FINLAND & PALESTINE Proceedings of a Joint Workshop

• _____._.___._.__._.____.~.__.___ Khalil Nakhleh
• The total freedom of all the people of historical Palestine to
chose the type of their governance system, without any
coercion or prejudice;
• The safeguarding of the seminal principle of separating religious
beliefs from the political system, and the use of religion
as the basis of government;
• The legal guarantee of equal rights of individuals and groups
for all minorities living in the new Palestinian Society;
• The insistence on the basic principle that majority-minority
relations must be based on equality and non-exploitation.
It is clear that the essence of this discussion is about the type
of Future Society I (and, hopefully, we) aspire to see developed
in the land of Palestine. My focus is not, necessarily, on the
type of the "nation-state" for which we should be longing. Basically,
I believe that "nation-states" are anachronistic, and will
eventually disappear as organizing structures of human groups.
This, therefore, is a discussion at the level of concepts; it is not
meant to be a discussion about a "political plan" that may be
implementable over the next decade or so. It is my belief that
unless basic concepts, and our understanding of them, are clarified
and internalized, no "political plan", whatever it is, can
be sustained. Moreover, and to be crystal clear from the outset,
this discussion does not, nor should it, undermine or minimize
the urgent need for heightening the serious ongoing
popular struggle against the Zionist-American occupation and
domination of our lands (and against all their local and international
agents and brokers), and all its symbols and structures
(for example, the illegal Wall of separation, the illegal Jewish­
Zionist colonies, etc.).l
1 See, for example, my latest article on 15 July 2008 in
http:Uwww.palestinechronicle.com.
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