“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.”
These visionary words of John Lennon in the song, Imagine, are an idea, a kind-of prayer, I fully support. And the fact that this is such a popular song worldwide—it was once played at the closing ceremony of the world Olympics—is a sliver of hope that, despite all of the reasons to doubt it, some day, long after I’m gone, humankind will advance to a point where this is our reality.
In the here and now, however, the issue of the right of nations to determine their own leadership and form of government, for democracy and justice within them, is what’s on our plate, what is before the world as a whole to try to resolve.
How strong is the support among US progressives and leftists today for the right of national self-determination? From what I can see, it’s a definitely mixed reality.
Some US leftist groups have refused to condemn Russia’s 2021 military invasion of Ukraine, an invasion with the clear intention of removing the democratically elected Ukrainian government. For them, the concept of national self-determination is apparently to be applied selectively. If the US government is violating that principle, as it has often done historically and continues to do today in many parts of the Global South, then they will be critical. But if its another government, especially Russia, doing the violating, it is sometimes a different story.
In Palestine/Israel most leftists support the right of Palestinians to resist Israel’s brutal aggression and continuing occupation of their historic territory and their right to a state of their own on some or all of historic Palestine. That support is higher now that it has probably ever been in the US because of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Even Kamala Harris, no leftist, has come out publicly and repeatedly in support of Palestinian self-determination and a state alongside the state of Israel.
There are no easy solutions to these two, major, raging hot wars, but it seems to me that an ultimate resolution of both of them has to put the self-determination issue at the center of those solutions.
What would that mean concretely? For Ukraine it would mean that a key element of any diplomatic resolution, an end to the war, would be the holding of democratic and transparent elections under the auspices of the United Nations in Crimea and those parts of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops. Those elections would be a form of self-determination in what are clearly the most contested areas between Russia and Ukraine. The issue to be determined by those elections is whether those regions continue to be Ukrainian or become part of Russia.
In Palestine it must mean a number of things: an end to Israel’s war, a ceasefire, the release of Hamas held hostages and Israeli held political prisoners, massive humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza and the West Bank. It must also mean provisions for United Nations sponsored, Gaza/West Bank/East Jerusalem elections for a new Palestinian government. Only Palestinian self-determination free of Israeli or any other non-Palestinian influence can make it possible for this long-suffering people and this dangerous situation to begin to change course.
But what about the idea of one bi-national state in which Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims, Jews and Christians live together under some form of interconnected government? Here is how the late Edward Said described his vision for this state in 1999: “After 50 years of Israeli history, classic Zionism has provided no solution to the Palestinian presence. I therefore see no other way than to begin now to speak about sharing the land that has thrust us together, sharing it in a truly democratic way with equal rights for all citizens.” (1)
Others since have come up with various, much more specific proposals for how such a bi-national state might work, including a government more of a federation than a fully unified polity.
It is very hard to see this happening anytime soon, given the widespread fear, anger and bitterness on both sides of the Israel/Palestinian divide. But as a vision for the future, sometime in the future, hopefully not many decades into the future, it is very much consistent with John Lennon’s vision. Indeed, Lennon envisioned, as have many prophets and spiritual leaders going back millennia, including Jesus of Nazareth, something even more radical, more transformative:
“Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.”
You can say that he was a dreamer, but he wasn’t the only one when he wrote this song, and he was right that all of us who share this vision, who struggle to hold onto it at this difficult time, must find the ways to join together to build toward such a world. Our children, our grandchildren, the seven generations coming after us, are dependent on us doing so.
- Edward Said, “Truth and Reconciliation,” Al-Ahram Weekly, January 14, 1999
Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.
Ted Glick 