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The One-State Condition
A book review of The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most prominent problems in political science, international relations, and foreign policy we have today. Introductory conflict resolution and foreign policy classes are scattered with literature on this topic. However, since the beginning of the occupation in June of 1967, no one has been able to create a solution for these groups of people to live in peace.
Peace talks and numerous humanitarian efforts have strived to do just that, as well as special educational programs, such as the Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem. They have all come up fruitless. As Azoulay and Ophir point out, for the Israelis and Palestinians to even think about beginning to mend the problems created by this occupation they need three things: a distinct national belonging, full citizenship, and a partnership between the groups. However, as noted throughout the book and my commentary, this will prove to be difficult due to the structure of the regime in Israel and the occupied territories.
The authors, Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir, are both Israeli scholars. Azoulay is currently a professor of comparative literature and modern art culture at Brown University. Her resume seemed very long due…
