Madison-Rafah Journal

A Palestinian walks through a damaged Islamic University building in Gaza next to graffiti reading "The Presidential guard walked through here," after it was attacked on 3 February 2007. (MaanImages/Wesam Saleh)

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 3 February 2007
In recent days the unremitting, murderous brutality of the Israeli occupation has been eclipsed by the carnage in Gaza as dozens of Palestinians have been killed in what is commonly referred to as "interfactional fighting" between forces loyal to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction on the one hand, and the Hamas-led government on the other.

The airwaves have been filled with anguished calls from every sector of Palestinian society — political parties, nongovermental organizations, and Christian and Muslim religious leaders — for the fighting to cease and for a return to dialogue.

Perhaps for fear of exacerbating the already bitter situation, few of these voices have directly confronted the engine of this violence.

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Ali Abunimah is coming to Madison to speak on his new book, One Country — A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

A Palestinian-American, Abunimah is a co-creator and editor of the Electronic Intifada web site and more recently, of Electronic Iraq and Electronic Lebanon. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago, he has written for the Chicago Tribune, among numerous other publications.

One Country presents a provocative approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is sure to touch nerves on all sides. Clear-eyed, sharply reasoned, and compassionate, the book proposes a radical alternative: the revival of an old and neglected idea of one state shared by two peoples.

One reviewer had the following to say about the book: "Ali Abunimah shows how the two [peoples] are by now so intertwined—geographically and economically—that separation cannot lead to the security Israelis need or the rights Palestinians must have. He reveals the bankruptcy of the two-state approach, takes on the objections and taboos that stand in the way of a binational solution, and demonstrates that sharing the territory will bring benefits for all. The absence of other workable options has only lead to ever greater extremism; it is time, Abunimah suggests, for Palestinians and Israelis to imagine a different future and a different relationship."

Abunimah will be appearing at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 22nd. A reception and book signing will follow at the Memorial Union.

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COMMENTARY
ALI ABUNIMAH, The Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2006

President Carter has done what few American politicians have dared to do: speak frankly about the Israel - Palestine conflict. He has done this nation, and the cause of peace, an enormous service by focusing attention on what he calls "the abominable oppression and persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories, with a rigid system of required passes and strict segregation between Palestine's citizens and Jewish settlers in the West Bank."

The 39th president of the United States, the most successful Arab - Israeli peace negotiator to date, has braved a storm of criticism, including the insinuation from the pro - Israel Anti - Defamation League that his arguments are anti - Semitic.

Mr. Carter has tried to mollify critics by suggesting that his is not a commentary on Israeli policy inside Israel's own borders, as compared with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — territories Israel occupied in 1967. He told NPR, "I know that Israel is a wonderful democracy with equal treatment of all citizens whether Arab or Jew. And so I very carefully avoided talking about anything inside Israel."

Given the pressure he has faced, it may be understandable that Mr. Carter says this, but he is wrong. In addition to nearly four million Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the occupied territories, another one million live inside Israel's pre - 1967 borders. These Palestinians are descendants of those who were not forced out or did not flee when Israel was created in 1948.

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According to Ali Abunimah, author of the recently released book One Country, the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has proven to be the least pragmatic and workable of all options. In his book Abunimah proposes an alternative solution: one state shared by two peoples. During a 17 November 2006 Palestine Center briefing he explains how he reached that conclusion, and the geographic, economic and security reasons why a one-state solution is best for both peoples. He also discusses the experiences and lessons to be learned from South Africa, and concludes that to achieve peace in the region a unifying vision and justice for the Palestinians is needed.

“For the Record” No. 267 (28 November 2006)

The Palestine Center
Washington, DC
17 November 2006

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Ali Abunimah, Chicago Tribune, November 12, 2006

As I watched the images last week of destruction from the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli shelling attack had killed an entire family, as a Palestinian I could understand the feelings of one survivor who said, "I cannot see a day when we will live in peace with them." But I also know there is no other choice.

When Israel was established, its founders said it would be an exemplary, moral state. For many Jews, it seemed like a miraculous redemption after so much suffering and loss in the Nazi Holocaust.

Palestinians experienced a different reality. Israel became a "Jewish state" in a country that had always been multicultural and multireligious. The expulsion and exclusion of Palestinians from their own homeland has led Israelis and Palestinians into an endless nightmare of mutual non-recognition and bloodshed.

For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that this conflict can only be resolved by partitioning the country into two states. Yet despite enormous political and diplomatic efforts to achieve this, the two peoples remain thoroughly if unhappily intertwined. Israel's project of establishing settler-colonies inside the territories where Palestinians wanted to create a state has rendered separation impossible.

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November 12, 2003

On Thursday, November 6, Madison, Wisconsin's Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative and a local newsweekly were able to convince Madison Area Technical College (MATC) to reverse its decision to impose restrictions on a speaking event about the Middle East, featuring noted writer and University of Chicago researcher Ali Abunimah. MATC had attempted to limit the scope of the talk and to deny Rainbow's request to sell books in conjunction with the event after some residents protested the talk due to Abunimah's pro-Palestinian point-of-view. However, faced with an unexpected backlash from the public, MATC decided at the last moment to proceed with the event as scheduled the evening of November 6.

The speaking engagement featuring Abunimah was scheduled as part of MATC's "Reporting From the Middle East," which is sponsored in part by Rainbow Bookstore, and also is part of MATC's Global Horizon lecture series. However, some in the community who vehemently opposed Abunimah's point-of-view on the Middle East exerted pressure on MATC to cancel, or at the very least, limit what Abunimah could talk about at the event. Subsequently, the college "sent an e-mail to Abunimah telling him what he could and could not speak about," Allen Ruff, Rainbow's events coordinator, told BTW.

When Abunimah was informed of the restriction, he told The Isthmus, a Madison alternative weekly newspaper, that it was "an outrageous violation of my First Amendment rights and the rights of the community to engage in dialogue and debate about matters of public interest."

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