The Alternative Lexicon

The transcendent can help cultivate a shared appreciation for the land and its significant sacred sites, rather than the sectarian divisions created by the zero-sum game of colonialism and nationalism.

Democracy is a set of formally agreed rules and institutions designed to contain internal conflicts peacefully within the borders of a state. The concept of two separate autonomous democratic states, coordinated through parity-based confederal institutions, is suggested here as a democratic institutional framework for containing conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians in their shared Land, and as a viable path toward decolonization.

Dependence can become interdependence when it is symmetrical, just, and sustainable. This is a continued process, perhaps never fully achieved, rather than a fixed objective or endgame.

The Green Line can play a prominent role under an “emancipatory peacebuilding” paradigm (ibid.) by being a border between two internationallyrecognized states, on the one hand, and a porous membrane in everyday nation- and state-building on a local, national and supranational level, on the other.

Can we imagine a future bi-national\shared cities by Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, based on equal terms administered by a decentralized, urban federal-type, democratic regime?