Everywhere the nation-state is in flux. From global businesses that have more spending power than many countries, to protesters using social networks to bypass the forces of law and order, the state monopoly of power is under challenge.

Why, then, does the dream of nationhood still captivate the aspirations of those denied it, whether in Kurdistan, Kosovo or Palestine? Why is the concept of patriotism so necessary for enabling the ties that bind?

In Ernest Gellner’s seminal work Nations and Nationalism it is the fear of a minority culture being assimilated into a homogeneous form via industrialisation that drives such a desire, rather than a dream of self-determination that Woodrow Wilson advocated in the aftermath of the first world war.

It is a right that was celebrated when Israel made its own declaration of independence in 1948, something which British left feted, as David Cairns pointed out. It was even called a ‘moral necessity’ by The Guardian. This might seem surprising given the vogue for Israel-boycotting in some sections of the left,  but perhaps less so given the commitment to social welfare and democracy by the Israeli state, as well as the links between the British left and Zionists in the 1940s.

Whether is a ‘freedom from’, or a ‘freedom to’, nationalism remains a defining feature of political mobilisation that crosses cultural boundaries, and has universal appeal.

Few wish to deny the Palestinians the right to statehood, at least in principle. Arguments have been more practical, as Tony Blair, the Quartet’s special envoy, put it:

‘You can pass whatever resolution you like at the United Nations or the Security Council, it doesn’t actually deliver you a state on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza, and if you don’t have a negotiation, whatever you do at the UN is going to be deeply confrontational.’

The Palestinians have been attempting to create the image of a state, with a show of force by their nascent police service making arrests, though primarily for the benefit of international television cameras.

And for the moment Mahmoud Abbas has steered a careful course, making the formal application to the United Nations in a speech that got him a standing ovation, to keep his domestic constituency satisfied for now, but not forcing the issue to a vote, so as to placate the Americans and Israelis.

The longer-term challenge will of course be if serious negotiations can begin between both sides again. The barriers to this (historical and current) exist on both sides from the intransigency of Netanyahu to the ongoing threat from Hamas.

But in light of the democracy movement that has swept across parts of the Arab world, perhaps the more interesting question is what kind of state the Palestinians manage to create when they finally achieve a two-state solution – pluralistic, democratic and respectful of individual rights, or authoritarian, monotheistic and ill-at-ease with its neighbours? And will Israel allow it to flourish?

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Alex Bigham writes the Progressive Internationalism column for ProgressOnline

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Photo: kudumomo