Many points in the Declaration raise complicated questions and touch on political controversies. In this section, we offer some clarifications of the Declaration’s text, based on inquiries and discussion by readers and signatories. This section will be expanded and amended as Movement members contribute ideas and elaborate on parts of the Declaration.

Definitions:

Those who were expelled: People who fled fighting or were deliberately transferred out of the territory of modern Palestine and were denied their right of return, as well as those who were left the country for any reason and were denied their right to return on the basis of their ethnic or religious identity (not being Jewish) or their opposition to Zionism.

Palestinian Right to Return: The inalienable right vested in people who were expelled from Palestine over the past century. The right to return to their country of origin right is a right held by all refugees, but was expressly affirmed in this case in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which affirmed that people who were expelled or fled the fighting in the war of 1947-48 should be allowed to return. The ODS Declaration assumes that the right to return is also vested in Palestinians who were expelled from the territory through actions by the State of Israel in its subsequent capacity as belligerent occupier and by the descendants of all Palestinians who were denied the right to return.

Citizens: The Declaration clarifies that citizens of the unified state will Include all those living in Israel-Palestine at the time of adopting this Declaration and all those Palestinians who were expelled over the past century and their descendants who wish to assume the rights and responsibilities of citizens. In practice, the question of citizenship is complicated, because Israeli doctrine has always held that any Jew may become a citizen of Israel and Palestinian nationalism holds that all Palestinians have the right to return and obtain citizenship in a Palestinian state. The question of who might become citizens in practice, and whether citizenship will be limited to Palestinians and Jews who wish to live in the unified country or might include people who obtain citizenship there while living elsewhere, will necessarily be a sensitive matter for negotiation. Parity of treatment between Jewish and Palestinian diasporas will be essential, but provisions may be developed to ensure that citizens of any group assume the responsibilities as well as the rights conveyed by citizenship. All states today have constitutional provisions for citizenship and naturalisation that can offer examples for workable provisions to sort out the relationship between citizens and ethnic diasporas.

Jews: In referring to Jews, the Declaration does not enage the difficult ‘who is a Jew’ question but assumes that this category includes anyone who consider themselves Jewish. Because Zionist doctrine does not neatly conceive of a difference between Jewish citizens of Israel and Jews living outside the country, as Israel is conceived to be the state of the Jewish people wherever they live, references to “Jews” in the Declaration includes any Jewish person who may engage with the practical challenges and responsibilities of citizenship in a unified state. The same qualification applies to Palestinians.