Category Archives: ODSC

Israeli War Criminals designate Palestinian Human Rights Defenders as “Terrorists”…

26 Tuesday Oct 2021

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ODSC Condemns Classification of Palestinian Institutions as “Terrorist Organizations”

A press release issued by the One Democratic State Campaign in Historic Palestine

October 23, 2021

The decision of the Israeli government to declare six Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist organizations” is an extension of Israel’s hostility to human rights in general and to the important function of these organizations in monitoring and exposing the violations by the Israeli regime of the most basic rights of the Palestinian indigenous population. This recategorization of human rights organizations reflects the Israeli government’s concern about their documentation and public exposure of Israeli policies, including the fear that such exposure will result in international condemnations, individual prosecutions before the international judiciary, and other kinds of accountability.

It is clear that Israel is tired of having to deal with the ongoing struggle of Palestinian civil society and therefore is working to provide a “legal cover” to eliminate these institutions. It follows the occupation’s abject failure to neutralize the efforts of the boycott and divestment (BDS) movement to isolate the Israeli apartheid regime; the movement enjoys unprecedented widespread Palestinian and international support.

Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity require urgent intervention by the international community, including steps to isolate the Israeli regime politically, as well as sanctions on individuals and organizations complicit in these crimes. The latest Israeli attack against Palestinian civil society, by criminalizing these organizations, is just one more step in a systematic campaign aimed at silencing the voices seeking to expose the real apartheid face of Israel. The six organizations targeted by Israel are known for their tireless work documenting Israeli crimes and providing support to its victims.

We, in the One Democratic State Campaign, condemn in the strongest terms this repressive attempt to persecute defenders of human rights in Palestine. We also call on local and international civil society organizations to stand together in order to hold Israel accountable for the crimes it perpetrates against Palestinian society. We warn that this criminalization of leading civil society organizations further undermines the ability of Palestinians to resist occupation and oppression in peaceful and non-violent ways.

‘Down with the ignominious authority!’: On the assassination of Nizar Banat

26 Saturday Jun 2021

Posted by in ODSC, West Bank

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One Democratic State Campaign: The killing of opposition activist Nizar Al-Banat shows the status quo cannot continue. The countdown on the Palestinian Authority has begun.

Statement of the One Democratic State Campaign on the assassination of Nizar Banat

Down with the ignominious authority!

“There is no liberation without freedom, no liberation with tyranny, corruption, and cooperation with the colonizer.”

Our people are in a state of shock, astonishment and bereavement at the horrific crime committed by the Oslo authorities against the opposition activist Nizar Al-Banat. It has become almost certain that things can’t continue as they were, and that the countdown on the ignominious authority has begun.

These repressive agencies, trained by the CIA General Keith Dayton, deliberately and brutally assassinated Nizar Al-Banat, after they stormed his relatives’ home in al-Khalil (Hebron) and transferred him to their headquarters in the city. This crime has poured gas on the fire that was already burning in the hearts of the sons and daughters of our people. It adds to the accumulated anger towards the Palestinian regime due to the rampant corruption, oppression, and cooperation with the colonizer. This regime is completely isolated from the aspirations of our people and our hopes for liberation, freedom, and justice. This regime has no role in the liberation struggle, as demonstrated in the glorious popular uprising and the continuous mass movements.

This corrupt and criminal behavior – a structural behavior that constantly reproduces a social political class whose existence and continuity depends on external support – confirms that the situation has reached its peak. It is no longer possible to remain silent on this hypocritical regime, which is alienated from the people. It has become a heavy burden that the people can no longer bear and a serious obstacle to the march of liberation and the achievement of human dignity.

This crime, which is added to the accumulated crimes of oppression, corruption, and cooperation with the colonizer, poses a great challenge to all advocates of change, liberation and freedom. How to put an end to the rule of this incurable political class, and how the forces of change can create an alternative path around which everyone coalesces? This new path should capture the imagination of the people, and draw them towards organized and coordinated action. It should not separate resisting the colonizer from resisting the regime of tyranny and corruption.

The One Democratic State campaign presents its vision for the future Palestine as a democratic country based on the ruins of the colonial system, apartheid, and internal tyranny; A free homeland and a free human being. Our vision is a pluralistic society, in which citizens are equal, freedom of expression is preserved, human dignity is preserved and women’s freedom is preserved. This is because freedom is indivisible, and it does not accept any violation of the rights of an opponent, or the freedom of citizens in general, under any of the obsolete pretexts and slogans such as “national security”, “warding off strife” or “no voice is louder than the sound of battle,” which are still being used by most Arab regimes.

The rebellious Palestinian refuses to establish a system similar to the regimes of oppression and brutality in his homeland, as is the case with the regimes of the Arab world. These regimes turned their countries into prisons and slaughterhouses, treated their countries as their private farms and subjected them to external forces. As a result, the peoples revolted and broke the barrier of fear.

It has become clear, especially in the light of the popular uprising and the battle of al-Quds, that the new generation and its emerging vanguards, and all veteran, democratic revolutionaries, who are rid of the remnants of the past and its double standards, and the slogans of the outdated Arab regimes, are the qualified force to lead a national, democratic and liberation movement based on the values ​​of freedom, human dignity and social justice. For this qualified force, the murder of Nizar Banat will only add motivation to continue fighting colonialism and confronting its agent, the Palestinian tyrannical regime, and linking this struggle with the struggle of the Arab peoples to recover their homelands from the brutal regimes.

This crime has put a defining moment before our people. Our people deserve life, dignity, security and a decent living.

Shame for the murderers, the corrupt and the collaborators with the colonizer!

Down with the ignominious authority!

Freedom for our people!

Glory to the martyrs of liberation and of free speech!

Palestine, June 24, 2021

ODSC statement on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

30 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in ODSC

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(Translated from the original Arabic text)

On the occasion of the forty-third anniversary of the declaration of the United Nations General Assembly on November 29 as an occasion for global solidarity with the Palestinian people and with their heroic struggle that continues for more than a century, “The Campaign for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine” calls on all freedom-loving people of the world to strengthen and expand their solidarity with the cause of Palestine.

These days, a dangerous liquidation scheme, represented by “the deal of the century” and the rush of Arab regimes to normalize their relations with Israel, threatens the just cause of the Palestinian people.  This scheme is more dangerous than any other scheme since the 1960’s, when the Palestinian national movement was rebuilt as a national liberation movement.

We have already lived through 72 years of ongoing Palestinian Nakba, and Israel is still practicing systematic crimes of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, under the eyes of the international system, which granted legitimacy to the establishment of this colonial regime. We, in the Campaign for One Democratic State, ask, on behalf of the Palestinian people: How long can the official international community continue to turn a blind eye to the crimes of ethnic cleansing and apartheid that Israel is practicing, in flagrant violation of the international law on which it was founded?

Palestine is subject to a brutal colonial apartheid regime that does not respect international law. We have all recently witnessed the collapse of the illusion, cherished by the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, about the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state on 22% of historic Palestine. Therefore, despite the consistent absolute US imperialist support for Israel, and the complicity and inaction of the international community, global civil society is rising again, in sympathy with the Palestinian people and in support of oppressed peoples against oppressive capitalist regimes. In the context of the convergence of peoples’ struggles for freedom, justice and equality, a new horizon opens for the Palestinian struggle and for the return of the Palestinian cause to its natural place on the world’s agenda as a cause of national liberation and social justice.

Our struggle is inspired by the legendary struggle of the Palestinian people and by the movement against the South African apartheid regime. In response to the call by South Africa’s liberation movement, global civil society organized, in the late nineteen-eighties, an effective and influential boycott campaign against the apartheid regime. Israel is a settler colonial entity, and an oppressive apartheid regime, implementing a more brutal version of the defunct South African regime. We believe that the struggle against this racist regime must combine popular resistance on the ground with global civil resistance, represented by the boycott campaign. Civil society, people of conscience and people struggling for freedom all over the world can force Israel to comply with international law and to abandon its colonialist policy.

Just as South Africans called on international civil society to boycott goods and institutions of their oppressors, so do Palestinian institutions, trade unions and mass movements call on all people of conscience in the world to support the Palestinian civil campaign to boycott, divest and impose sanctions on Israel, until it complies with international law and the Palestinian people regain their basic rights. On this occasion, we turn to all the solidarity committees and freedom-loving people in the world to pressure their governments to impose sanctions on Israel, so that it stops its crimes and violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people.

The “The Campaign for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine” believes that the struggle of the Palestinian people should not divide between Palestinians in the territories that were occupied in 1948, areas occupied in 1967 (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and the diaspora. The time has come to bury the illusion of a “two-state solution” and restore the unity of the Palestinian people around a vision of national liberation and democracy and to develop a strategy for a phased and long-term struggle. The Campaign believes that achieving justice in Palestine requires the establishment of a single democratic state that would guarantee the return of the Palestinian refugees and grant equal rights to all its citizens, regardless of religion, ethnic affiliation, color and gender, on the ruins of the existing colonial apartheid regime.

“The Campaign for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine”

Palestine, November 29, 2020

On Normalization and the Meeting of Palestinian Movements

10 Thursday Sep 2020

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Declaration of “The Campaign for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine”

Palestine, September 6, 2020

(The following is an unofficial translation of the Arabic original declaration. With the translation I expanded some terms to make them understandable to the foreign reader. Thanks for all the people that helped with this translation.)

On September 3rd, leader of different Palestinian movements, overcoming deep divisions, met in Beirut and Ramallah, at the invitation of the president of the Palestinian Authority, to discuss a common response to the normalization agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. What made this meeting possible is the American-Israeli imperialist alliance’s total and aggressive denial of the Palestinian people’s basic rights. The imperialist alliance’s cynical approach removed any remaining illusions about a settlement to the conflict, illusions that became prevalent since the Oslo Accords and even before.

The imperialist powers are violating international law and humanitarian and ethical standards, disappointed all those who gambled on them. With “The Deal of the Century” the USA is repeating the injustices of the British 1917 Balfour Declaration, by giving the Zionists Palestinian land over which they do not have any rights.

Now they drag corrupt and blood-stained Arab dictatorships into this rogue alliance. Those Arab regimes go beyond normalization to become accomplices in the aggression against the Palestinian people, who are exposed to the most heinous crimes by the colonial Western regimes, through their proxy in the region.

All of this has forced the Palestinian leadership to choose between two clear options: surrender or resistance. As to our Palestinian people, they continue resisting, for more than a century, the Western-Zionist plot to uproot and replace them by foreign settlers and form a bridgehead for European colonization in the heart of the Arab region.

The meeting of the factions was an important step towards the national unity yearned for by our Palestinian people since the disastrous division (between Gaza and the West Bank) in 2007. During this period, Israel waged three atrocious wars and committed numerous crimes against humanity, imposed a blockade on two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, intensified its settlement and “Judaization” activities and the killings in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in addition to colonialist oppression of a million and a half of our people in the Galilee, the Triangle Region and the Naqab. And then, of course, we should not forget the plight of the millions of refugees who were displaced and uprooted from their homeland, and whose right of return Israel continues to deny, thus embodying the brutality of Zionism and the lack of justice and ethics of the so-called international community.

National unity, based on a comprehensive, emancipatory vision and a correct resistance strategy, is an essential condition for joint work and a precursor to defeating oppression and achieving freedom and justice. It is also an essential condition to restore and enhance popular Arab support, and to mobilize for our cause all advocates of freedom around the world. Ours is a just cause, that should concern all the peoples of the world, especially the oppressed, of which the Palestinian people is a part, who are struggling to achieve freedom, justice and human dignity.

The question remains: does the movements’ meeting, and its resulting statement and decisions, constitute a real turning point in the march of the Palestinian people, and redefine the way towards freedom and independence? Are the current leaders, who bear the responsibility for the division, and for the failure to rebuild the Palestinian national movement and to achieve liberation – with the national, political and moral devastation that all this has entailed – qualified, capable, and even willing to break with the era of fatal illusions? Is it possible to move and advance the national liberation project towards a new era of true liberation struggle without the youth and without the participation of new leaderships? Our people are asking these questions, people from all the layers of society: workers, peasants, intellectuals, detainees and many others.

Accordingly, the One Democratic State Campaign in Historic Palestine asserts that, in order to fulfil the purpose of the meeting, the following conditions should be provided:

First, we should start from the fact that the Palestinian people, wherever they are, all 13 million, are one people, and that Palestine includes all the land located between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean, not merely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Second, affirming the right of return of Palestinian refugees whom the Zionist movement expelled from Palestine, seized their properties, pursued in their places of refuge, waged wars on them and assassinated some of their leaders. It is a natural and sacred right, recognized by an international decision since 1948.

Third, liberating the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has become subordinated to the Palestinian Authority and its “security coordination” with the occupation. It should be liberated from the grip of bureaucracy and the restrictions of the Oslo Accords. It should be rebuilt on democratic foundations to represent all components and communities of the Palestinian people, wherever they are, including the Palestinians of 1948, and based on a program of return and liberation.

Fourth, the withdrawal of the PLO’s recognition of Israel, which continued expanding its colonial settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem and imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip. Israel ignores all international laws that prohibit settlements in the occupied territories and criminalize the existing apartheid system. It adopted the so-called “Nationality Law” – a blatant colonial apartheid law – to grant false legitimacy to its colonization of all of historic Palestine. Israel has unambiguously stated, together with its patron, the United States, that the country located between the river and the sea belongs to the Zionist movement. According to them the Palestinian people have no right to their homeland, which they have not left for thousands of years, except under the pressure of the colonialist Zionist movement and its crimes of ethnic cleansing perpetrated in 1948, and still being perpetrated against the Palestinians, even the holders of its citizenship.

Fifth, responding to this colonial expansion and the new “Balfour Declaration” by stating that the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination applies to all of historic Palestine. This means reviving the PLO’s program, represented by the return and liberation of Palestine from Zionism, its colonial regime and apartheid. The One Democratic State Campaign in all of Historic Palestine revives this solution in a modern form, in which Palestinians and Israeli Jews live in a human, democratic, egalitarian system, after dismantling the Israeli colonial apartheid regime, in the context of the removal of colonialism from the entire Arab region. The one state project is not merely a vision, but a resistance project, in which participate also Jewish anti-Zionists who oppose the system of colonialist settlement and its crimes.

Sixth, holding elections for the Palestinian National Council, with the participation of all the Palestinian people, without exception. The limitation of the elections for the Legislative Council and the Palestinian presidency to the West Bank and Gaza Strip cements the Oslo Accords which divides and fragments the Palestinian people and erases the universal Palestinian identity. It keeps the majority of the Palestinian people, especially those in 1948 areas and the refugees, outside the scope of representation, the conflict, the national unity project and the right to self-determination. Further, this exclusion prevents the participation of all Palestinians, without exception, in the Palestinian struggle for the right to self-determination.

Seventh, cancelling all the punitive measures taken by the Palestinian Authority against our people in the Gaza Strip since March 2017, and compensating them for all their dues. It is completely unacceptable to talk of national unity and reconciliation between the movements while, at the same time, imposing sanctions on a key component of our noble people.

Eighth, the adoption of the Palestinian boycott movement in a practical and clear way as a pioneering means of struggle. Acting resolutely against all forms of normalization with apartheid Israel, primarily through the abolition of security coordination with the occupation and the dissolution of the so-called Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society.

Ninth, the formation of a broad, popular front that adopts an effective popular resistance strategy, from all aspects, including the struggle in the streets, cultural, social and economic resistance. This front would establish a path towards a new, free society that is capable of steadfastness and cohesion while it achieves its interim goals, then its ultimate goal of dismantling the colonialist apartheid system and the establishment of the democratic state in all of historic Palestine.

The One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC) in Historic Palestine

ODS groups: On 72nd anniversary of the Nakba we bury illusions and rise up

16 Saturday May 2020

Posted by in ODSC, Palestine, Right of Return

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(The following declaration was published on May 15, 2020, on the site of the One Democratic State Campaign – ODSC)

For the past 72 years, the Zionist project has not ceased its colonial campaign of expanding, grabbing land, ethnically cleansing and killing, a campaign that has accompanied Israel since its recognition as a legitimate state by the United Nations in 1948. A product of settler colonialism, Zionism was an inherently violent and brutal project. Settler colonialism, after all, is founded on the elimination of the native and their replacement by the settler state. “Peace” in such a colonial project is an illusion. It comes only with the destruction of the indigenous population, whether physically or culturally.

Since the Nakba, Palestinians have found themselves faced with colonial expansion that Latuff for Nakba Dayproceeds systematically, ripping the land into fragments, segregating and imprisoning the native communities through an intricate infrastructure of highways and settlements heavily guarded by the Israeli military apparatus – and today fortified by the apartheid wall. Recent years have seen the transformation of ethno-national extremism and “incremental genocide” into official state policy, formalized by the infamous “Jewish Nation-State” bill and the impending annexation of large swathes of the West Bank, all supported by Imperial governments and made possible by collaborationist Arab regimes.

The Palestinian people have nobly defended themselves and resisted their oppression from the start, utilizing all the tools at their disposal. The sacrifices that this nation has made are limitless and ongoing, their continuous defiance of subjugation in the pursuit of liberation and a dignified life inexhaustible. Our movement for national liberation, embodied in the PLO, placed the Palestinian struggle at the center of global attention. Our struggle as a colonized people fighting for liberation occurs not only against Zionism and the imperial governments that support it, but exists alongside dozens of other struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, all still fighting the forces of neo-colonialism and capitalism. The Palestinian liberation movement is part and parcel of this global struggle.

Pressures on the PLO to compromise the ambitions of the Palestinians by erecting a truncated, impoverished and non-sovereign Bantustan in Gaza and pieces of the West Bank in the name of “peace” is merely an attempt to deflect the Palestinian people from its liberation efforts. This is the meaning of the catastrophic Oslo Accords and its two-state illusion, which today everyone sees as a ruse. In the meantime, the colonial project cemented its settler reality throughout the country and, by institutionalizing Palestinian division, undermined the PLO as the tool for emancipation.

Today, in historic Palestine, the struggle continues against a determined Apartheid regime that is poised to extend its rule formally over all of Palestine. On this 72nd anniversary of the Palestinian and Arab Nakba, we renew our call to reinvigorate the Palestinian cause and its institutions of liberation. We call not only for the defeat of Zionism’s colonial apartheid project, but for the establishment of a single democratic state between the River and the Sea, one which ensures security, equality and prosperity for all its citizens, regardless of nationality, race and religion, and the return of the refugees. We call on all civil society actors – trade unions, university groups, religious institutions, intellectual and cultural figures, political organizations, grassroots groups and others – to join with us in our joint struggle for liberation, democracy, equality and social justice in historic Palestine.

 

May 15, 2020

(On May 11, activists from different groups supporting one democratic state in Palestine, met over Zoom to discuss common work. The immediate result was a publication of a common declaration on the eve of the 72 Nakba commemoration. To read the original Arab declaration you may follow this link. The English version is somewhat abbreviated.)

 

ODSC calls for international support against Israel’s annexation plans

28 Tuesday Apr 2020

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A CALL AGAINST APARTHEID OVER PALESTINE; ONE DEMOCRACY FOR ALL

One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC)

April 29, 2020

(This declaration is also available in Hebrew)

Israel is racing to complete its project of institutionalizing a colonial apartheid regime over all of historic Palestine. The next step is planned for July, when the coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu intends to formally annex large swathes of the West Bank. The expansion of Israel onto 85% of historic Palestine leaves the Palestinian majority imprisoned in dozens of impoverished enclaves on just 15% of the land, under permanent Israeli rule, bereft of any civil or national rights. This is apartheid, pure and simple.

Having “given” occupied East Jerusalem to the Israelis, Trump’s “Deal of the Century” allows Israel to take possession of the rest of the West Bank. Israel’s unilateral annexation of its massive settlement blocs has been waiting on a green light from the Trump Administration, the only international authority Israel cares about. In a public statement on April 21st, American Secretary of State Pompeo gave that green light. “As for the annexation of the West Bank,” he said in a public statement, “the Israelis will ultimately make those decisions. That’s an Israeli decision.”

A single apartheid state already exists de facto between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River: Israel. There is only one possible response, one “solution,” one way out. That is to replace the apartheid regime with a democratic state of equal rights for all its inhabitants, including the returning refugees.

We call on you, the people of the world, to support our struggle for democracy in historic Palestine. Our vision is a democracy that will give all the inhabitants of our country equal rights, will finally bring home the refugees and will respect the cultures, religions and identities of all the peoples that comprise our society – a return to the tolerant multi-culturalism long characterizing the Arab world, the Middle East, and Palestine in particular.

Governments, unfortunately, are not the friends of peoples struggling for their rights. We, Palestinians and progressive Israeli Jews alike, call on you, the international civil society, to mobilize in support of a democratic state between the River and Sea. True solidarity with the Palestinian people means supporting a political program that liberates historic Palestine from colonialism, occupation and apartheid – a democratic state for all between the River and the Sea, and a return of the refugees. Raise your voices against apartheid! Support our struggle for liberation, democracy and peace for all!

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email: [email protected]

 

La Campagne pour un seul état démocratique communique

06 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in En français, ODSC

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Le gouvernement de l’impérialisme américain a porté l’ultime coup à l’illusion de la solution foncièrement injuste des deux états.

La campagne pour un seul état démocratique a publié le 29 janvier 2020 le communiqué suivant après l’annonce du nouveau projet du gouvernement impérialiste américain visant à liquider les droits nationaux des Palestiniens, dit « Accord du siècle ».

(You may find the original Arabic text of this declaration here. It was also published in Hebrew and English.)

Le temps est venu

Le mouvement national palestinien n’a pas eu à attendre de connaître les détails du plan colonial que le président de l’empire américain a commencé à promouvoir dès sa prise de fonction, pour comprendre la gravité de ce plan pour la Palestine, pour son peuple et pour toute la région. Ses chapitres les plus dangereux ont déjà été mis en œuvre, notamment le transfert de l’ambassade américaine à Jérusalem, des mesures contre les droits des réfugiés palestiniens, et la légitimation des colonies israéliennes sur la terre palestinienne usurpée.

Avec ce plan, le gouvernement de l’impérialisme américain a porté l’ultime coup à l’illusion de la solution des deux états. La direction palestinienne mise en place à Oslo a continué à adhérer à cette illusion à bien des égards contraire aux principes de la lutte de libération nationale, notamment en acceptant d’être le mandataire de l’occupation et de la colonisation sioniste et en abandonnant les réfugiés et les Palestiniens des frontières de 1948. Elle n’a pas préparé les Palestiniens à la lutte du peuple contre l’implantation des colonies qui ont envahi toute la Cisjordanie et Jérusalem, ainsi que les territoires occupés en 1948.

Le plan colonial américano-sioniste est fondé sur l’existence d’un seul état – Israël – s’étendant de la mer au Jourdain, alors que les 13 millions de Palestiniens – les propriétaires de la terre, la moitié d’entre eux ayant été expulsés par le mouvement sioniste – sont voués à l’exil à l’étranger et à l’éternel esclavage dans l’entité coloniale.

Cette réalité n’est pas survenue en un jour, ni n’est que le résultat de la dynamique du projet expansionniste sioniste. Elle a été créée par des décisions antérieures, prises à différents niveaux au fil des années, par tous les dirigeants successifs de l’entité sioniste. L’Etat palestinien, selon la conception de la gauche sioniste en pleine disparition, dans le cadre de la solution des deux états, qui était foncièrement injuste, n’était qu’une forme d’autonomie dans le cadre du contrôle sioniste de la terre sur toute la Palestine. Yitzhak Rabin expliquait ainsi cette conception : « moins qu’un état et plus qu’une autonomie. »

Le nouveau gouvernement américain, dirigé par l’homme d’affaires populiste de droite Donald Trump, a trouvé un moyen de perpétuer la réalité coloniale qu’Israël impose aux Palestiniens, à travers un plan politique fondé sur l’occupation et l’extinction. Ils essaient d’utiliser à leur profit les faiblesses palestiniennes, le morcellement désastreux du peuple palestinien et les divisions entre les directions palestiniennes, la grave crise qui affecte le monde arabe et la coopération ou le silence des autres forces internationales. Ce plan est la poursuite de la politique d’extermination des peuples indigènes menée par les USA et d’autres états coloniaux au cours des trois siècles passés.

Le destin des Palestiniens ne sera pas celui des peuples indigènes des USA ou des autres peuples détruits physiquement et culturellement par les colonialistes occidentaux. Les Palestiniens sont restés sur place et font savoir leur rejet catégorique du plan impérialiste, et à maintes reprises ils ont choisi la voie de la résistance. Les Palestiniens sont partie intégrante de la région arabe, démographiquement et géographiquement, et la lutte pour leurs droits est partagée par les combattants de la liberté partout dans le monde. C’est de cette manière que les Palestiniens décideront de leur propre destin, et non par des forces extérieures. De nombreux peuples dans le monde ont réussi à défaire et à renverser des régimes coloniaux, le dernier en date étant l’Afrique du Sud. Le changement s’opère quand les mouvements de libération adoptent une vision claire de la libération et un message humain et moral. Ils unissent les peuples opprimés, mobilisent partout le soutien de l’opinion publique internationale et des forces progressistes, et attirent de leurs côtés les défenseurs de la liberté de la société coloniale.

Il est temps d’appeler un chat un chat et d’abandonner définitivement les illusions. La réalité en Palestine est celle d’une brutale occupation coloniale. Le régime actuel appartient à une époque noire, oppressive et plus qu’arriérée. La lutte en Palestine n’est pas un conflit de frontières, mais bien une lutte de libération nationale contre une colonisation de peuplement.

Aussi, combattre cette réalité impose d’unifier le peuple palestinien, les militants, les intellectuels, les organisations professionnelles, ouvrières, étudiantes, de la jeunesse et des femmes en un front dont le but est le renversement du régime colonial. Le but est d’établir un seul état démocratique, construit sur les ruines du système de privilèges raciaux, dans lequel chacun vivra en totale égalité, habitants actuels du pays comme ceux qui ont été expulsés de leurs maisons en 1948 et 1967.

Cette proposition offre à la lutte nationale palestinienne une solution fondée sur la liberté et l’humanisme. Elle permet d’unir le peuple palestinien, de construire des alliances avec les luttes populaires démocratiques dans la région arabe, de renforcer les liens avec la société civile dans le monde entier et s’associer à la lutte les Juifs épris de liberté qui combattent le sionisme et le colonialisme.

 

“One Democratic State Campaign”: The administration of American imperialism has dealt the ultimate blow to the delusion of the two-state solution, which is inherently unfair

03 Monday Feb 2020

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The “One Democratic State Campaign” issued the following statement on January 29, 2020, following the announcement of the new project of the US imperialist administration aimed to liquidate Palestinian national rights, called the “Deal of the Century”.

You may find the original Arabic text of this declaration here. It was also published in Hebrew here.

The time has come

The Palestinian national movement did not have to wait to know the details of the colonial scheme, which the president of the American Empire began to promote since he took power, in order to realize the gravity of this plan for Palestine, its people and the entire region. Its most dangerous chapters were implemented earlier, including the transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, actions against the rights of the Palestinian refugees, and legitimizing Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.

With this plan, the administration of American imperialism dealt the ultimate blow to the delusion of the two-state solution. The Palestinian Oslo leadership continued to adhere to this illusion, in many ways contrary to the principles of the struggle for national liberation, including accepting the role of proxy for the Zionist occupation and colonization and abandoning the refugees and the 48 Palestinians. They didn’t prepare the people for the popular struggle to confront the settlement project which, after invading the territories occupied in 1948, has invaded all of the West Bank including Jerusalem.

The American Zionist colonial scheme is based on the existence of one state – Israel – between the sea and the river, while the 13 million Palestinians – the owners of the land, half of whom were expelled by the Zionist movement – are destined for eternal exile and eternal slavery in the colonial entity.

This reality did not arise overnight, nor is it simply the result of the dynamics of the Zionist expansionist project. It was created according to prior decisions adopted, on varying levels, by all the successive leaders of the entity over the years. The Palestinian state, in the concept of the disappearing Zionist left, within the framework of the inherently unfair two-state solution, was only a form of self-rule within the framework of Zionist control over all the land throughout Palestine. Yitzhak Rabin expressed this concept by his saying “less than a state and more than an autonomy.”

The new American administration, headed by right-wing populist businessman Donald Trump, identified an opportunity to perpetuate the colonial reality that Israel forced on the Palestinians, through a political scheme based on occupation and extinction. They try to utilize for their goals Palestinian weakness, the disastrous fragmentation of the Palestinian people and the divisions between the Palestinian leaderships, the severe crisis affecting the Arab world and the cooperation or silence of other international forces. This program is a continuation of the extermination policy against the indigenous peoples carried by the United States and other colonial states over the past three centuries.

The fate of the Palestinians will not be the same as that of the indigenous peoples in the USA or other peoples that were destroyed by the Western colonialists physically and culturally. The Palestinians remain on the ground and announce their categorical rejection of this imperialist project, and time and again they choose the path of resistance. The Palestinians are part of the Arab region, demographically and geographically, and their struggle for their rights is embraced by freedom-seekers all over the world. This is how they, not external forces, will determine their own destiny.

Many peoples in the world succeeded in defeating and toppling colonial regimes, the last of which being South Africa’s experience. The change takes place as the liberation movements embrace a clear vision of liberation and a human and moral message. They unite the oppressed people, mobilize the support of world public opinion and progressive forces everywhere and bring to their side freedom advocates from the colonial society.

It is time to name things by their real names and to completely give up delusions. The reality in Palestine is a colonial, brutal occupation. The existing regime belongs to a dark, oppressive and long outmoded era. The struggle in Palestine is not a dispute about borders but rather a cause of national liberation from settler colonialism.

Consequently, confronting this reality requires unifying the Palestinian people, the militants and the intellectuals, the professional bodies, labor, student, youth, and women’s organizations, all should form together one front with the aim of toppling the settler colonial regime. The goal is to establish a single democratic state, based on the ruins of the system of racial privileges, in which everyone will live in full equality, all the current residents of the country and all those who were expelled from their homes in 1948 and 1967.

This vision provides a solution to the Palestinian national struggle based on freedom and humanism. Through it, we can unite the Palestinian people, build alliances in the democratic popular struggle in the Arab sphere, strengthen ties with civil society around the world and partner in the struggle, as well, with the freedom-loving Jews who oppose Zionism and colonialism.

The Campaign for One Democratic State Holds a Study Day in Haifa

19 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by in ODS, ODSC, Palestine 48

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(Another version of this report appeared in Mondoweiss. It is also available in French.)

The first half of 2018 was very busy for the ODS Campaign (ODSC) – the new initiative that took on itself to revive the perspective for a positive solution to the century long suffering and struggle of the Palestinian people under Zionist colonialism. Open and close consultations were held, through which more than a hundred activists and academics participated in the formulation and the adoption of the campaign’s political program.

But then came the local elections in October 2018, followed by the Knesset elections of April 2019. The initiative is, till now, mostly based in the Palestinian population in the areas held by Israel since 1948, and local elections are a major event in local Palestinian society, where people feel they can really influence the daily management of their municipalities. Many of the campaign’s activists and supporters were deeply involved in the elections and some were elected as council members.

Aya opening the day

Aya Mana opening the ODSC study day on June 28, 2019, in Khashabi Theatre, Haifa

The Knesset elections was not only a “distraction” for the campaign, but also posed a profound political dilemma. The Palestinian Arabs with Israeli citizenship are divided to almost equal parts between those who vote in the elections and those who prefer not to participate or actively boycott it. The perspective for One Democratic State is based on the recognition that Israel is not a democratic state and that the Zionist-Jewish majority in the Knesset is the result of ethnic cleansing and holding millions of Palestinians under Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza deprived of the most basic human and political rights. So, the most natural position for the campaign was to join the boycott of the Knesset and to pose a real democratic alternative.

But the politics of the campaign led it in a different direction. It doesn’t regard itself as a new political force that aspires to sideline the current parties and movement, but an initiative to promote a political perspective that is aimed to reach not only the general public but also sections of the current Palestinian political leadership. As the campaign includes supporters of the Palestinian parties in the Knesset, it didn’t want to force them to choose between their support to the campaign and their loyalty to their parties. In a more general way, it chose not to alienate any part of the divided Palestinian public and decided to avoid publishing any position regarding participating or boycott. This decision came with the cost of agreeing to be sidelined at a time of heated political debate.

Reorganizing

After the Knesset elections the ODSC activists were meeting again to resume the campaign. The result of the elections demonstrated, once again, how Israeli politics is trapped in a spiral of racist hatred and militarist war mongering, with not even a ray of hope for peace or a turn toward more democracy and equality. The main Zionist opposition parties attacked the ultra-right government for not being harsh enough against the Palestinians. The Arab parties that tried to build a perspective for “influence through participation” faced the frustration of being rejected again as legitimate partners in Israeli politics. And the growing camp of boycotters was facing the constant question by its supporters and critics alike: “What is the alternative?”

The campaign is intended to unite Palestinians from all locations, overcoming walls, borders and political traditions to form a movement that will bring together people from all over Palestine as well as from the diaspora. It also aims to encourage active participation in the struggle against Zionism from within the Jewish society in Palestine. But, to regain momentum, the first natural move was to re-connect with the established support base within the 1948 Palestinians. For this purpose, we decided to hold a study day in Haifa on June 28.

Full hall at Khashabi Theatre

The Khashabi hall was full

In the past, in 2008 and 2010, two big conferences for the Right of Return and One Democratic State in Palestine were held in Haifa in the Midan Theatre (at the initiative of the Abnaa alBalad movement). Since then the Midan, which used to be the most prominent Palestinian theatre in the area, became a target of government and municipal attack (mostly due to its artistic program) and is not free now to rent its halls to any gathering with political coloring. But Palestinian cultural activist in Haifa created an alternative, opening the “Khashabi Theatre”, with the overt intention of not seeking any support from the establishment and keeping full independence for its artistic repertoire as well as its right to host and encourage free speech. It was the natural choice for hosting the ODSC study day.

Solid program can influence reality

On Friday afternoon, June 28, the small hall of the Khashabi Theatre was full (about 70 people). Activist Aya Mana, which opened the first session, noted that we started at only 10 minutes after the declared time, a significant testimony to the serious attitude of the participants. The attendance was diverse, including veteran of the struggle as well as youth activists, academics, members of different movements, parties and NGOS. Mana welcomed all of them and invited everyone to take part not only by supporting the campaign and its program but also by critical discussion of the program and looking together for the most effective ways to build an influential movement toward the most essential goals of achieving justice, freedom and democracy.

Historian Ilan Pappe, one of the initiators of the campaign, was the first speaker. If I’m not wrong, it was his first public lecture in Arabic, and he passed the test very well, conveying a very clear message about the historical background of the old-renewed perspective for ODS.

Ilan Pappe speaking

Ilan Pappe speaking – probably his first public lecture all in Arabic

Pappe analyzed the origins of the Zionist movement as part of the world-wide phenomenon of European colonialism, and, more specifically, as an example of “settler colonialism”, which aspires not only to occupy and exploit the local population but to replace them by settlers. This scheme of settler colonialism easily leads to the logic of genocide, which was successfully accomplished against the native population in the United States and other colonies. He explained how settler colonialism is building a distorted national myth according to which the settler population is described as “natives” and the original native population is vilified as “threatening aliens”. Another, complementing, myth says that the homeland was “empty” until the settlers came – ignoring and denying the existence of the native population.

In this context it is clear why in Israeli politics there is no real discussion how to reach a real solution that will restore the rights of Arab Palestinians and let them live in freedom and equality. The proposition of “a two-state solution” in its Israeli context is just another variant of the same search for ways to get rid of the native population.

Pappe dedicated an important part of his presentation to the current international context of the struggle. He emphasized the importance of a growing recognition of Palestinian rights in the international civil society, and the readiness of many sectors of the solidarity movement to hear and adopt the only solution based on human rights and democracy – ODS. On the other hand, he explained that the strong support of Israel and its racist policies from reactionary forces, like Trump and many European nationalists, is not an accident. Their very base of support is an attempt to revive the colonialist-era white supremacy and incite against the people of the third world. This change of the international map concerning the Palestinian struggle opens many opportunities and demands a more active and well-targeted approach from us. As there is no more Western consensus around the support to Israel and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is at the center of the political struggle about the future of the world, it is important that Palestinian themselves will return to the basic nature of their liberation movement as a struggle for freedom and human rights for all.

Pappe elaborated about the importance of having a clear political vision and using the correct terminology to describe the current reality. For example, speaking about Israel’s Apartheid regime is different than just complaining about “discrimination”. Speaking about decolonization is different from speaking about “solving the conflict”.

Finally, in response to a question from the public, Pappe corrected a common mis-reading of history. Many speak about a dichotomy between the “Algerian way”, where the settler population was expelled, and the “South African approach” where whites were integrated as full citizens after the dismantling of Apartheid. The historical truth is that the Algerian liberation movement proposed on the French settlers the option to stay as citizens of the newly liberated Algeria, but the vast majority preferred to return to France. And many of the whites in South Africa emigrated after the dismantling of Apartheid there. The program of one democratic state is just the natural alternative to colonialism, it will return Palestine to its local and regional identities. It will abolish the privilege of the settler population and give them the option to integrate on the basis of civil equality.

Growing interest

The second speaker in the first session was Awad Abdelfattah, the main coordinator of the campaign, who previously served for a long period as the general secretary of the National Democratic Alliance party (NDA, AKA Balad). He started his talk with an optimist report about the widening influence and connections of the campaign, especially among Palestinians in other regions. Even though the campaign itself is only at its very first stages, activist from the popular resistance in the West Bank and Gaza are showing interest in the campaign’s message and liberation agenda. Some of them are explaining that they never gave up this dream and want to revive it as a perspective for a revival of the Palestinian movement. There was special interest in Abdelfattah’s report about an evolving discussion with Palestinian activists in the occupation’s prisons, including the general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’adat. The news about the interest of the prisoners’ movement in studying the ODS program made its way to the headlines of Arab-48 site the next day.

Awad speaking

Awad Abdelfattah: New perspective for the Palestinian liberation movement

Abdelfattah described the crisis of the Palestinian national liberation movement, getting ever more acute as it becomes clear to all that the perspective of two-state solution and the Oslo accord only led to perpetuation of the occupation. Among the most catastrophic results of the Oslo accord is the fragmentation of the Palestinian people, when the West Bank is separated from Gaza, millions of refugees are stuck out of their homeland with no perspective for returning, and Palestinians inside the 48 territories suffer from systematic discrimination but are not even regarded part of the Palestinian national cause. Another consequence was the devastation of the PLO, which has served until Oslo as a revolutionary vehicle, but was sidelined without achieving its goal of liberating the occupied land. In an ironic way you can say, he added, that the Oslo accord united all Palestinians in a sense of helplessness.

Against this background, Abdelfattah stressed the importance of uniting the Palestinians around a new vision that can give new hope to the young generations by retaining the basic tenets of the liberation struggle, while adjusting the perspective and the means of struggle to current reality and to the fast-developing technology, society and world scene. The new initiative is basically a path to a different life, and new and modern political reality, where all Palestinians as well Israeli Jews can struggle together to build a new democratic political entity on the ruins of colonialism, apartheid and racist separation. The future state is based on the principles of justice and full equal citizenship.

‘’While we are conscious to the fact that there is a long struggle ahead of us, we can start today by rebuilding our understanding of the reality and reorganizing along new lines.” He expressed his hope that “the campaign will gradually develop into a mass movement of popular resistance against the occupation.”

Abdelfattah mentioned several challenges that are facing the ODS campaign, relating to questions which are often raised by people from different political backgrounds. He explained that some issues may better be left to the dynamics of life, as the people involved in the struggle will have to cope with challenges in an innovative way.

Among the questions he was keen to relate to is the claim that the idea is utopian, given the current political reality, as the balance of forces is in favor of the colonizer which is supported by the most powerful state in the world, the USA. Another side of this claim is that no major force among the Palestinians has embraced the one state solution, and no major or small Israeli party is willing to give up the principle of “a Jewish state”.

He summed up the response to this claim by saying: First we should emphasis that we base our approach on the principle of restoring justice for all Palestinians, for those who were expelled and dispossessed and those who survived the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the the Zionist movement and its embodiment Israel. Second, the two-state solution has been dead for a long time and the two populations have become inextricably linked, as a result of the continued systematic policy of land theft and settler colonization. As a result, all of Palestine has become one geographic and demographic unit under an overt apartheid and colonial regime. We should dispel the illusion that Israel would accept an independent Palestinian state and to unite all the Palestinian people, the world civil society and anti Zionist Jews around the struggle to defeat this regime. By the way, utopia is not always a fantasy idea. Many ideas that looked as such became a reality through clear vision, wise planning and strong resolve. South Africa is a stark example, which is our inspiration.

Legal and cultural point of view

The second session, facilitated by activist Majd Nasralla, was designed to answer some of the practical questions that confront us when coming to build a movement based on the ODS perspective. One basic issue that we were asked about many times is the position of the ODS perspective in view of the international law. Some people hesitate to openly support ODS under the impression that there is some legal guarantee of Palestinian rights in the framework of the right of self determination in a Palestinian state as part as a two-state solution. They are afraid that adopting ODS, as a solution that has no international recognition, may weaken the legal basis of the Palestinian claims.

Dr. Munir Nusseibeh gave a learned view of the support of ODS from the point of view of the international law. He explained that there is no principle that demands that there will be division to states that is parallel to the division to national identities, and that the right of self determination is basically the right not to be subject to external oppression. He explained the gradual development of the international law toward the concept of the generality of human rights and the need to guarantee them to all people.

Munir speaking

Left to right: Dr. Munir Nusseibeh, Majd Kayal and Majd Nasralla

Much of Nusseibeh’s lecture concentrated around the concept of “transitional justice”, of which he made a thorough research. He criticized Zionist legal experts and some of their western apologists that try to use this concept to dilute the Israeli responsibility to war crimes, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against the Palestinian people. He emphasized that at the hear of the concept of “transitional justice” stands the assumption of a real “transition”.

It means that a regime that is based on the denial of basic human rights should be dismantled and substituted by another regime that guarantees and end to the injustice. It also means that the new regime takes full responsibility to the consequences of past injustices and the restitution of the rights of the victims.  Only then comes the part of transitional justice that handles the perpetrators of crimes, including indictment and punishment, that can take into account the conditions and the necessity to rebuild society after a trauma. But, first of all, we should guarantee the full transformation of the legal base of the regime – which is possible only in the framework of ODS.

The last speaker was Majd Kayal, a writer and one of the central activists of the youth movements that played a major role in the Palestinian protests in the 48-territories over the last years. He spoke about the role of culture and tried to draw a view of the types of cultural activity that may help the Palestinian society liberate itself from Zionist hegemony. He said that while raising political slogans is a natural part of life and of culture, it is not the essence of what is required. In some context raising political slogans about Palestinian nationality or even waiving Palestinian flags can contribute to consolidation of the current distorted relationship of power – if it is done within a framework designated by the Zionist establishment. What is required is creating and developing an independent framework for cultural creativity that is outside the influence of the establishment and which handles all the aspects of life – from fearless criticism of the political situation to confronting deep social problems in the society and even handling purely aesthetic and artistic subjects.

Preparing the next steps

After the two full sessions, both of which included interventions and questions from the public, all were requested to divide into two workshops. The first workshop discussed the political program of the campaign, for people that are new to the idea and for those who wanted to suggest improvement to the program. The second workshop handled the required next steps toward building the campaign: political strategy and usage of the media.

After the conclusion of the discussion in the workshops, and as a consequence of the discussion in the second of them, the organizers announced the establishment of two permanent working groups to farther the building of the campaign. One working group will work on expanding the campaign among the general public and reach out to movement and political parties. The other working group will work on publishing new materials and raising the media profile of the campaign. Both working groups are open for new activist to join.

 

The Political Program of the Campaign for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine

16 Thursday Aug 2018

Posted by in ODS, ODSC

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PREAMBLE

(This program is also available in Arabic & Hebrew)

In recent years, the idea of a one democratic state in all of historic Palestine as the best solution to the conflict has re-emerged. It started gaining increased support in the public domain. It is not a new idea. The Palestinian liberation movement, before the catastrophe of 1948 (the Nakba) and after it, had adopted this vision, including the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The PLO abandoned this idea in the framework of the diplomatic negotiations at the late eighties that led to the Oslo agreement of 1993. The Palestinian leadership hoped that this agreement would enable the building of an independent Palestinian state on the territories that Israel occupied in 1967. But on the ground Israel has strengthened its colonial control, fragmenting the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza into isolated cantons, separated from one another by settlements, checkpoints, military bases and fences.

The two-state solution, which is basically an unfair solution, is clearly dead. Israel buried it deep under its colonial settlement policies in the territories that were supposed to become the independent Palestinian state. Israel has imposed a single repressive regime that extends over all the Palestinians who live in historic Palestine, including those with Israeli citizenship.

In view of these dangerous developments, and, more important, based on the values of justice, freedom and democracy, we contend that the only way to achieve justice and permanent peace is dismantling the colonial apartheid regime in historic Palestine and the establishment of a new political system based on full civil equality, and on full implementation of the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return, and the building of the required mechanisms to correct the historical grievances of the Palestinian people as a result of the Zionist colonialist project.

On this background, many activists and groups, Palestinians and Israelis, have recently initiated the revival of the one-state idea, proposing differing models of such a state, such as a bi-national state, a liberal democratic state and a socialist state. They are all united, however, in their commitment to the establishment of a single democratic state in all of historic Palestine, as an alternative to the colonial apartheid regime that Israel has imposed over the country from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. A similar regime was toppled by the joint struggle of black and white South Africans under the leadership of the ANC in 1994.

The goal of this political program, as formulated by the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC), is to widen the support for this solution among the local populations, Palestinian and Israeli alike, as well as among the international public. We call on all those in the world who struggle for freedom and justice to join and support our struggle against this apartheid regime and for the establishment of a democratic state free of occupation and colonialism, based on justice and equality, which guarantees a better future for the next generations and real peace in all of historic Palestine.

 The Political Program

  1. A Single Constitutional Democracy. OneDemocratic State shall be established between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River as a state belonging to all its citizens, including the Palestinian refugees. All citizens will enjoy equal rights, freedom and security. The State shall be a constitutional democracy, the authority to govern and make laws emanating from the will of the people. All its citizens shall enjoy equal rights to vote, nominate candidates for any post and take part in the country’s governance.
  2. Right of Return, of Restoration and of Reintegration into Society. The single democratic state will fully implement the Right of Return of all Palestinian refugees and their descendants, those who were expelled in 1948 and thereafter, whether living in exile abroad or currently living in historic Palestine, including those with Israeli citizenship. The State will aid them in returning to their country and to the places from which they were expelled. It will help them rebuild their personal lives and to be fully reintegrated into the country’s society, economy and polity. The State will do everything in its power to restore to the refugees their private and communal property and/or compensate them.
  3. Individual Rights. No State law, institution or practices shall discriminate among its citizens on the basis of ethnic identity, national or cultural belonging, or on the basis of color, gender, language, religion, political opinion, property or sexual orientation. The state will grant all its citizens the right to freedom of movement and the right to reside anywhere in the country. The state will guarantee to all the citizens equal rights in all levels and institutions and will guarantee free thought and freedom of opinion. Alongside religious marriage the State will provide civil marriage.
  4. Collective Rights. Within the framework of a single democratic state, the Constitution will also protect collective rights and the freedom of association, whether national, ethnic, religious, class or gender. Constitutional guarantees will ensure that all languages, arts and cultures can flourish and develop freely. No group or collectivity will have any privileges, nor will any group or collectivity have any control or domination over others. The Constitution will deny the Parliament the authority to enact any laws that discriminate against any community, be it ethnic, national, religious, cultural or class.
  5. Normal procedures of obtaining citizenship will be extended to those willing to immigrate to the country.
  6. Constructing a Shared Civil Society. The Stateshall nurture a vital civil society comprised of common civil institutions, in particular educational, cultural and economic.
  7. Economy and Economic Justice. Our vision seeks to achieve social and economic justice. Economic policy must address the decades of exploitation and discrimination which have sown deep socioeconomic gaps among the people living in the country. The income distribution in Israel/Palestine is more unequal than in any country in the world. A State seeking justice must develop a creative and long-term redistributive economic policy to ensure that all citizens have equal opportunity to attain education, productive employment, economic security and a dignified standard of living.
  8. Commitment to Human Rights, Justice and Peace. The Stateshall uphold international law and seek the peaceful resolution of conflicts through negotiation and collective security in accordance with the United Nations Charter. The State will sign and ratify all international treaties on human rights and its people shall reject racism and promote social, cultural and political rights as set out in relevant United Nations covenants.
  9. Our Role in the Region. The ODS Campaign will join with all progressive forces in the Arab world struggling for democracy, social justice and egalitarian societies free from tyranny and foreign domination. The State shall seek democracy and freedom in the Middle East, so that the rights of the region’s peoples and citizens will be guaranteed and its many communities, religions, traditions and ideologies shall be respected. That should include respect for the peoples’ right to struggle for equality and freedom of thought. Achieving justice in Palestine will contribute measurably toward these goals and the aspirations of the region’s peoples.
  10. International responsibility. On a global level, the ODS Campaign views itself as a part of the democratic and progressive forces striving for an alternative global order that shall be pluralistic and sustainable, more just, egalitarian and humanistic and free of exploitation, racism, intolerance, oppression, wars, colonialism and imperialism. This new world order will be based on human dignity and respect for the people’s rights to freedom and just distribution of resources and will provide a healthy and sustainable environment.