One State: A Joint Government for Israel-Palestine

An Israeli and Palestinian Parliamentary Confederation

Two societies, two parliaments, two legal systems, separate jurisdictions of the law based on current occupancy in a single confederation to share the land.

 

 

Central Concepts

 

Two states or jurisdictions, Israel and Palestine, joined in a single confederation.  There would be no international border between the two societies, but areas would be clearly either under the jurisdiction of Israel or Palestine according to the expressed loyalty of the local population. Freedom of movement, employment and residency guaranteed, subject to security requirements.  Housing and planning controls would apply to new construction.

 

A common electoral system to elect 244 members of two parliaments – an estimated 144 Knesset members and 100 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members - by proportional representation on a strictly one person one vote basis.  Citizens could register to vote as either a voter for the Israeli Knesset or a voter for the Palestinian Legislative Council, no matter where they live.   Israeli laws would apply in all areas where a two thirds majority of voters are loyal to Israel and vote in the Knesset election, and likewise Palestinian laws in areas where voters are loyal to Palestine voting in PLC elections. The offices of Prime Minister and Cabinet of both nations chosen by normal democratic means, with majority rule applying. The offices of both Presidents would be abolished, replaced by a Confederation Executive Council.

 

For matters of shared interests such as defense, foreign affairs, trade, and water management, the two existing governments would cooperate in a confederation designed to foster dialogue and consensus.

 

The two parliaments, the Knesset and PLC, would together form a bicameral confederation assembly, the Knesset members constituting a House of Israel, and PLC members a House of Palestine. Both House’s assent would be needed for legislation to become a confederation law. In other words, either nation could veto proposed Confederation legislation as they saw fit. Deadlocks could be broken by joint sittings of all 244 members, by a two-thirds or greater majority.

 

A joint sitting of all 244 members of the assembly would elect a Swiss style nine person Executive Council as the executive arm of the confederation; the Council would be pluralistic, with Arab and Jewish members, left and right wing members, religious and secular parties all represented, according to their representation in the two parliaments. While most democracies have a governing party or coalition and an opposition, this adversarial majority-rules governance is counter-productive in the context of forming a Confederation of Israel and Palestine, where cooperation would be needed instead. 

 

The City of Jerusalem will be the seat off both Israeli and Palestinian governments, and thus also the Confederation. The city will have an independent binational Capital Territory administration, appointed by the Executive Council, and laws for the Capital territory will be made by the Confederation Assembly. Inhabitants would like everybody else choose for which parliament they choose to vote.

 

Jewish immigration and the right of return of Palestinian refugees would be acknowledged and balanced so that the current demographic balance is maintained. New arrivals would initially only have single citizenship and therefore only residential access to one jurisdiction – Jews to Israel and Palestinians to Palestine, but after a ten year qualifying, could apply for dual citizenship.

 

The Paradigm

 

The underlying paradigm is that there is a quiet majority of both people who want or are inclined toward peace and security. Empowering this often silent or quiet majority through enhanced democratic processes such as legislative elections will therefore lead to peace.  The voices of the timid, bookish university freshmen, the pre-occupied mothers of small children and the old grandparents farming the land who remember better times need to be heard along with the loud young street protestors and the old men who fought against each other over the decades. Particularly in Palestine, democracy needs revitalization.

 

 

 

Ensuring Democratic Representation

 

1. Voter Registration.  All current citizens and permanent residents of Israel and Palestine who are eligible to vote would be able to register to vote for either the Israeli Knesset or for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), no matter where they live.  Registration would be compulsory, but not voting.

 

Based on current population data, Jewish and Arabic populations are very evenly poised (see table 1).  However, when only those of voting age are included, this sub-population among Jews is higher, as 68% are 18 years or over, compared to Gaza for example, where only 52% of that population is 18 years or over (table 2).

Table 1: combined total population of Israel and Palestine by population group

	Jews (000)	Arabs (000)	Others (000)	Total (000)
Golan	23.1	26.2	1.8	51.1
City of Jerusalem	563.2	358.8	14.4	936.4
Rest of Israel*	5707.2	1513.7	411.8	7632.7
Rest of West Bank*	425.3**	2694.4	8.5	3128.2
Gaza	0	2048.0	0	2048
TOTAL	6718.8 (48.7%)	6641.1 (48.1%)	436.5 (3.2%)	13 796.4 (100%)

                *excluding West and East Jerusalem, **Jewish West Bank settlements, ie Israeli district of Judea and Samaria

The population estimates are based on latest official estimates as at 31 December 2019 from the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel and 2020 projection from the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics released on 6 March 2020 as found at https://www.citypopulation.de/Asia.html.

 

Furthermore, the ‘other’ population in table 1 is principally non-Jewish family members of Jewish immigrants and non-Arab Christians, who would be expected to register for voting in the Knesset.

Table 2: combined sub population 18 years or older of Israel and Palestine by population group

	Jews & Others (000)	Arabs (000)
Golan	15.8	17.9
City of Jerusalem	350.7	209.2
Rest of Israel*	4316.6	939.4
Rest of West Bank*	226.5	1527.9
Gaza	0	1062.5
TOTAL	4909.6 (56.7%)	3756.9 (43.3%)

                                *excluding West and East Jerusalem

 

Estimating how voters will register, there are many scenarios possible, but assuming the following:

·         all ‘Jews & others’, Arab Israeli Christians and Israeli Druze register to vote in Knesset Elections;

·         all Palestinians and Arab Israeli Moslems choose to vote in PLC elections;

then the total number of Knesset voters becomes 5 109 500 (59%) and for the PLC 3 557 000 (41%).

 

In this scenario, henceforth referred to as the ‘model scenario’, the Knesset would have 144 members and the PLC would have 100 members based on respective voter registrations (assumed to be 100% of those eligible).  This directly influences the composition of the Executive Council but makes no difference to the veto power of the PLC or Knesset (see also appendix A).

 

2.  Common Electoral System. Following formation of a Joint Electoral Commission, the two parliamentary elections would be conducted with international observers overseeing.  The elections would be carried out based on the methods currently used in Israel.  Thus, all Knesset registered voters would form a single electorate, and similarly all PLC registered voters would form another single electorate with representatives elected by ‘one vote one value’ proportional representation. This uniformity across the two electorates ensures each elected representative has the same legitimacy.

 

3. Results of National Elections and Formation of National Government.  The two legislatures, the Knesset and PLC, would continue to operate in their respective roles as national parliaments, forming government and opposition as usual.  The Knesset would continue to choose its Prime Minister and Cabinet to govern Israel and the reinvigorated PLC would choose a Prime Minister and Cabinet to govern the Palestinian Territories and continue to make laws for the Palestinian people. 

 

4.  Establishment of a Confederation Assembly.  The PLC and Palestinian government would be relocated to East Jerusalem.  The estimated 144 Knesset members and 100 PLC members would also constitute two chambers or houses of parliament in a Confederation Assembly in Jerusalem, the House of Israel and the House of Palestine.  Initially the role would be to design a comprehensive peace settlement, and the assent of both houses being required to pass proposals into Israeli and Palestinian laws. 

 

5. Party Eligibility. While any party could be elected to the respective national parliaments according to Palestinian and Israeli law, to be able to participate in the confederation assembly members of all parties would need to recognize the rights of the Jewish people to a homeland in Israel, and the rights of the Palestinian to self determination in their homeland. If the more extreme elected representatives refuse to agree to these two pre-conditions, then they would be excluded from the Confederation Assembly.  Hopefully this would deter voters who want peace from squandering their votes for such parties.

 

6.  Establishment of an Executive Council.  At the first Assembly meeting after the elections, a joint sitting of both chambers 244 elected representatives would be held to vote for the Executive Council, the executive leadership of the Confederation Assembly.  The Council would be elected on the basis of proportional representation.  This means the Council would not only be bipartisan, it would be pluralistic as well, so that the executive would include Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, right and left wings, depending on their relative strength across the assembly and therefore across the two societies.  In the model scenario, if the joint executive consisted of nine members, five or six would be Israelis, and three or four would be Palestinians.

 

Appendix A includes an example of the results of a highly hypothetical election of the Executive Council by the transferable voting system used in Australia.  The purpose of the exercise is to illustrate how the nine person Executive Council would unlikely be divided along sharp ethnic lines, with many alliances possible, even probable, across the sectarian divide.

 

The Council members would provide collective leadership in negotiating areas of government functions that need to be mapped out for a sustainable peace.  Each councilor could take on a portfolio such as:

·         Presiding Officer of the Council, and Councilor for Jerusalem as a joint capital and for status of Golan.

·         Co-Presiding Officer of the Council, Councilor for Gaza Special Economic Development

·         Councilor for Joint Defense

·         Foreign Affairs and Trade Councilor

·         Councilor for Joint Internal Security

·         Councilor for Economic Policy

·         Councilor for Population and Migration Policy

·         Councilor for Human Rights and Religious Freedom, to protect minorities

·         Councilor for Transport, Communications and Water Resources

 

It is likely that the Prime Minister of Israel would generally be elected as Presiding Officer based on the assumption that the Prime Minister would have the biggest bloc of votes in the Assembly.  However, this possibility could be codified in the rules of the Assembly, and if so, it would be desirable to enshrine the Palestinian Prime Minister as Co-Presiding Officer.  The Presiding Officer’s role would be to chair Council meetings and would not have presidential powers, such as allocation of Council portfolios, which would instead be chosen by consensus or by voting within the council. 

 

7. Affirmation of the Peace Settlement by Popular Vote.  After four years, these elected representatives would be expected by their respective electorates to have devised a comprehensive solution to the conflict, with the possibility of a confederation Government in areas of bipartisan mutually shared interests such as defense, economic development and foreign relations and trade.  The next election would hold these elected representatives accountable for what they collectively achieved and failed to achieve, both as members of their respective parliaments and as joint assembly members.

 

Peaceful Partition and Other Considerations

 

If the people accept the concept of the Confederation, the anomaly of Arab Israelis being represented in the PLC but governed by the Knesset would not be ideal. While voter registration can be attributed down to individuals, territorial governance cannot.  Certain criteria could be devised by which local government areas (LGA’s) would be defined as subject to either the Israeli parliament and its laws or the Palestinian parliament and its laws, such as at least 66% of voters registering to vote in the nation’s parliament, the viability of the LGAs based on logistics, security and ability to provide law enforcement.  Figure 1 illustrates the model scenario, where moslem Arabs in the Northern District and along the Green Line with clear PLC-voting majorities are colored pink, and Jewish West Bank settlements and therefore Knesset voting areas in blue.

Hence, the two societies will become more homogenous and more stable, yet having no internal borders, more free to move around.     

 

Jerusalem

 

In the Confederation, the City of Jerusalem could be under a shared governance, where both the PLC and Knesset could both be located.  Israeli law would apply initially, but over time would be replaced by Confederation Laws.  However, citizens would continue to vote as they choose in either parliamentary election.  A separate bipartisan city administration would be appointed by the Confederation Executive Council, and a separate judiciary would be established.

 

Golan

 

In the eyes of nearly the whole international community, Golan is not legally part of Israel.  However handing it back to Syria would increase instability as long as that country remains turbulent and undemocratic, and could easily lead to bloodshed.  In a confederation as an interim measure Golan would become a Confederation administered district (shaded dark grey) until a sustained peaceful solution with Syria and Lebanon is found.  Until its status is resolved, Golan voters would continue to elect representatives to either parliament.  Unlike Jerusalem, it would remain as part of Israel. Its final status could be determined by a plebiscite after a fixed period of at least 10 years of peace.

 

Empowerment of Women

 

In both the Knesset and the PLC female under representation is significant, with only about a quarter and an eighth of members in the two legislatures respectively being female.  Almost the entire political leadership that has led to the current impasse is male.  Consideration of requiring a minimum of 40% of a party’s candidates for election be female may address this. 

 

According to unwomen.org, women’s direct participation in peace negotiations increases the sustainability and the quality of peace. A study investigating 82 peace agreements in 42 armed conflicts between 1989 and 2011 found that peace agreements with women signatories are associated with durable peace, and that peace agreements signed by women show a higher number of agreement provisions aimed at political reform and a higher implementation rate of these provisions.

 

Citizenship and Migration

 

All current Israeli citizens, long term residents of Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, and Palestinian refugees residing in West Bank Gaza would automatically become ‘founding’ citizens of the Confederation.  All founding citizens would have access to dual citizenship and access to Confederation passports, and could self identify as Israeli or Palestinian according to preference, much as citizens of the UK variously identify as English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish. 

 

Dual Citizens would have equal rights to Free Movement, Employment and Residence provided they made an oath of allegiance or respect for both jurisdictions. However, both jurisdictions could withdraw or suspend their citizenship for an individual for anti-state violence or other serious crimes or terrorism.  Thus Israel could withdraw Israeli dual citizenship from convicted anti-Israel terrorists, who then would lose their automatic right to free movement in areas under Israeli jurisdiction.  Similarly, Jews who peacefully wish to reside in the West Bank (or Gaza) would be free to do so, while Palestine could remove citizenship from those with a history or an intention of harming Palestinian’s well-being or livelihoods. New housing however would be controlled by the two national governments for the LGA’s under their jurisdiction.

 

The right of return of Palestinian refugees and the Law of Return for overseas Jewish populations would be broadly maintained, subject to negotiations of annual quotas.  In principle, arrival of returning Palestinian refugees and Jewish immigration would be done with a target of maintaining the current demographic status quo.  New citizens would only have single citizenship initially, but after a qualifying period of at least five years, could apply for dual citizenship.   

 

The Judiciary

 

The existing legal frameworks would continue at national level.  There would be two Supreme Courts, one for Israeli legal matters and the other for Palestinian matters. Israeli law would continue to apply in the State of Israel, and likewise Palestinian laws would apply in the West Bank and Gaza.  A new High Court of the Confederation would be established to adjudicate on matters involving the Confederation, such as citizenship and national governments.  In the Capital Territory of Jerusalem, initially Israeli laws would apply during a transition to a Confederation legal system, but the lower courts in the Capital territory would be directly under the jurisdiction of the High Court.  Seven High Court judges would be nominated by the Executive Council and confirmed by both chambers of the Joint Assembly.  At least three places should be reserved for Jewish judges, and three for Palestinian judges.

 

 

Security

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Recognizing the current existential threat to Israel from terror groups and hostile states, responsibility for defense of the Confederation would remain with the IDF.  When the situation becomes safer, an integrated Confederation Defense Force would be developed.  However, the IDF would have no role in internal security.  Security check points would still be needed, and these would be operated by police.  Such checkpoints would not be regarded as border checkpoints.

 

Israeli and Palestinian police forces would continue to function separately within the two nations.  A bipartisan Confederation Police would be responsible for security and policing in the Capital Territory, the Golan and important designated holy sites anywhere. 

 

 

Currency

 

The Israeli Shekel would be rebranded as the Israel-Palestine Shekel, one side of notes and coins in Hebrew the other in Arabic.

 

Language

 

Hebrew and Arabic would be the official languages of the Confederation, and laws would be required to be made in both.

 

 

 

 

 

In this mock election, the Centre Left Alliance has won the most Knesset seats, with 41 seats, and has formed a coalition with the Israeli Greens, and the Confederation Party with a total of 79 seats in the 144 seat Knesset to form a majority government. Rachel Lieberstein the leader of the CLA is elected Prime Minister of Israel, with Rafi Cohen the leader of the Greens her deputy, with Dahlia Silverberg the leader of the Confederation Party in the Knesset.  Tippi Shtisel is the leader of the New Likud party and leads the opposition, and the Torah party is led by Avni Levi.

 

In the PLC, the largest party is the Palestinian Labor Party, led by Mahmoud Ashrawi, which with the Palestinian Greens and the Confederation Party forms government, with 54 seats in the 100 seat parliament, and guaranteed support from the Communist Party of Palestine, led by the charismatic Samira Erekat.  Mahmoud Ashrawi is elected PM, with Asya Samaan the leader of the Confederation Party in the PLC his deputy.  Fatah led by Hassan Abdellah forms the main party of the opposition.

 

The Confederation Assembly meets in Jerusalem, and members cast their ballots for the Executive Council.  The quota to get elected is 25.4: the number of votes cast (244) divided by the number of seats to be filled plus one (9 +1) which is 24.4, plus one, making it 25.4.

 

Round 1, 41 votes are cast for Rachel Lieberstein, who as the candidate with most votes becomes the Presiding Officer of the Executive Council.  The breakaway Hamas Reformed only has four seats, the lowest in the Assembly, and therefore certain to be eliminated, so vote tactically for Mahmoud Ashrawi to ensure a Palestinian is second elected and therefore Co-presiding Officer, with 35 votes. Tippi Shtisel is third elected in round 1.

 

Counting continues so that each party with lowest number of votes is eliminated in each round.  In round 2, the Palestinian Greens are eliminated, and based on their preferences, all five votes go to their counterparts in Israel, thus ensuring one quota and the election of Rafi Cohen in round 3.  After several more rounds, the centrist Confederation Party in the PLC reaches a quota after the number 2 candidate on the Palestinian Left is eliminated, and their preferences go to Asya Samaan who is elected (The Confederation Party is one of three parties in both parliaments, along with the Greens and Communists.)

 

Next in round 11, the two main nationalist parties, Israel First and the Islamic Brotherhood are both eliminated, thus allowing the Torah party’s Avni Levi and Fatah’s Hassan Abdellah to be elected respectively.

 

Round 12 produces a surprise, with Fatah preferences just pushing the only remaining Palestinian party toward a quota, and Samira Erekat is elected, despite the Communist Party of Palestine being low down on the Fatah ballot (as all other Palestinian parties were already eliminated).

 

The final quota is taken by the Israeli Confederation Party’s Dahlia Silverberg over the second candidate on the CLA list.

 

Thus the final make up of the Executive Council is five Israelis and four Palestinians, five are women, four are left leaning, two are centrist and three are right leaning, and only one is from a religious party.

 

By consensus, the nine take up the following portfolios:

- Rachel Lieberstein, Presiding Officer, Councilor for Jerusalem and Golan administration

- Mahmoud Ashrawi, Co-presiding Officer, Councilor for Gaza Special Economic Zone

- Tippi Shtisel, Councilor for Defense

- Rafi Cohen, Councilor for Water, Transport and Communications

- Asya Samaan, Foreign Affairs and Trade Councilor

- Hassan Abdellah, Councilor for Internal Security

- Avni Levi, Councilor for the Economy

- Samira Erekat, Councilor for Human Rights

- Dahlia Silverberg, councilor for Population and Immigration