The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)

Since the start of the occupation of Palestinian territories in1967, Israel's domination of the Palestinians has deprived anentire population of any political status or protection. But evendecades on, most people speak of this rule―both in everydaypolitical discussion and in legal and academic debates―astemporary, as a state of affairs incidental and external to theIsraeli regime. In The One-State Condition, AriellaAzoulay and Adi Ophir directly challenge this belief. Lookingclosely at the history and contemporary formation of the rulingapparatus―the technologies and operations of the Israeli army, theGeneral Security Services, and the legal system imposed in theOccupied Territories―Azoulay and Ophir outline the one-statecondition of Israel/Palestine: the grounding principle of Israeligovernance is the perpetuation of differential rule overpopulations of differing status. Israeli citizenship is shapedthrough the active denial of Palestinian citizenship and civilrights. Though many Israelis, on both political right and left,agree that the occupation constitutes a problem for Israelidemocracy, few ultimately admit that Israel is no democracy orquestion the very structure of the Israeli regime itself. Toofrequently ignored are the lasting effects of the deceptive denialof the events of 1948 and 1967, and the ways in which the resultingoccupation has reinforced the sweeping militarization and recentracialization of Israeli society. Azoulay and Ophir show thatacknowledgment of the one-state condition is not only aprerequisite for considering a one- or two-state solution;it is a prerequisite for advancing new ideas to move beyond thetrap of this false dilemma.