It's important to start envisioning the Single State Solution - this will help expedite its implementation
It is time to imagine how one state– one person, one vote– will work
Essential Elements of the New Order:
1. Equality and Non-discrimination: The State of Israel has failed in law and in practice to provide full equality even to its own Arab citizens. While Palestinians recognize that the new state will likely continue in the foreseeable future to be dominated by Jews for a number of reasons, Palestinians will require that equality be strictly applied, particularly in the public sphere. Public institutions, lands, funds, and resources, including water and public education, must be utilized equally in the interest of all citizens. Discrimination must not be tolerated. Arabic, which is currently formally recognized as an official language in Israel, will need to be deliberately incorporated into public life, on a par with Hebrew. While it was important for Jews to revive and promote Hebrew in Israel after centuries of non-use, there can be no excuse for the deliberate downgrading of Arabic (Arabic signs, where they exist even in the West Bank appear to be deliberately misspelled, and it is easier to find government documents in Amharic (the language of the recent Ethiopian immigrants) than in Arabic.
2. Freedom of Movement: Freedom of movement within the new state must be guaranteed. Restrictions of travel between the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, the settlements and pre-1967 Israel must be removed, as well as the Wall and the checkpoints. Discretionary (administrative) restrictions on travel within as well as to and from the new state must be removed. Security forces claiming the need for the restriction of the movement of any person must be required to obtain judicial orders, subject to the legal presumption in favor of freedom of movement that needs to be overcome when incarcerating a person.
3. Right of Return: Jews have insisted on a Right of Return to Israel as a fundamental right for any Jew throughout the world, particularly if he or she feels persecuted or endangered as a Jew. As it stands now, this right is not qualified by the need to show persecution or fear of a tangible threat, and the institutions of the State actively promote aliyah and incentivizes Jews to come to Israel. The availability of this right seems to be a serious requirement for Jewish Israelis which Palestinians must accept. However, Palestinians, who have been forcibly denied access to their homeland, must also have a right of return (Awdah). Had there been a 2SS, this right of return could have been limited to a new Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. But it is a right which can and must be accommodated in a new governing structure in Israel/Palestine.
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. Relations with the Arab world. Israeli Jews feel a great connection to diaspora Jews, obtain much support from them, and advocate that they have a legitimate stake in, and responsibility for, Israel. Palestinian Arabs also feel they are an integral part of the Arab world and get, or at least expect, support from them. The new state will have to deal with both these inclinations. Palestinians will need to re-evaluate their pan-Arab identity, and adjust it to reflect that their state now is both Jewish and Arab to its very core.
5. Defense: For a number of reasons, primarily the trauma of the Holocaust, and the bitter experience of anti-Jewish anti-Semitism in the West (Palestinians are Semites, too), Israelis have a heightened sensitivity to control of the army and the defense establishment. The new State may require that the Minister of Defense as well as a majority of the top brass in the army be Jewish as a matter of permanent constitutional law. Palestinians, however, must be free to join the army on an equal basis, while all citizens must be able to demand exemption from military service for reasons of conscience.
6. Legal Protections: In addition to a constitution that embodies strict guarantees that safeguard the fundamental political interests of both groups, these “Protection Clauses” must be safeguarded from alteration except by large majorities (e.g., 80% of the Parliament) and approval by a super majority of a special constitutional court (e.g., 4 out of 5 judges where each group has at least 2). In other significant ministries and public bodies, quotas must dictate the minimum number of representatives at the highest level, while all other positions are filled on a merit, non-discriminatory basis. In government ministries, the deputy for each Ministry must belong to the other major group. (If the Minister is Jewish, then the deputy must be Arab). In this manner the fear that a high level public servant who belongs to one group will be oppressive to those in the minority group will be eliminated. In addition, this and other similar “Protection Clauses” will remove the ‘demographic threat’ and ensure that a group which has a numerical majority will not be able to oppress the minority, and that a future change in the numerical balance between the two communities will not render the new minority vulnerable to oppression by the majority.
7. Ministry of Tolerance: Out of a recognition that the security of citizens is a vital interest of the country, and in appreciation of the past experience of both peoples, the country should invest at least 10% of its defense budget in programs to promote tolerance and understanding of the history, culture and language of each community by the other, supervised by a government ministry conducting joint activities and programs intended to heal the hurts of the past.
http://mondoweiss.net/2016/11/imagine-state-person/
