Let's discuss a draft for a Constitution

Introduction

A special solution

Considering that all previous attempts to create a two-state solution failed, led to bloodshed, and that our both peoples, the Jewish people of Israel and the Palestinian-Arab people, do not want to - and cannot - merge into a single Nation living in a unitary state, we have reached the conclusion that the only solution left is nor separating nor merging, but entering a unique kind of Federal Alliance:

A "three states for two peoples in one land-solution". This is made possible by both peoples recognition of the same supranational Sovereign. It takes the form of a Federal State which has sovereignty over the territory and over two non-territorial nation-states.

The specific logic for this federation is simple: if you want to have two independent nations in the same federal framework, the federation has to be supranational; if you want to eliminate the demographic problem without territorial partition, and without the risk of a future secession, you need to separate national identity from territory. This is achieved by having national laws applying only on individual citizens or communities, and not on the territory. So the national identity will be formed by Law, not by Land.

This non-territorial character of the national states will help preventing any future nationalist fight for the Land.

Principles for a Constitution

We have reached the conclusion that the best solution is a "three 4 two in one", a "three states for two peoples in one land-solution": the Federal State shall have sovereignty over the territory and over two non-territorial nation-states, whose national law applies on their citizens personally, and not on a territory.

The Federation allows the Israeli Jewish People and the Palestinian Arab People full autonomy and political independence each one as a different People, while enjoying the whole land of Israel-Palestine in an equal and peaceful way.

The constitution shall protect the independence of each people and the full respect of the Human Rights by the different Authorities, it will define an equal parity in the management of common infrastructures, a just partake of natural resources between both peoples, mutual Right of Return, a joint defense of outer borders.

Federal institutions of government

One federal state includes a federal joint government and parliament elected by all the federal citizens.

It is based on a constitutional covenant between both peoples and implements the supranational sovereignty of the rule of Law and Justice, on the whole, undivided, land of Israel-Palestine, and on both national states of Israel and of Palestine, accordingly to its prerogatives.

Sovereignty on the land shall be implemented by the federal state exclusively.

It will respect the principles of national equal parity and reciprocity: every federal institution shall include the same number of Arabs and Jews, whatever the demography, so the demographic problem will have disappeared.

Small ethnic groups or communities not affiliated with the two main Nations could send a few delegates to the Federal Parliament in order for their voice to be heard.

Ministers and deputy ministers, the Prime Minister and the President, could rotate every two years in order to allow a fair representation of Israelis and Palestinians.

Will fall under the responsibility of the federal government all domains managed as a whole, like: foreign policy, defense, environment, general means of communication, energy and information networks.

Foreign policy should have to be neutral, and both national states shall be forbidden to enter foreign alliances.

National institutions of government

They include: two national parliaments, two national governments.

Both national states - based on personal and communal autonomy - will be non-territorial states of law, each one ruling on their citizen and communities on a personal basis - not a territorial one - accordingly to its prerogatives.

In this way the Jewish state will always be nearly 100% Jewish, no matter the number of Palestinians living in geographical proximity. This is equally true for the Palestinian state: it will always be nearly 100% Arab, no matter the number of Jews living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Regional and local councils

Each national state shall be largely decentralized, itself a federation of communities and districts which enjoy broad juridical, judicial and administrative autonomy, according to principles of communal democracy and democratic self-government.

Other ethnic groups and communities

Ethnic groups, communities and individuals who do not attach themselves to the two main nations (like may be Druzes, Bedouins, Circassians, Black Hebrews or other groups), could find their collective political expression at the local or regional level of administration. They still would have to attach themselves to one of the two main Nations if they want to participate to national elections. Federal elections will be open to all, with no prerequisite of national definition.

Democracy

Democracy is "Rule of the People". We have two peoples in the Federation, so democracy, "Rule of the People" is to be replaced at the federal level by "Rule of Law", Parity and protection of rights for minorities, preventing any oppressive rule of the majority on the minority.

Democracy can only apply in unitary national states, like the State of Israel and the State of Palestine in our Federation, which shall elect democratically its own government and parliament.

Citizenship

Every inhabitant of the Federation will enjoy a double citizenship, like in the European model: his own national citizenship which guarantees his national identity, and a common federal citizenship which guarantees equality and on the basis of the universal principles of Law and Justice.

Every federal citizen would swear loyalty to the constitutional State, which means that he recognize the other people's national independence.

Mixed couples could choose to which Nation-State they want to be attached.

There could be a possibility to have federal citizenship alone, to be a kind of world citizen before time.

Territory

The single territory encompasses all of Israel and Palestine.

It includes the whole land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea: West Bank, Gaza and Israel of today.

Its name is "Land of Israel" and "Land of Palestine".

The administration of the territory as a whole shall be within the powers of the Federation exclusively.

A General Land Use Plan will be agreed upon by a federal Land commission, within the powers of the Federation exclusively. The Land Use Plan will enable proper urbanization and housing planning solutions.

The federal state will confer territorial prerogatives to both national administrations according to a mutually agreed map of administrative (not political!) regional districts. The map will be based on the actual geographic demography and its history.

In order to minimize the interventions of the federal state in the national issues of each people, these districts will be of three kinds:

- Arab districts under direct Palestinian jurisdiction,

- Jewish districts under direct Israeli jurisdiction,

- open mixed districts - Jerusalem among them - under exclusive federal jurisdiction.

Ownership of land shall be exclusively private, never national.

Arabs may live individually in Jewish districts, and Jews - in Arab districts, according to the local or communal policy.

A joint Israeli-Palestinian committee will jointly manage public lands and water resources, ensuring their equal access to every citizen, and the equitable development of both urban and agricultural populations.

Settlements

New Palestinian and Israeli settlements could be created in their respective districts by their own national government, without any federal control.

In open districts could be built new Jewish, Palestinian or mixed settlements on a fair basis by decision of the proper federal authorities.

In case an Israeli settlement was previously built inside a dense Arab district in a way that causes frictions, it could be displaced by the federal authorities. Alternatively, it could be kept in place in exchange for the creation of a new Palestinian settlement inside a Jewish district or according to any other agreed arrangement.

Any evacuated settlement could be taken in account as a contribution to the overall solution of settling or compensating refugees.

Previously illegal Jewish settlements could be legalized by Israeli authorities in case they are located inside a Jewish district.

Communal or private Palestinian land previously seized by Jewish settlements shall have to be returned or compensated for.

Immigration, Alyah and Refugees

The whole territory shall be open to the immigration of Palestinian refugees, Jewish immigrants and political refugees from any country.

The Right of Return of Palestinian refugees and the Israeli Law of Return shall be a fundamental part of the Constitution and shall be both fully respected.

The national governments and communal administrations absorbing their nationals and members shall apply their own selection criteria, free of any federal control, and shall be responsible for their proper integration in the regional districts under their responsibility.

Once granted national citizenship, the immigrant shall receive its federal citizenship after a ceremonial swearing of allegiance to the Covenant.

The federal jurisdiction shall be responsible for ensuring the compliance of the federal administration to the Constitution and to Human Rights, among them the right of entry and residence on the territory of the Federation for any human being.

The federal government will deal with general right of asylum for non-Palestinians or non-Jewish refugees.

Compensations for lost of property

Palestinians and Jews who have been evicted from their land, home, or any property because of the conflict, shall be compensated and will have pre-emption rights in case their property is being sold or rented.

The refugee camps shall be dismantled or rehabilitated. UNRWA administration will be terminated.

Forces of Defense

Joint armed forces of Defense shall operate under centralized federal command. These federal forces, combining Israeli and Palestinian units, shall be used exclusively to implement the peoples' federation basic right of self-defense from external aggressions.

The creation of the Federation of Israel-Palestine shall be linked to a peace agreement with the whole Arab league. There could be a clause like: "Attacking the FIP would be seen as an attack against the Palestinian people themselves." Then, for the Palestinians such an attack would be like a conflict between Arab countries.

In case the Arab League woud not agree to sign a peace treaty with the FIP, the usual federal parity will be temporarily postponed: the direction of the Joint Army - Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense - shall be at first under Israeli command only. It will gradually be shared then with the Palestinians, as peace treaties with neighboring Arab and Muslim states are concluded.

The reason for this measure is simple: the Palestinian people defining themselves as a part of the larger Arab nation, it will prevent the Palestinian citizens being torn between two allegiances in case of conflict.

The federation shall apply a policy of transparency on nuclear weapons and shall sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
We support the vision of a world without nuclear weapons and will pursue this goal at the regional level in the Middle-East.
Interlocking Jewish and Arab geographical areas in the Federation shall be encouraged: it will make virtually impossible to target one of the populations in particular with a nuclear missile.

Police forces

The order and internal security shall be provided by the police forces exclusively, operated at the various levels of the federation : Federal Police incorporating mixed units, Israeli National Police, Palestinian National police, Municipal Police.

Political violence, terror, would be a mere internal problem, dealt with by the police only. Any violent and subversive attempt to destabilize the Federation will be immediately nipped in the bud.

Each police force shall operate in its national or communal districts to deal with intra-community conflicts. Other conflicts will be dealt by the federal police forces.

The allocation of extended responsibilities and powers to municipalities and district councils will be an effective way to reduce the frictions between the two peoples and the various communities.

Jurisdictions

A Federal Supreme Court is responsible for ensuring the constitutionality of the laws of the Federation.

The nation-states and their various communities will enjoy judicial autonomy.

Rabbinic and shar'ia tribunals shall have extended and recognized jurisdiction on the community who choose to abide by their legislation.

Jerusalem

In order to express the unity and indivisibility of the Federation, Jerusalem, Yerushalayim-Alquds, shall be both the siege of the political capital of the federation and of the two Nation-states.

It will enjoy a special status in form of a distinct regional district placed under the Federal government exclusively.

Jews and Arabs will be free to live anywhere in the town.

The federal municipality will be decentralized; it will coordinate the activities of various sub-municipalities and will harmonize their development.

This pattern may be the operating model of mixed cities all over the country.

As federal capital, not belonging to any Nation, Jerusalem will be the symbol of the peaceful covenant, of unity beyond separation, between East and West, between the two peoples, and beyond them, of humanity.

Inside such a jewel-box the Holy sites will find back their original meaning.

Elections

Federal elections shall be conducted according to principles of paritary democracy.

In every candidate list, nominations are made up of an equal number of Arabs and Jews.

The Federal Parliament and government shall be elected for a four years mandate. All the federal citizens – Israelis, Palestinians and others shall vote for candidate lists which include an equal number of Arabs and Jews and delegates of minorities. In this way will be chosen candidates who are guided by the common interests of both peoples.

National elections: each citizen shall vote for his own national parliament, no matter where he lives.

Economy

The federation shall guaranty of a decent minimum subsistence to every inhabitant.

A special tax shall be consecrated to fight poverty.

A federal economic commission will have the task of reducing economic disparities between the two peoples. In this way, Palestinians who were former Israeli citizens will not loose any of the advantages they had before becoming citizen of Palestine.

The Federation shall operate one federal central bank and shall have a common currency.

Both Israeli and Palestinian economies will be integrated and will complete each other; total freedom of movement for workers and goods shall be guarantied.

Health and Social protection

Health, social protection, and every matter of human rights in general shall be the responsibility of the federal state.

The Federation will provide a federal health system for all.

Culture and Education

Cultural and educational independence are provided for each nation and community.

A common core program of education shall include the study of the language and culture of the other nation, English and Sciences.

Official languages:  Arabic for the Palestinian state; Hebrew for the Palestinian state, and both Arabic and Hebrew shall be the Official languages of the Federation.

Implementation process

This is the easiest solution. We, the Palestinians and Israelis, will decide by our democratic vote, and that is enough:

- no need for negotiations about dividing the land, dividing Jerusalem, refugees, security, settlements, water, etc.

- no dependence on mediation by any international facilitator.

- no risk that any extremist could torpedo the negotiations: there is no need for negotiations at all! The majority will decide, and the majority is moderated and peace seeking.

Having opted for the federal solution, Palestinians and Israelis will recognize that the true culprit in 1948 war and the Naqba was nation-state nationalism and its incapacity to compromise on territory, not the peoples themselves. They will easily forgive to each other their fear to be dominated by the other and their violent reaction to it.

We are building a joint movement of Palestinians and Israelis. The movement will act according to the same constitutional principles like the Federation itself - Respect, Reciprocity and Justice - with an Israeli branch and a Palestinian branch. The spirit of respectful cooperation in view of the same aim that prevails in this group will be pivotal in building confidence between the two peoples.

The movement will run for national and municipal elections, both in Israel and in Palestine.

As soon as there will be a majority for the Federation in the public opinion, a referendum shall be conducted in both countries.

A quiet revolution will be achieved by the most democratic way.

We have already begun to implement the solution: each time someone is convinced that this solution is The Solution, we are closer to the aim.

It can be implemented slowly, step by step, as individual after individual, community after community become ready to enter the federal covenant.

The implementation of the federal structure is flexible, and can adapt itself to different scenarios in case a two-state solution or a one-state solution is first implemented, willingly or not.

The federal solution does not contradict the two-state solution: the federation would appear never the less to be necessary in order to allow the borders between the two countries to stay opened, and its ability to institutionalize cooperation would be more than welcome.

It is true whether Israel would proceed to a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, or a negotiated solution would be implemented first -against all odds - in the narrow time window still left.

In case of a single unitary state - probably resulting from an Israeli annexation of the Occupied Territories - the federal structure will allow to solve the demographic and identity problem, while granting administrative autonomy to both peoples on an equal basis, transforming occupation in a true cooperation.

We shall bind the creation of the Federation with the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement with the Arab League and, possibly, Iran, in order to make the issue of the joint federal army easier to implement.

We will act in order to get the support of the Quartet, the Arab League - included Syria - Turkey, Iran and the UN. 

A strong and wide international coalition championing the Federal solution will make it easier to accept by most Palestinians and Israelis.

Yehuda Schwartz

A unique solution

A unique conflict requires a unique solution

The Israeli - Palestinian conflict is a unique conflict: there is no other case that a people who sees itself as being in exile during nearly two millennia, and then returns to the land he deems it still owns .This was the cause of an unprecedented conflict of legitimacy with another people who, meanwhile, had grown deep roots in the same land during a long political and religious history, and has too strong claims to territorial sovereignty.

This ability of the Jewish people to live in exile from its land for a so long time must be analysed. Because political solutions do not usually take this dimension into account, they do not address at all the core of the conflict - the peculiar relation of Jews to land - and cannot provide for a sustainable solution.

Our common problem: the territorial nation-state

Judaism and Islam are not mere religions in the western sense, but nations, a people and a Ummah, who have their own traditional legal system which both have produced in the past a state of law, halakhic State in Diaspora, and islamic Caliphate.

The Jewish nation have lived in Diaspora for hundred of years in autonomous communities, who were small, but real, "states within the state", without a territory.

The problem is that there is no room in the modern territorial nation-state for two different nations: because of its territorial character, only one national law is binding for anyone who physically dwell on the territory. As a consequence, all citizens have necessarily to become one single nation, if not, one of the two peoples has to leave the territory, or the territory has to be split between them.

As soon as nation-states were created in Europe, following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the Jewish communities lost their legal autonomy and were dissolved.

Zionism, the response of secular Jews  in Europe to their exclusion as a people from the new nationalisms, reacted by creating its own Nation-State for the Jews, on the same European model which had rejected them. Of course, the "Jewish Problem" only turned itself in a "Palestinian problem"!

Following the logics of territorial nationalism, the UN voted a Partition Plan in 1947.  Arab States unleashed the war of 1948 against the new Jewish State and were defeated. As a consequence, a large part of the Palestinian Arabs emigrated or were expulsed; then most of the Jews living in their communities in Arab or Muslim countries had to emigrate.

Both peoples are victims of territorial nationalism.

Abrahamic relation to the land

Western Nationalism is absolutely contrary to the Abrahamic tradition in its relation to land. Abraham heard the divine call asking him to leave his homeland, the Mother-Earth and Fatherland which gave him birth, in order to become the adult creator of his own future, on an other land, still to be discovered and deserved.

Hebrew or Arab true national identity is independent of territory, their land is not Mother Earth, a land-mother, but a land-wife to fecundate and fertilize.

How its possession is justified and legitimized? Not by our past origin, not by "who was the first on the land", but by our future behavior: living by virtue of a debt - not of a right - we have to give back in return, by giving hospitality to the stranger, by giving just charity (tzedaqa/zaqa) to the poor, the widow and the orphan.

By distancing themselves from heathen nationalism, Israelis and Palestinians will return to their true Hebrew and Arab identity, and will be able to live together on the same land. Otherwise they are doomed to kill each other until the last survivor, for who would accept to split his own mother into two pieces?

A special solution

Considering that all previous attempts to create a two-state solution failed, led to bloodshed, and that our both peoples, the Jewish people of Israel and the Palestinian-Arab people, do not want to - and cannot - merge into a single Nation living in a unitary state, we have reached the conclusion that the only solution left is nor separating nor merging, but entering a unique kind of Federal Alliance:

A "three states for two peoples in one land-solution". This is made possible by both peoples recognition of the same supranational Sovereign. It takes the form of a Federal State which has sovereignty over the territory and over two non-territorial nation-states.

The specific logic for this federation is simple: if you want to have two independent nations in the same federal framework, the federation has to be supranational; if you want to eliminate the demographic problem without territorial partition, and without the risk of a future secession, you need to separate national identity from territory. This is achieved by having national laws applying only on individual citizens or communities, and not on the territory. So the national identity will be formed by Law, not by Land.

This non-territorial character of the national states will help preventing any future nationalist fight for the Land.

Those national systems of law can be secular or religious, the crucial point is that they should allow people a real personal autonomy. In that feature, they resemble the traditional systems of law, Halacha and Shari’a , which apply to Jewish or Muslim individuals personally, wherever they live in the world.

The abrahamic relation to the land will be implemented in the special structure of this federal state. Jewish and Israeli identities will be reconciled, and so the Arab and Palestinian ones. And both would have found peace by returning to their Abrahamic heritage.

But was not this alluded to, when the two brothers, Isaac and Ishmael, met together to bury their father Abraham after a life-long separation?

An answer to the religious conflict too

The modern territorial nation-state was built by applying the theological notions of Sovereignty and Alliance to the social realm where they became sovereign people and social contract. It has contributed to a liberation of men and peoples, but at the same time, it has absolutized the person "Nation", who became god-like, knowing no other master than itself, generating nationalist wars, the most lethal than humankind has ever known.

Because of its autistic nature, it is impossible a priori to integrate nation-states in a set of higher order of complexity, which would be supranational. This, the United Nations have demonstrated perfectly.

We can find a deep religious meaning to the Federal Alliance ("Federation" is from Latin foedus, foederis, "alliance") of Israel-Palestine: being necessarily a federation ruling over nations, its Sovereign is potentially made Sovereign of the World - ribono shel olam/rabb el alamin in the language of our traditions - for if its example will be followed,  its Peace will extend to the rest of humanity.

By their reception of the Federation the believers of our respective religions will be tested and judged: will they accept and recognize the Federation and the Sovereign of the World, or will they reject it, thus showing that they actually worship their own nation under the mask of religion, that they bow to their own sovereignty, whether they call it "Jewish" or "Islamic"? So their hideous mask will be lifted, we will prevail on the fanatic religious nationalists!

By this solution - a supranational federation binding together two non-territorial nationalities, we have succeeded to translate into terms of modern politics our common abrahamic roots: a Covenant between two parts, between the monotheistic tribes of a new People of God and the Master of the Universe to whom the Land belongs, for universal blessings.

Yehuda Schwartz

La solution fédérale

Le conflit israélo-palestinien est essentiellement un conflit entre souverainetés territoriales.

Territoire palestinien morcelé, Palestiniens devant traverser le territoire israélien entre Gaza et la Cisjordanie, familles éclatées entre les divers territoires, frontières et points de contrôle, droit au Retour de plusieurs millions de réfugiés palestiniens qui met en danger la majorité juive en Israël, près de 250,000 colons dans les implantations juives en territoire palestinien, 20 % de citoyens israéliens palestiniens qui pourraient demander leur autonomie ou leur rattachement au futur État palestinien, impossible partition de Jérusalem, tels sont les pièces d'un puzzle territorial impossible à construire.

Séparation politique - non territoriale

Israéliens et palestiniens savent très bien qu'il y a largement la place et les ressources pour que leur deux peuples puissent vivre ensemble sur le territoire entre mer et Jourdain en bonne entente, et même développer une coopération fructueuse. Mais ils ont d'abord besoin d'être séparés et indépendants pour pouvoir panser les plaies du passé, et pour pouvoir ensuite collaborer en tant que partenaires libres et égaux. Toutefois, les deux peuples sont si intriqués l'un dans l'autre que la solution de séparation par partage territorial est difficilement praticable et réserve d'innombrables sources de conflit pour le futur. Cette solution a surtout le tort de transformer le contrôle du territoire en moyen de contrôle de l'autre, et de faire de la domination du territoire un enjeu vital.

Je propose ici une solution qui permet aux deux peuples de se séparer politiquement sans partition territoriale, et de rendre leur existence indépendante du territoire, comme c'était le cas pour les Arabes nomades et les Juifs en exil.

Plus de "problème démographique"

Imaginons qu'un Palestinien puisse vivre où il veut sur le territoire d'Israël, tout en étant un citoyen palestinien qui vote pour le gouvernement de l'État palestinien. En quoi sa présence personnelle, individuelle, à Jaffa ou Haïfa me dérangerait-elle? En rien, puisque ne votant pas pour la Knesset, il ne risque pas de renforcer un camp arabe qui risquerait de devenir majoritaire et de prendre le pouvoir en Israël. Ainsi, la présence personnelle physique de citoyens palestiniens résidant en Israël ne met pas en danger le but fondamental du sionisme: assurer au Peuple Juif l'indépendance nationale, lui garantir que son sort ne dépend pas d'un autre peuple.

Même si un nouveau quartier arabe palestinien se développait dans l'une des villes israéliennes, en jouissant d'une autonomie communautaire entière dans la gestion de ses affaires municipales, en quoi cela me gênerait-il dans ma vie quotidienne d'Israélien? Et si cette population palestinienne devenait de plus en plus nombreuse, et même majoritaire dans certaines régions, en quoi cela me ferait-il problème si ces Palestiniens continuent à être des citoyens palestiniens qui votent pour leur gouvernement et non pour la Knesset? Quels que soit leur nombre et leur autonomie communautaire, des citoyens palestiniens de l'État de Palestine résidant en Israël ne mettront jamais en danger la majorité juive de la Knesset, et le caractère juif de l'État d'Israël.

Ce qui fait peur, c'est qu'une communauté palestinienne importante puisse demander ensuite son rattachement à l'État palestinien, entamant d'autant le territoire israélien. C'est la métaphore généralement employée du salami: découpé tranche après tranche. Ce qu'il faut voir, c'est que le danger réside dans le caractère territorial du rattachement, et non dans son caractère politique, qui ne gène personne. Or, ce danger existe déjà, au moins dans la tête de nombreux Juifs israéliens, en ce qui concerne les citoyens arabes palestiniens d'Israël.

La solution idéale est que les deux États israélien et palestinien perdent tout caractère territorial et que leur souveraineté n'ait par essence qu'un caractère purement personnel: la souveraineté s'applique alors aux individus et non au territoire. Autrement dit, la loi de chaque État, à l'image de la Halakha et la Shaaria`, soumet et libère chacun de ses citoyens personnellement, et non le territoire où il se trouve. Des Arabes peuvent alors vivre au milieu de populations juives, des Juifs peuvent vivre au sein de populations arabes, chacun détenant la carte d'identité délivrée par son gouvernement, sans mettre en danger la souveraineté nationale de leur voisin: chacun peut librement circuler et résider où il veut tout en restant soumis aux lois et aux modes de vie que son peuple à librement choisi. Le "danger démographique" disparaît alors. Cette notion détestable, qui fait à la naissance de chaque bébé innocent dans un peuple, résonner le tic tac de la "bombe démographique" pour l'autre peuple, cette notion haineuse n'aura plus de raison d'être. Chacun des peuples peut alors appliquer le droit au retour de ses exilés sans inquiéter l'autre. Loi du Retour pour les Juifs, Droit au Retour pour les Palestiniens, ne pourront être entravés.

Sécurité

Certes, me direz-vous, si vous m'avez suivi jusqu'ici, nous avons à présent deux États non territoriaux, à souveraineté personnelle, sur un même territoire commun et sans frontières intérieures. Tout cela est parfait, mais comment défend-on ce territoire d'Eretz Israël - Palestine de la souveraineté territoriale gourmande de ses voisins, comment s'assure-t-on qu'un des deux peuples ne réussira pas à dominer l'autre, comment allons-nous gérer ce territoire, les terres publiques, les routes, les réseaux d'énergie et de communication?

La solution la plus forte réside dans la création d'un cadre juridique commun souverain sur le territoire: une fédération, qui seule possèdera la souveraineté territoriale. Le territoire sera défendu, géré et détenu par la Fédération israélo-palestinienne. L'armée de défense du territoire devra comporter à terme des unités palestiniennes et israéliennes travaillant sous une direction commune, postées sur l'ensemble des frontières. Ne pas avoir seul le contrôle des forces de défense est certainement le plus difficile élément du compromis à accepter, car il sera assimilé par chacun à une grave atteinte à sa souveraineté nationale. Cette difficulté provient d'une confusion idéologique: dans un État de droit, c'est la Loi qui est instrument de la souveraineté, et non l'armée. L'organe exécutif de la loi, qui la fait respecter, est la police, et non l'armée. Ainsi, certains croient qu'en retirant son armée des "Territoires", Israël "donne" quelque chose aux Palestiniens, mais on ne peut donner ce que l'on ne possède pas! Les "Territoires" sont des territoires détenus militairement, ils n'ont jamais été annexés par l'État israélien. Seule l'annexion, élargissant la validité de la loi nationale aux territoires annexés, donne à l'État propriété sur ceux-ci, non l'occupation militaire. Ceci montre bien que c'est la loi qui réalise la souveraineté, et non l'armée. Le caractère territorial de la souveraineté nationale contribue à cette confusion: contrôlant le territoire, on croit le posséder et y avoir étendu sa souveraineté, alors qu'on ne fait que l'occuper et y imposer son ordre militaire. Il n'y a de souverain que choisi ou au moins accepté par son peuple.

Les forces militaires seront donc une armée de défense fédérale, associant unités israéliennes et palestiniennes, pur instrument de défense - selon l'idéal originel de Tsahal - dont le but est uniquement la défense des frontières extérieures.

Il existe une solidarité naturelle qui unit les Palestiniens et les autres peuples arabes de la région. Pour répondre aux soucis sécuritaire des Israéliens, la direction de l'armée ne deviendra paritaire que de façon progressive, à mesure que des traités de paix auront lié les Etats arabes à la Fédération.

L'ordre et la sécurité intérieure seront assurés par des forces de police exclusivement: police israélienne, police palestinienne, polices municipales aux pouvoirs renforcés, et police fédérale comprenant des unités mixtes.

L'attribution de compétences et de pouvoirs élargis aux municipalités et mairies de quartier sera un moyen efficace de limiter les frictions entre les deux peuples.

Citoyenneté fédérale commune et égalitaire

Une commission paritaire israélo-palestinienne gérera conjointement les terres publiques et les ressources en eau, en assurant équitablement le développement urbain et agricole des deux populations.

Tous les domaines relevant de la gestion du territoire dans son ensemble: environnement, voies de communications, réseaux d'énergie et d'information, seront du ressort de l'administration fédérale.

La protection sociale, la santé et tout ce qui relève des droits de l'homme en général sera de ressort de l'Etat fédéral; une commission économique fédérale devra veiller à réduire les disparités économiques entre les deux peuples.

L'administration fédérale contrôlera le droit d'entrée et de résidence sur le territoire fédéral.

Jérusalem

Jérusalem sera à la fois la capitale politique de la fédération et des deux États non-territoriaux. La municipalité fédérale coordonnera l'action des différentes mairies de quartier juives et arabes en harmonisant leur développement. Ce schéma pourra être le modèle de fonctionnement des différentes villes mixtes du pays.

Jérusalem résume aujourd'hui tous les conflits entre les deux peuples, et sera le symbole vivant de leur résolution: à la fois capitale fédérale unifiée et double capitale de deux États - Yéroushalayim-Al Quds - Jérusalem symbolisera l'unité dans le respect des différences, sans mur ni barbelés.

Nous aurons alors peut-être le privilège de voir se réaliser la prophétie selon laquelle toutes les Nations monteront à Jérusalem pour étudier son exemple de paix et de justice.

Yehuda

Israel demographic problem and its federal solution

The real danger for the State of Israel future is more demography than terrorism. In the most peaceful ways - making babies - Israeli Arabs will become the majority in a few decades and will turn Israel in an Arab state. Military might and readiness to self-sacrifice won’t protect us.

Perhaps there will be a huge influx of immigrants from the United States? But we don't rely on miracles!

The solution of splitting the land into two territorial states is also not proving feasible. Palestinians don't want the Bantustan they have been "offered" at Oslo. More, neither Jews nor Arabs have completely renounced the idea of living in the entire area called Eretz Israel/Palestine. Even if a Palestinian State would be created in the 1967 occupied territories, it couldn't be militarily independent because of Israel security concerns.

Nor is this territorial separation a solution for the future: it won’t prevent Israeli Arabs becoming a majority inside Israel within some fifty years from now.

If the Israel territorial state wants to keep its Jewish character, it will have to relinquish more and more pieces of its own territory: first Galilee, than North Negev… Or it will have to expel Manu military Palestinian Israelis from its territory.

Outside, Palestinian Arabs in growing numbers, starving in a Third World Palestinian state at the doors of a wealthy Jewish state could not be held back forever by frontiers and barbed wires.

What is even worse is the danger presented by separating the two populations: a totally Jewish ‘enclave’ would be a prime target for weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein has not fired his missiles on a mixed Jerusalem, but on the pure jewish Tel Aviv…

One bi-national state is not a solution either. Neither Jews nor Palestinian Arabs are willing to sacrifice their national identity.

So what is the solution?

I think the only solution left is a political, non-territorial separation.

True, it means creating a political structure of a new kind. However, the Jewish People present a problem unheard of in the annuals of mankind - a people claiming its right over its land after an absence of two thousand years. A unique problem that requires a unique solution.

I suggest that Israel and the Palestinian Authority should become a federation of two independent, non-territorial states - one Jewish and one Arab. The two national states will govern human beings, not territory; the sovereignty of their national law will apply on their own citizens only, and not on the territory, like Halacha and Shaaria always did. Territorial sovereignty will belong to the Federation only.

Jews and Arabs could live anywhere in the territory of the Israel-Palestine Federation but could only vote for their own government. In that way, the Jewish state would always comprise 100% Jews, no matter how many Palestinians live among them. The same is true for the Palestinian state: it will always count 100% of Arab citizens, no matter the number of Jews living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The federate government, composed of an equal number of Jews and Arabs, would ensure a just distribution of land and natural resources. The awful "demographic problem" won't exist anymore, and the Law of Return for the Jews, and the Right of Return for the Palestinians would be equally implemented for both peoples by the Federal Government.

Territorial continuity would be preserved; both economies would be interdependent and would benefit from each other. Zahal would become the Israel-Palestine Federation Defense Forces and will be composed of israeli and palestinian units. With the signature of peace treatises with all arab states of the region, there will not be any obstacle left for the direction of the army to reach full parity. And Jerusalem would have special status as the Federation Capital.

This solution may seem utopian today but I can’t envisage any other solution - except waiting for the coming of Messiah.

It would be proposed to the Palestinian Authority instead of a separated territorial state.

In case they wouldn't accept, Israeli Jews and Arabs from Israel and Jerusalem could anyway implement it inside Israeli territory. Nothing would prevent more Palestinians areas from the military-occupied territories to join the Federation later, causing no demographic problem because they will be counted as Palestinian citizens, not Israeli citizens. It will give Palestinians an attracting alternative to Abbas small and poor state.

The need for a Jewish State appeared with the rising of Nation-states in Europe in the aftermaths of the French Revolution. Because Nations became sovereigns instead of kings of flesh and blood, it became impossible for two Nations to dwell in the same state: there cannot be two sovereigns for one power. In reaction to this problem, the Zionist Movement creates its own Nation-state for the Jewish people. Of course, it has only inversed the problem, the Jewish Question turned into a Palestinian Question, which is exploding literally in our faces.

The problem with the Israel nation-state, like with any nation-state, is that it doesn't suit Jewish identity: anyone can become both a citizen and a member of the French or American People by being born on French or American territory; an “Israeli People” cannot be defined this way as Israel contains two historical peoples, the Jewish people and the Palestinian-Arab people. And you don’t become a Jew by being born in Eretz-Israel. Jewish identity is not dependent on territory, so it can't absorb strangers that live on the same territory.
Arab identity, in its abrahamic-nomadic roots, has quite the same structre as the jewish one.

We can’t escape the need to give this fact a political expression. This is what this conflict and this solution are about.

Yehuda