Southern Africans want to see peace reign between the Israelis and the Palestinians. What we, as Southern Africans (not only South Africans) consider desirable and possible is that Israelis and Palestinians do live peacefully, side by side IN ONE COUNTRY. After all that is what freedom-seeking South Africans, aided and abetted by the rest of humanity, achieved – live together in one country. Unfortunately, and for some weird reason, humanity this time around does not seem to believe that the ONE COUNTRY solution is possible. Even the United Nations believes that the two state solution is the only viable solution to strive for.
Given that the
two communities, Jews and Palestinians are fighting over the same piece of
land, you’d wonder why those who support either side continue to hold firmly to
the goal of a two state solution. The two-state solution involves borders.
Borders established in a state of war can never be permanent. The state of war
between the Jews and Palestinians has its origins in the Biblical Exodus. It
stands to reason therefore that if two states were established today, along the
1967 war borders, such borders will be breached in the not too distant future.
And the breach may be through the use of nuclear weapons.
I am one of those
people who believe that a one state solution for the Jews and Palestinians is
possible. Unlike the majority of humanity which sees religion as an impediment
to peaceful co-existence, even graver than one’s COLOR, I subscribe to the
belief that God is blind to one’s religion. In my view a pious Muslim has the
same access to God as a pious Jew or a pious Christian, Buddhist or Hindu. God
can see through us all, because we all reside INSIDE God and therefore we
cannot hide anything from God.
Of course the
simple argument in favor of a one state solution is that in almost every
country that currently advocates for a two state solution in Palestine/Israel,
there are religious Jews and Muslims living side by side in peace. Why can’t
that be the case in Israel/Palestine?
