Palestinian novelist and journalist Ghada Karmi says that writing is a bit like parenthood. You conceive, you give birth, and you tend to the baby. But long after the initial excitement has passed, the duty remains to see the project through adolescence and into a fruitful adulthood. Similarly, if the ideas in her new book are to have any long-term impact, she must work tirelessly on their promotion. Such were Karmi's opening sentiments at the book signing event at Diwan bookstore in Zamalek this week, aimed at promoting the author and academic's latest work, "Married to Another Man: Israel's dilemma in Palestine. Before a group of literary connoisseurs and enthusiasts for the Palestinian cause, she summarized the content of her new work - published a full year ago in the UK - the core theme of which is that there is only one viable solution to the Palestine problem: the 'one-state solution.' The essence of her thesis is the idea that Israelis and Palestinians should live in a unified and secular state, under a combined government, with equal status for all citizens, whether they be Jewish, Muslim or Christian. Before the event got under way, Karmi took time out to give Daily News Egypt a summary of her argument. "I think the way forward is to have one-state, a unitary state in the Israel-Palestine of today, she said. "Which would be democratic; it would be one-man, one-woman, one-vote. It'll be equitable; it will not distinguish on racial or religious or gender lines, or against anybody. That would be its formal constitution and its formal policy. The solution she proposes would see the return of exiled Palestinians, living under one roof with the Jewish Israelis - including those recently arrived "settler colonialists - sharing land, water and economic energy in a single nation with no internal borders, real or conceptual. Her vision contrasts with the received wisdom that the only resolution to the long and bitter feud is the division of land into two or three portions, inhabited and ruled by separate Jewish and Palestinian populations. Such notions underlie the continuing diplomatic efforts at a solution, but, as she indicates, they are inherently flawed and doomed to failure. "One of the things I've done in the book is talked about partition, and explained how very damaging and how very dead-end the idea of partition is. And that is not a solution for this problem, and indeed it hasn't happened, she says. "It's saying: 'we're going to give x percent of your homeland to settler colonialists.' To partition the land would never have been fair. "So the book argues about that in some detail, and really poses the question, what are we going to do about this? And I have made it quite clear that there should not be an Israel. There is no such thing as accommodating Israel as it is, i.e. as a Zionist state with an ideology which is racist, anti-Arab, expansionist and exploitative. Why would anybody want a state like that in their region? The title of the book, she says, caused some initial confusion in the United States, where some assumed it was about a gay relationship between two Jewish men. Instead, she explains, it refers to two rabbis sent to Palestine by the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 in order assess the prospects for a Zionist state. In their report to the Congress, they said: "The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man. In other words, Palestine seemed a good location in which the Jews might establish their homeland, but it was already inhabited by native Palestinian Arabs, whose homeland it already was. Aware that many readers may be arriving at the subject with little in-depth knowledge, Ghada spends the first two-thirds of the book preparing the ground. In the first chapter she summarizes what she sees as the immense damage done by the creation of the State of Israel, including six wars in 60 years, an accelerated rate of militarization in the region that has channeled resources away from development, and "an ongoing low-grade, simmering conflict with just about every Arab state, except the two that have signed peace treaties now. Further on, she explains the principles underpinning the Zionist ideal and why the notion has traditionally found support in the United States and elsewhere, notably among Christian Zionists. She goes on to review the various failed diplomatic attempts at finding a solution, and details the range of perspectives on the Israeli side, both dove and hawk. She ends the history lesson around the time of the election of Hamas and the division of the Palestinians into two ideologically and politically opposed camps. The proposed solution is only revealed in the final chapter, and it is one that Karmi herself admits will take time to sink roots in the political consciousness, particularly within Israel itself. "We have to understand that in order to make something like this work, it's not going to be easy, it's not going to happen overnight, there will be difficulties, problems, etc. That must be clear. It is not a short-term campaign, she says. "Three or four years ago, maybe five years ago, me and a few others talking about the one-state solution were considered completely mad. Only in a very few years, this idea is part of the public discourse, which it really wasn't before. And I can tell you now there are many people writing about it, there are many groups setting up, calling themselves one-state groups all over the world - so I'm actually quite optimistic. Karmi is an animated and intense speaker, and if her mode of expression is rather forceful at times, it should be remembered that her feeling for the plight of the Palestinians is mingled with bitter personal experience. In 1948, with the creation of Israel, Karmi and her Palestinian family were forced to leave their hometown of Jerusalem to live in her mother's family in Damascus. She left behind not only her dog and her native culture, but also her adopted second mother Fatima. In the rush to leave, her mother neglected to pack Karmi's birth certificate, and to this day she doesn't know her exact age. Her father found work with the BBC and they moved to London, where she studied medicine and developed the faultless English in which she now lectures and writes for publications like The Guardian. For both Karmi and her family, being uprooted from Palestine was a traumatic event, and one which has no doubt left scars. The sorry tale is recounted in her previous book, "In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, which received consistently good reviews after its publication in 2005. Perhaps unexpectedly, the process of recounting her personal story has opened up new literary avenues for her. "I do political writing because I feel I have a mission. And I have a mission to inform, to do what I can to highlight an injustice, she says. "I feel very strongly about that. "But if you ask me what I enjoy... not at all. I enjoy writing narrative, which is one of the reasons my biography did so well. And I would like to continue that. I have plans for further books, but they will not be political books. They will be fictional books. Clearly, Karmi has plenty of enthusiasm for future projects, many creative resources as yet untapped. And fans of her work - and there are many - will no doubt snap up her first novel when it eventually appears. For now, though, the mission continues. Considering the state of affairs in Karmi's homeland, she's sure to be working at it for some time. "Married to Another Man: Israel's Dilemma in Palestine is published by Pluto Press and is currently available at Diwan bookstores, price LE 165.
