on the context and a way out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , based in part on his book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (he had sold out of copies by the time the lecture was done; hope it's on Kindle soon).Abunimah (also founder of Electronic Intifidah) laid out his case in a clear, well-intoned articulate voice, framing his points squarely within the context of international law and universal human rights. He stressed a governance that includes egalitarian treatment for all the population: "Israeli Jews will be the beneficiaries of this as well," he said.
Abunimah advocates a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) technique to apply pressure against what he said was an increasing entrenchment of apartheid policy into Israeli law. He cited the effectiveness of a BDS-type approach in South Africa, and also mentioned South Africa and Ireland as possible models he's researched for governance of a single state with a bilateral population.
The run-up to the talk was marked by some very public flap in town, well documented on Abunimah's blog. While acknowledging the flap, he didn't dwell on it: "This issue isn't about me," he said.
While he had impassioned moments, the overall tone had the calm, clear logical intensity befitting the the seriousness of the topic, and stayed clear of over-the-top rhetoric and delivery.
He was also pretty web savvy, live streaming the event to his web site and Tweeting up to the start of the speech. His earlier speech at Stanford is up on you Tube and last night's was also videotaped; we'll see if that makes it to the web as well.
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