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Challenging the Boundaries : A Single State in Israel/Palestine 2007

Conference organised by the London One State Group London 17-18 November 2007

Session Five : One state from Within Civil Society Social Movements, and Grassroots Activism
The lived experience and stories of the invited activists will portray the current public mood in regard to the One-State option, and point at both the difficulties and the opportunities for promoting this line of thought among the various social movements and civil society organizations that are operating within the different communities. This mosaic of personal accounts and observations will provide the foundation for the following discussion about 'the way forward'.

The London One State Group was created in October 2006 for the purpose of contributing to the development of these “One State” ideas through the support of action, education and networking of grassroots organizations in the region that are, or can be, engaged in this goal. Our hope is to broaden the discourse regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict towards consideration of a One State vision as a desirable and achievable alternative. The conference – “Challenging the Boundaries: A Single State in Israel/Palestine”—is not intended to produce a comprehensive blueprint for a unitary state. The term “One State” is used here in its broader sense, inclusive of a variety of concepts that are commonly referred to by terms such as "secular democracy", "bi-nationalism", "state of all its citizens", "federalism", "multiculturalism", etc. We have dedicated a substantial portion of the conference to a debate that would attempt to unpack this terminology and thus contribute to the long process of engineering a new political landscape that would not rely on imposed exclusivism of any type, but would instead foster diversity, engender pluralism, and be compatible with our changing times.
We know first handedly the complicated psychological environment that we are addressing, which has been contaminated for more than a century by fear and hatred, violence and grief, constructed mythologies and demonized conceptions of the "other". We nonetheless believe in the power of a common One State vision to be the lighthouse in the long and troublesome journey towards a democratic state that would provide a home for its people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion or beliefs.


http://onestate.net