5 minWorld
Anti-Israel Protest Leaders Say Goal Is One State Called Palestine, Replacing Israel
In coordinated weekend marches across Washington, London, Paris, Madrid and Kuala Lumpur, anti-Israel activists rejected the two-state solution. Three movement figures told Fox News Digital their goal is a single state called Palestine with a Palestinian right of return, which would end Israel's existence as a Jewish nation-state.
Anti-Israel activists who marched in coordinated demonstrations across Washington, London, Paris, Madrid and Kuala Lumpur over the weekend are increasingly stating openly that their goal is not a two-state solution but a single state called Palestine that would replace Israel.
In interviews, three movement leaders described a political vision in which Israel would cease to exist as a separate Jewish nation-state. Hatem Abudayyeh, founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said the new entity would be «one democratic secular state of Palestine.» Miko Peled, an Israeli-born community leader who founded Palestine House in Washington, said «the proper name would be Palestine.» Sam Husseini, a congressional candidate in Maryland, suggested «1948» — the year Israel declared independence and Palestinians mark as the Nakba — but added that even Israeli Jews would eventually accept the name Palestine.
The vision includes a Palestinian «right of return» to the new country and equal political, voting and citizenship rights for Palestinians alongside Jews now living in Israel. Under that framework, Israel would legally cease to exist as a Jewish state, and Jews would be quickly overwhelmed demographically.
Israel's population is about 10 million, including roughly 7.8 million Jews, 2 million Palestinian Arabs and 200,000 people from other communities. About 10.2 million Jews live worldwide. There are an estimated 5.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and about 8 million in the diaspora, for a total of some 13.5 million.
The candor of the leaders lays bare the political conclusion of an argument activists have advanced for years on the streets, through sympathetic media outlets and in legal forums: that Israel is a «settler colonial» state practicing «apartheid» and «genocide,» and therefore should not continue to exist in its current form.
Israeli leaders have fiercely rejected those allegations, disputing accusations of genocide and apartheid and maintaining that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people with equal civil and political rights for citizens including Jews, Christians and Muslims. Advocates for Israel note that the nation's critics rarely apply the same human-rights lens to Arab and Muslim-majority states, many of which emerged from the collapse of empires, wars and population upheavals that displaced millions, including Jews expelled from their countries, and today often restrict political, religious and minority rights.
At the demonstrations, protesters signaled their position with certainty, explicitly rejecting the two-state solution that has dominated international diplomacy for decades. In New York City, the Party for Socialism and Liberation circulated video of marchers chanting: «1-2-3-4. Occupation no more. 5-6-7-8. Israel is a terrorist state.» Then came the point: «We don't want no two state!»
In London, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign promoted a 15-second video of a woman with a megaphone shouting: «There is only one state!» «Palestine, '48!» protesters responded. «Say it loud, say it clear!» she continued. «Palestine, you make us proud!»
In Washington, D.C., protesters carried signs declaring, «LAND YOU HAVE 2 KILL FOR IS NOT YOURS,» a message challenging Israel's claim to the land itself, while a banner proclaiming, «THE FIGHT FOR LIBERATION IS OURS,» framed the struggle as one for the territory.
On Washington's First Avenue SE, Fox News Digital asked Olivia DiNucci, local coordinator for CodePink, what her group sees as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. «Palestinians in Palestine will decide,» DiNucci said. Asked whether «Palestine» includes modern-day Israel, she spun around and walked away. Later, she posted on social media that she had been asked «gotcha questions.»
The demonstrators did not address the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but many have called them justified. The one-state demand is being amplified within a powerful protest infrastructure. The broader «red-green» alliance brings socialist and communist groups together on the streets with Palestinian and Muslim activist organizations, while organizations including the Democratic Socialists of America and nonprofits in a network funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai, help organize and promote the actions.
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