One Land, Two States imagines a new vision for Israel and Palestine in a situation where the peace process has failed to deliver an end of conflict. “If the land cannot be shared by geographical division, and if a one-state solution remains unacceptable,” the book asks, “can the land be shared in some other way?”
Leading Palestinian and Israeli experts along with international diplomats and scholars answer this timely question by examining a scenario with two parallel state structures, both covering the whole territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, allowing for shared rather than competing claims of sovereignty. Such a political architecture would radically transform the nature and stakes of the Israel-Palestine conflict, open up for Israelis to remain in the West Bank and maintain their security position, enable Palestinians to settle in all of historic Palestine, and transform Jerusalem into a capital for both of full equality and independence—all without disturbing the demographic balance of each state. Exploring themes of security, resistance, diaspora, globalism, and religion, as well as forms of political and economic power that are not dependent on claims of exclusive territorial sovereignty, this pioneering book offers new ideas for the resolution of conflicts worldwide.
Mark LeVine is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, a contributing editor for Tikkun, and a senior columnist for Al Jazeera. He is the author of Overthrowing Geography and the coeditor of Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel (both from UC Press).Mathias Mossberg is a retired Swedish ambassador with extensive personal experience from the peace process and related track-two diplomacy as well as from mediation efforts in other conflicts. He is Senior Fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Foreword: Two States on One Land—Parallel States as an Option for Israel and Palestine Álvaro de Soto Preface Mathias Mossberg and Mark LeVine
1. One Land—Two States? An Introduction to the Parallel States Concept Mathias Mossberg 2. Can Sovereignty Be Divided? Jens Bartelson 3. Parallel Sovereignty: Dividing and Sharing Core State Functions Peter Wallensteen 4. Security Strategy for the Parallel States Project: An Israeli Perspective Nimrod Hurvitz and Dror Zeevi 5. Palestinian National Security Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi 6. An Israel-Palestine Parallel States Economy by 235 Raja Khalidi 7. Economic Considerations in Implementing a Parallel States Structure Raphael Bar-El 8. Parallel Sovereignty in Practice: Judicial Dimensions of a Parallel States Structure Various authors, compiled by Mathias Mossberg 9. Religion in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: From Obstacle to Peace to Force for Reconciliation? Mark LeVine and Liam O’Mara IV 10. The Necessity for Thinking outside the Box Hiba Husseini 11. Parallel Lives, Parallel States: Imagining a Different Future Eyal Megged
