cut off from all of the other four groups.
In addition to the division of the Palestinian communities, Israel controls the Palestinians in the West Bank through expansions of settlements on both sides of the Wall, army bases, road closures, and roads created for the exclusive use of soldiers and settlers. Within the State of Israel, the Palestinians are controlled through a series of small and large actions that emphasize the unequal positions of Jewish-Israelis and Palestinian-Israelis. The Israeli security leadership believes that the use of these rules and military forces are necessary to ensure the safety of its citizens.
This de-facto one-state dynamic, which is based on ethno-security reasons and controlled by Israel, is neither Jewish nor democratic. It violates the concepts of Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist values. The people of Israel must be willing to give up some level of security in exchange for preservation of the very existence of a Jewish and democratic state.
In order to change the status quo and reach a two-state peace, Israel's extraordinary concern for security must be addressed. Otherwise, the Israeli security establishment will continue to oppose any change. The Obama Administration must tell Israel's leaders that there cannot be security for its citizens until they accept the existence of a sovereign Palestinian State in which Israel is not responsible for security. Second, the President must tell the Israeli forces and settlers to leave the Occupied Territories and move back within a border more or less along the 1967 Green Line. Third, the U.S. must convince Israel that the international community will establish a peacekeeping force, not under Israeli control, that will address Israel's security needs.
Once this seperation occurs, the Quartet preconditions of negotiating with Hamas must be addressed. Those preconditions state that Hamas must stop terror, accept and recongnize the State of Israel, and accept all previous agreements signed by the PLO and Israel. Hamas was elected by the Palestinians in 2006 because their situation was worse than ever, and Fatah was ineffective in stopping the expansion of settlements and one-state control by Israel. Since this reality has not changed, Hamas has refused to support the preconditions.
When the dynamic on the ground changes for the better, improved Palestinian public opinion will force Hamas to change, as well. To date, trying to impose the Quartet's preconditions have failed. If President Obama continues to insist on these preconditions being met before negotiations can continue, it will strengthen Hamas, and further weaken President Abbas, Fatah, Israeli and Palestinian moderates, and the influece of the United States.
If Israeli officials do not respond to these recommendations, then U.S. policy makers need to tell them that the U.S. cannot continue to support the de-facto one-state situation. As a result, the U.S.-Israel relationship will have to change. The political right in Israel has successfully played on the fears of Israeli citizens to convince them that security issues are significantly more important than the self-determination of the Palestinian people in order to end the violence. Because of this, liberals in Israel are in decline. To save Israel, liberals abroad will have to convince their elected officials to work on both of these issues in order to prevent a greater regional catastrophe.
In order to heed Dr. Klein's belief that progressives in the U.S. need to influence politicians into pushing for a just resolution to the I/P conflict, please consider getting involved with any or all of the following organizations:
J Street
Americans For Peace Now
Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Israel Policy Forum
The Shalom Center
Arab American Institute
Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee
American Task Force On Palestine
Churches For Middle East Peace
Foundation For Middle East Peace
