Qurei's recent comments have retrieved from the annals of history the controversial one-state solution. But is his intervention serious? Khalid Amayreh reports from the West Bank Palestinian Premier Ahmed Qurei has warned that Palestinians would abandon the two-state solution in favour of a single bi-national state if the creation of a viable Palestinian state becomes impractical or unrealistic. Qurei made his remarks in the context of highlighting the growing threat to Palestinian statehood posed by Israel's construction of a gigantic "apartheid" wall. Already, the wall has reduced many Palestinian towns and villages to virtual prisons or detention camps, and has annexed huge swathes of the West Bank to Israel. Palestinian officials were quick to point out that Qurei's remarks didn't signal a radical change in Palestinian strategy. "He [Qurei] only wanted to say that the Palestinian people will not accept a state tailored according to Israeli prescriptions," said PA negotiator Sa'eb Ereikat. "We won't accept a state with form but without substance; one made up of cages, prisons, detention camps, isolated enclaves and bantustans. If the Israelis think we will, they are mistaken," he added. Neither Qurei nor Ereikat were speaking hypothetically. In the context of the wall, the prospect of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank is negated, while the borders of the Gaza Strip are steadily shrinking behind military zones and settlements. A growing number of Palestinians, including some of the highest rank in the Palestinian leadership, are reaching the same conclusion. They are convinced that the only option remaining for the Palestinian people is a single civil state encompassing the old Palestine Mandate: a state in which Jews and Arabs live together as equals. Israel, of course, is well aware of what it is doing -- namely irremediably corroding the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state worthy of the name. From the Israeli perspective, however, the alternative to a Palestinian state is not (and must never be) a bi- national state in which Jews, sooner or later, will be a numerical minority. This would spell the end of Zionism. Indeed, the prospect of a bi-national state, however remote it may be, has become Israel's greatest fear, as expressed in a plethora of recent conferences, seminars and statements by leading Israeli intellectuals and politicians warning that Israel is losing its demographic majority. Ironically, this is the same argument used to justify the construction of the wall; the very act that sparked renewed interest in the one-state solution. Hard-line right-wingers who are gaining ground, as was apparent in their huge demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, don't hesitate to propose brazenly fascist scenarios to "solve the Palestinian issue once and for all". Their proposals include ethnic cleansing, apartheid and even genocide. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, despite his purported commitment to the US-backed roadmap for peace, favours separation, but one on his own terms. In real terms, this separation means confining the 3.6 million Palestinians into cage-like enclaves. Palestinian fears are not exaggerated. Even Israeli peace groups such as Peace Now realise that Sharon's Israel is slowly but definitely pushing the Palestinians to the brink of "a Warsaw ghetto", if not to the "edge of Treblinka", as one Peace Now leader put it recently. While the international community continues to reiterate idle statements about the need for both sides to fulfil their obligations as spelt out in the roadmap, the grim reality haunting Palestinians simply continues to grow more nightmarish. Hence, Qurei's desperate and frustrated statements. This frustration is also prompting many intellectuals and public opinion leaders to demand the dismantlement of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Detractors argue that the reason for the PA's very existence is to realise the goal of Palestinian statehood; but as achieving that goal is becoming increasingly unrealistic, the PA is losing (or has already lost) its raison d'être. One of the main proponents for dismantling the PA is Hani Al-Masri, a PA official and regular columnist in the Ramallah-based Arabic daily, Al-Ayyam. In his column on 13 January, he wrote that Palestinians would have seriously to study the idea of terminating the PA as its very existence allows Israel to continue to impose unilateral measures in the West Bank. "In this case, we will have no choice but to abandon the choice of establishing a Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 and revert to the option of establishing a secular, democratic state in the entirety of Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christians live on equal footing." Al-Masri described recent PA threats to declare a Palestinian state in response to Israel's unilateral measures as "hollow", arguing that Israel can, through sheer military force, prevent such a state from materialising on the ground. He went on to suggest that to foil Israel's strategy of enslaving the Palestinians in hapless bantustans, the Palestinians must explore other options. "The goal we must pursue, and Israel can't prevent us from pursuing it, lies in dismantling the Palestinian Authority and abandoning Palestinian statehood." Such views are still confined to elitist segments within Palestinian society, not so much because they are rejected, but rather because they are quite novel. However, it is very likely that in light of Israel's continuing efforts to narrow Palestinian horizons, these ideas will spread quickly and gain momentum among Palestinians as many of them are already discovering that the PA has become more of a national liability than a national asset.
