The Israeli Framing: 

Basic Positions

• The entire Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the Jewish people. The goal of Zionism is Judaization: the transformation of Palestine into Israel.
• There is no Palestine and no Palestinian people with rights to self-determination. Israel is embroiled in a conflict, but with only one legitimate “side”: the Jewish nation vs terrorists
• The state of Israel enjoys international recognition. East Jerusalem is Israeli and non-negotiable.
• Palestinian refugees cannot return because they would threaten the Jews’ demographic majority.
• Israel has a right to defend itself against Palestinian “terrorism.”

An Anti-Colonial Reframing: 

Basic Positions

• Palestinians are the indigenous population of Palestine, possessing the right of national self-determination between the River and the Sea.
• The Zionist settler population does not constitute a national group with rights over Palestine. Jews are welcome to live in Palestine as a religious or ethnic population, as they always have.
• Palestine must be decolonized. Palestinians reject partition or Zionist sovereignty over any part of Palestine.
• Palestinian refugees (the dispossessed), plus the internally displaced, represent half the Palestinian population. They possess the right to return, to reclaim their lost lands and properties, and to reparations.
• Palestinians, like all oppressed peoples, have the right to resist colonization & occupation, even by armed force. Resistance is not terrorism, though all colonial regimes try to criminalize it.

Definitition of the Problem: Security

• Israel is fighting for its existence. The conflict is due to Arab refusal to accept Jewish national rights in the Jewish homeland. The Palestinians are Israel’s permanent enemies. Peace is impossible.
• Since the Palestinians will never make peace, the only issue is security. Israel is the victim and has the right defend itself by any means necessary.
• In the past, Israel accepted the two-state solution; the Arabs have rejected all of Israel’s “generous” peace proposals.
• Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is solely an internal matter. There should be no international interference, not from the UN, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court or from any foreign governments.

Definition of the Problem: Palestinian Liberation

• The Palestinians are fighting against a settler colonial project determined to dispossess them, to transform an Arab Palestine into a Jewish Israel. The fight is for national liberation: the restoration of Palestinian national rights in a decolonized Palestine.
• Despite the illegality of Zionist colonialism, the PLO accepted the two-state solution in 1988, as did all the Palestinian political parties, including Hamas. It is still possible if Israel relinquishes all the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem, and removes its settlements and all forms of political and military control.
• Israel is fighting to consolidate its colonization of all Palestine. That is the basis of its “insecurity” and it can be resolved through decolonization. Security will be restored to all the people of historic Palestine only when Zionism’s violent settler project is ended.
• The dispossession of an indigenous people, colonial settlement of their land, a prolonged campaign of cultural and physical genocide conducted against them , and their imprisonment in an apartheid state are by nature international matters, not internal ones.

The Only Solution: Apartheid (Win/Lose)

• The conflict is a win-lose proposition: either we “win” (Israel is a Jewish state) or “they” do (Israel is destroyed). There is no way to reconcile Jewish and Palestinian national rights or claims
• The issue is Israeli security over all the territory it rules between the River and the Sea, including areas that may fall under Palestinian autonomy. Neither Palestinian rights nor “peace” is of interest to Israel, which can live (and prevail) with interminable conflict
• Israel rejects the two-state solution, the fact of occupation, and negotiations. Unilateral “facts on the ground” will determine the final status of the territories. Israel will allow an autonomous Palestinian entity on part of the West Bank and Gaza.
• The Palestinians have three choices: submit, accept autonomy in enclaves on 10-15% of Palestine in a Jewish country, with no return of refugees; leave or die.
• After Judaization, the final goal of Zionism/Israel is the normalization of “Israel” as the accepted and self-evident state between the River and the Sea.

The Only (Substantially) Just Solution: One Democratic State (Win/Win)

• While Jews possess religious and historical ties to Palestine, Zionism is a settler colonial project that can only be ended by the decolonization of Palestine, the restoration of Palestinian national rights, the return of the refugees, and a political solution inclusive of everyone residing in Palestine. Only a resolution based on human rights and international law ensures a win-win solution.
• The vast majority of Palestinians support the establishment of a Palestinian state between the River and the Sea that restores their national right to self-determination but also extends equal civil, though not national, rights to its Jewish citizens.
• A minority of Palestinians support the establishment of a civil state that belongs equally to all its citizens. Recognizing the reality of two national groups, it will offer them meaningful cultural autonomy, but within the framework of a sovereign civil polity. ICAHD considers this a substantially just solution – perhaps the only workable one.