One state with equal rights that remains a Jewish state
Israel extends its sovereignty and full, equal citizenship to the Palestinians of the West Bank, and keeps its Jewish national character, as it does today with its Arab citizens.
What happens to Israeli Jews
Keep a Jewish state, and in these versions the whole of the West Bank, with Jerusalem united.
What happens to Palestinians
Full individual rights and the vote as a national minority, like Arab citizens of Israel today. No state and no national self-determination of their own; refugees don't return.
What it requires
- Annexing the West Bank and giving its roughly 3 million Palestinians full citizenship and the vote
- A lasting Jewish majority. With the West Bank but without Gaza, Jews would be roughly 60% of citizens. Advocates dispute the Palestinian population figures; include Gaza and the majority is gone
- An answer for Gaza, which most versions leave out
- Palestinians accepting citizenship in a state whose symbols, anthem and Law of Return are Jewish, with no national state of their own
- Real equality in land, planning, budgets and policing, which Israel's Arab citizens still don't fully have
This model depends on demography. It stays both equal and Jewish only as long as the numbers allow. If they don't, it has to choose, and choosing the Jewish character over the vote turns it into "one state under Jewish rule, without equal rights".
Who supports it
Proposed on the Israeli right, e.g. Caroline Glick, 'The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East' (2014), and by a few Likud figures. It is rarely polled as its own option, so check support before quoting a number.
What history says
- Arab citizens of Israel since 1948: the model in miniature, with the vote, Knesset seats and an Arab party in the 2021 coalition, but military rule until 1966 and lasting inequality
- Nation-states with large national minorities: Finland's Swedish speakers (a success), Turkey's Kurds (a long conflict)
- Northern Ireland: a minority with equal votes but no national self-determination was a recipe for 30 years of violence, until the Good Friday Agreement gave both identities a stake
The hard questions
- What happens to Gaza, and to the Jewish majority if Gaza is ever included?
- If the Jewish majority shrinks, which gives way: equal votes or the Jewish character? If it's the votes, this becomes annexation without rights.
- Why would Palestinians accept being a permanent national minority, when their national movement exists to avoid exactly that?
- Can Israel close the inequality its Arab citizens already face, before it takes in 3 million more?
What stands in the way
- Each side reads the other through its worst quote — Palestinians won't accept a state whose leaders said they don't exist.
- Majority as safety ↔ return as justice — It works only if refugees don't return, which Palestinians reject.
- Recognise the Jewish state ↔ recognise the Nakba — It asks Palestinians to accept the Jewish character without any acknowledgement of their own story.
- Whoever moves first loses — Israel would grant citizenship first and hope for loyalty.
- Distrust as premise — Same.