Sidelining the Hardliners: A 2 + 1 Solution for Israel‐Palestine

This article presents a modified two‐state solution to the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict. A “2 + 1 solution” would see the establishment of a State of Palestine in the West Bank whose constitution proscribes the participation in government of any party whose platform calls for the elimination of Israel; Gaza would accede upon the reform or demise of Hamas. Achieving a state in the West Bank should be the proximate, urgent goal of the Palestinian people. Ideologically motivated Israeli settlement of the West Bank continues apace and threatens the viability of a two‐state solution. Meanwhile, religiously motivated policies of colonization hide behind a security narrative conflating Hamas with Fatah and suggesting that the Palestinians pose an existential threat. The 2 + 1 solution, by excluding Hamas from a State of Palestine, directly addresses Israel's legitimate security concerns and thus carries the potential to lay bare the extent to which ideology informs Israeli policy. The approach also gives moderate Palestinians the opportunity to define the civic values and attributes of Palestinian national identity in a way that supports a lasting two‐state peace.     

UNESCO's doctrine of human diversity: A secular soteriology?

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created in 1945, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Its principal mission, as initially defined, was to establish the conditions of peaceful coexistence between nations. This mission was equivalent to an experiment in social engineering on a global scale, which consisted in working out and disseminating a new worldview based on a revised vision of humankind. In this worldview an important place was granted to a particular vision of human diversity, both cultural and genetic. The paper reconstructs the main presuppositions of UNESCO's doctrine of human diversity and examines theirs historical transformations.     

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Building the Future Palestine

A Palestinian geographer and urban planner discusses one of the territorial challenges that will likely emerge in the process of building a future Palestinian state. More specifically, he outlines how looming population pressures (high density in tandem with rapid natural increase and return of displaced refugees) will require that investments to support economic growth and new construction be organized within a national settlement system based on the existing urban hierarchy. In addition to describing the elements of such a system ("developed urban axis of Palestine"), the paper also covers the effects of public opinion and shifting political alignments within the territories on shaping the conceptualization of a future Palestinian state.     

A View from Palestine: An interview with Three Senior Delegates

[On March 5, 1992, three Palestinian delegates to the peace talks in Washington, D.C., spoke at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Dr. Samir Saleh Abdullah, professor of economics at An-Najah University; Dr. Jaba Fada, lecturer in English and education at the Islamic University of Gaza and school supervisor for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA); and Sharhabeel Y. al-Zaeem, attorney and legal adviser for UNRWA in Gaza, head of the defense committee which defends Palestinian detainees in the Israeli military courts in the Gaza Strip, and a consultant on the delegation. Afterwards, they were interviewed by Dr. Mohammed M. Aman, editor of DOMES.]