Description
With the destruction and decoupling of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority and the settlement and annexation plans and activities of the Israeli government, an increasing number of analysts and activists are speaking about the death of the two-state solution. Voices supporting a one-state solution as the only viable and just solution to the conflict are multiplying. However, public surveys show little support for a one-state solution among both communities, especially Israeli Jews, and such a solution is often discarded by policymakers as a result. We believe that low public support for a one-state solution could be an artefact of (1) a lack of details about possible models of a one-state solution in survey questionnaires and (2) not situating respondents in a context where they directly compare these models with realistic alternatives. In this paper, we analyse the results of the first one-state solution conjoint experiment using representative samples of Israeli Jews and Arab Palestinians, including Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, to assess preferences for different configurations of a one-state solution in comparison to the status quo, annexation without civil rights for Palestinians, and the two-state solution. We also include an embedded experiment to test the effect of persuasive framing on support for a one-state solution. Data collection will take place in March/April 2026, with the size of each of the four samples - Israeli Jews, Israeli Palestinians, West Bank Palestinians, and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon - carefully calculated to allow meaningful analysis of the nested framing experiment as well as relevant subgroups (e.g., based on demographics, political ideology, religiosity or victimisation) within each sample.
