A Two-State Solution That Can Work
with Dr. Limor Yehuda
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
November 13, 2024 at 14:15-15:45
Hybrid event: Zoom* and room 1013, Hamadrega building, University of Haifa**
* Link to zoom will be active here at the time of event
** See map here. For car entry permit to campus e-mail Michal at least one day before the event at: minervaextreme@univ.haifa.ac.il
Abstract
In A Two-State Solution That Can Work: The Case for an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation, Omar M. Dajani and Limor Yehuda argue for a reimagined two-state solution centered on a confederal model that combines self-determination with partnership. They propose a confederation that would allow Israel and Palestine to function as independent, sovereign states with clear borders, while fostering cooperative governance on shared issues like security, infrastructure, and public health.
This model addresses the shortcomings of traditional separation-based solutions, such as the unfeasibility of evacuating settlers and the persistent interdependence between Israelis and Palestinians due to the region’s small geographic area. Instead of enforcing physical divisions, a confederation would permit free movement, enable residents of each state to live across the entire territory (including West Bank settlers and returning Palestinian refugees), and utilize shared institutions to address overlapping interests.
The authors argue that this framework resolves the ethical and logistical problems of previous peace attempts, as it does not impose dominance but promotes equality through joint institutions and respect for individual and collective rights. They also suggest that international support, potentially through a transitional administration, would be crucial in helping establish the institutions necessary for a viable Palestinian state and long-term peace.
Ultimately, Dajani and Yehuda’s confederation vision aims to replace the paradigm of dominance with one of equal partnership, providing a sustainable path to peace that addresses both peoples’ attachments to their shared homeland.
Dr. Limor Yehuda is a senior research fellow and leader of the “Partnership-Based Israeli-Palestinian Peace” project at the VLJI, and a jurist who studies conflicts and peace processes from a comparative, theoretical and multidisciplinary perspective, with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian case. She earned all of her degrees at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law. She lectures on transitional justice, democracy and multiculturalism at the Hebrew University Faculty of Law.
Dr. Yehuda is currently studying processes of transition from conflict to peace, with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian case. Her book “Collective Equality: Human rights and Democracy in the Resolution of ethnonational conflicts” was recently published by Cambridge University Press.
Since 2021 Dr. Yehuda has co-led with Ameer Fakhoury and Oren Yiftachel the thinking group “A partnership-based Israeli-Palestinian peace” at the VLJI.
Between 2022-2024 Limor was a post-doctoral fellow at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions.
In addition to her academic work, Limor is a founding member of A Land for All (“Two States, One Homeland”), and co-chair of its executive board. She was previously a legal assistant at Israel’s Supreme Court, an assistant in the state committee of inquiry into the Versaille wedding hall disaster, and a lawyer and director of the department for human rights in the Occupied Territories at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
