_Let Us Prepare for Two States

September 12, 2011
Generally, when a new device is created, the people who create it have a reasonably clear vision about what they are creating and how it will function to fulfill its purpose. They know the context in which it will be used, and they have some degree of confidence that it will function as planned to be useful. Therefore, they can make preparations for their device, both internally for its efficient manufacture and externally to market it to its users.

This also applies to the creation of a state. Those who build successful states spend years making preparations before their vision of a state is realized. The Jews who created the State of Israel in the period 1945-1948 had a vision for a Jewish homeland a sovereign state. They made preparations, even under the adverse circumstances of the British occupation. These preparations, in the areas of military, infrastructure, diplomacy and governance, greatly assisted in the birth of Israel. The same is true for the Palestinian Authority in this current period, with the work of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to build national institutions and a functioning economy within the West Bank even under Israeli occupation. Even now, when the Palestinian Authority is planning a bid for recognition as a state in the United Nations, these preparations are greatly aiding their cause.

However, what we are seeking to create in the Middle East in 2011 is not just one new state of Palestine. Rather, it is a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine co-existing side-by-side and at peace. So what is actually being created is not just one state, but also a new arrangement between two states. Consider:

• A new state can be created by the unilateral action of its government and its citizens, but in this situation unilateral action is not possible. Hence, even with its campaign for UN recognition, the government of the Palestinians is committed to becoming a full-fledged state through negotiations with Israel. It understands that only through a mutual agreement covering all areas of concern will Israel willingly relinquish sovereignty over the territory of the Palestinian state.

• Geographical considerations place these two peoples in close proximity, requiring cooperative management of certain key areas of their border. The Citizens Proposal envisions specific areas of cooperative management, for instance in the city of Ariel, and most especially in and around Jerusalem. Absent such cooperative management, a solution for Jerusalem becomes quite problematic. Having a hostile border running through the city of Jerusalem would be neither acceptable nor wise policy.
  

• Israel and Palestine have intersecting security needs, which have already led to cooperative arrangements between the IDF and Palestinian security forces. Cooperation on security at even deeper levels will be vital to securing Israel’s agreement for a Palestinian state.

• Whether or not Israel would agree to a peace agreement depends considerably on solving the issue of Israeli settlements, and yet the fate of Israeli settlers who wind up within Palestine as the result of such an agreement is at this point completely uncertain. Expectation that those settlers will be required to remove themselves to Israel places a high barrier in the way of an agreement, while provision for their rights and protections as a minority within Palestine would ease the way to an agreement. If Israel and Palestine were to develop parameters and to accommodate the needs of settlers who wish to stay and to ensure their safety, it would improve the prospects for an agreement that would establish a Palestinian state.

For these reasons and more, it is helpful to conceive of the establishment of the Palestinian State as a Two-State Solution that requires the cooperative investment of both sides. The kind of preparation that is needed to bring these two states to birth cannot be done by Palestinians alone. As much as Palestinians are putting effort into building the institutions of their nascent state, effort needs to be put into preparing for cooperative Israeli-Palestinian management of sensitive areas like Jerusalem. It is not too early to begin discussions towards the establishment of policies, laws and institutions of cooperative governance.

Jerusalem and Joint Governance
As mentioned, having a hostile border running through the city of Jerusalem would be neither acceptable nor wise policy. History demonstrates that divided cities are breeding grounds for conflict. That is why, as its default position, the Citizens Proposal places the entire city of Jerusalem, including its eastern environs, under Israeli sovereignty. Nevertheless, there are other options for Jerusalem that could be considered based upon the establishment of a zone of joint administration for designated areas of East Jerusalem.

If the Israelis and Palestinians could prepare for bilateral institutions to manage a jointly-administered East Jerusalem, then it could indeed be possible for East Jerusalem to be the seat of Palestinian governance even while it is still part of Israeli-governed metropolitan Jerusalem.

Moreover, in any scenario, the borders around Jerusalem need to be able to sustain a considerable flow of traffic. This includes:

• Jews commuting from Ma’ale Adumim and other residential settlements in the Jerusalem vicinity that may become part of Palestine or become enclaves separated from Jerusalem by Palestinian territory;

• Palestinians commuting to work in Jerusalem, visiting relatives and friends in East Jerusalem, or wishing to worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque;

• Tourists traveling between Jerusalem and the biblical sites of Bethlehem, Jericho, the Jordan River and Qumran that may be located within Palestine; and

• Palestinians journeying north-south between Ramallah and Bethlehem and Jews journeying between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion on roads which may pass through the other nation’s territory near Jerusalem.

For this reason, attention needs to be paid to the issues of managing the borders and roads around Jerusalem. Preparations should be made for their joint administration by a bilateral authority to be constituted by the governments of both states.

It goes without saying that a low-conflict border in and around Jerusalem will require intensified efforts to assure peace and security and to prevent terrorism. The border cannot become so porous as to allow those bent on destruction to enter Israel. What measures could permit the unimpeded flow of traffic without compromising security? How could Israel and Palestine maintain security without creating excessive bottlenecks for travelers? Part of the solution will be expanded cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces to identify and apprehend terrorists, to prevent terroristic acts, and to provide adequate forms of justice.

Envisioning Cooperative Management of the Border
Preparation for cooperative management at the border near Jerusalem begins with asking the people of Israel and Palestine the question: what sort of border would you like to see? Some Israelis might favor a closed border similar to what exists today, while many Palestinians might prefer an open border. A discussion needs to happen between Israelis and Palestinians to try and arrive at a mutually agreed upon vision for a border.

Data should be collected on the reality of cross-border traffic between the Palestinian territories and Israel at check-points around Jerusalem, to ascertain: average daily and peak traffic flows, purpose of travel (specifically social/non-economic or economic), type and weight of goods being transported, average travel time to the checkpoint, average waiting time to get through, and incidence and location of security problems. Discussants should ascertain whether this reality is acceptable, and what would be acceptable targets to reduce travel and waiting times, improve security, and so on.

Among these targets should be fast crossings for family purposes, especially if families have children studying in, or residing part-time, in the neighbor state. Since we anticipate that some settled Jews would remain in Palestine, this traffic could easily include both Jewish and Arab families. With diligent policing, secure passes could be set up for daily commuters and frequent travelers on bus and rail lines. Additional check-points could be created, additional personnel trained and hired, and procedures at those checkpoints modified so as to reach these targets.

Here is where cooperative management comes in. Currently the protocols at the border are entirely dictated by Israel according to how it sees the situation, while Palestinians are made to suffer many indignities. The best way to change that situation is to manage the borders by a joint authority that has a mandate to address the needs of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

The Palestinian members of the joint authority would work to make the border crossing a pleasant and speedy experience for Palestinians, even as the Israeli members work to assure security. Furthermore, cooperative police work will enhance security.

Germane to this discussion would be to survey representative examples of existing borders that try to balance the needs of unimpeded traffic with border security:

• The borders of the EU established by the Schengen Treaty exemplify a completely open border where security is handled jointly by cooperative agreements and shared intelligence among the police, military and intelligence agencies of the nations of Europe. It is hard to remember today that Europe was the theater of two world wars. Yet the precedent of the NATO alliance makes this option entirely acceptable to broad majorities of Europeans.

• The border between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas is divided only by the narrow Rio Grande and a couple of border checkpoints. Nevertheless, Ciudad Juarez is a hotbed of drug-related violence while El Paso remains one of the safest cities in the United States. Crossing the border is easy, and the only thing that has reduced the steady back and forth of trade and family visits has been the violence on the Mexican side. Because these border crossings are well manned by US Border Patrol agents who work to spot illegal immigrants and drug smugglers, most of the illegal activity on the US-Mexican border occurs in remote rural areas where smugglers try to circumvent the separation barrier. However, US-Mexican cooperation is spotty due to widespread corruption in the Mexican police.

• Provisions for airport security in the United States utilize new technology and strict screening procedures to identify contraband and weapons, yet with minimal inconvenience or impediments to travelers. These security efforts are supported by cooperative intelligence efforts by Interpol and the agencies of many nations to identify terrorist threats to air travel before they even arrive at the airport.

The immediate task would be to improve the existing system with the hope that future trust will emerge to permit more open borders. What policies for managing traffic flow could be adopted from the procedures used at checkpoints at the US-Mexican border? What lessons can be learned from the protocols at busy airports, where the convenience of the traveler is an important factor that must be balanced against security needs? Are there ways that security cooperation between Israel and Palestine in matters relating to anti-terrorism work could be expanded to also facilitate border traffic? Are there technologies for facilitating secure and rapid border traffic that could be implemented, for example a shared database of known risks, a database of commuters and travelers who are cleared of any security risk, or fingerprint scanning technology for improved identification?

Designing the Border
Nations normally invest to make their points of entry attractive to visitors—viz. the investment in the new Ben Gurion Airport. A beautiful airport demonstrates a nation’s pride and offers a welcoming experience to help travelers think well of that nation. In the same way, it would be a show of respect to Palestinians and other visitors who enter Israel through border crossings if they were also architecturally attractive and pleasant places. Effort should be made to create architecturally well designed checkpoints with abundant landscaping. The trash and litter that blights the current checkpoints should be cleared away. Interiors should be attractively furnished, with sufficient seating for the elderly, infirm, and pregnant, play areas for children, dressing and diaper-changing areas, and food concessions.

Since these amenities would be on both sides of the checkpoint, the responsibility for designing and building them would naturally fall to the joint administrative authority.

In the Citizens Proposal, we have termed the southern border of Jerusalem the “women’s border,” because this area has some of the heaviest cross-border traffic, particularly between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It is from a woman’s perspective that we advocate for designing an attractive environment and providing for amenities at border crossings. Women are sensitive to the needs of women and families who regularly cross the border. They will advocate for procedures that are respectful and not demeaning; compassionate and not dehumanizing. They are aware of many situations where people need to travel across the border and would want to handle with sympathy whatever problems might arise. It is for this reason that we believe that women should play a prominent role in the joint administration of the borders of Jerusalem.

Another area of design concerns roads, with their intersections, underpasses, bridges and tunnels that will enable traffic of one nation to pass through short stretches of the other nation’s territory as required by the geography. While currently Israel can unilaterally design and construct roads through Palestinian territory according to its master plans, these plans may be seen as disadvantaging Palestinians and not providing equitably for their transportation needs. Roads that facilitate Israeli travel to and from settlements are not normally matched by roads that facilitate Palestinian travel between its major cities. Sometimes these Israeli roads even sever traditional links between nearby towns.

It is inevitable that some degree of joint administration will be required for roads which traverse the territory of the neighboring state. According to the Citizens Proposal some of these could include:

• A north-south highway between Ramallah and Bethlehem, skirting East Jerusalem, which may either run through Ma’ale Adumim or cross Rte 1 between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim;

• A road crossing for the Israeli route from Jerusalem to Har Homa and the Palestinian Rte 398 from Beit Safafa to Umm Tuba

• Rte 436 north of Palestine’s border with northern Jerusalem to the leased settlements of Giv’at Ze’ev, Mahane Giv’on and Har Shmu’el.

• A highway in Palestine from Bethlehem to Hebron rerouted to avoid the Gush Etzion area;

• Palestinian access to Rte 60 within the Gush Etzion area for travel between Bethlehem and Hebron until that highway is built;

• Roads from the Gush Etzion settlements to Israel that cross the roads connecting Palestinian towns in the region;

• The stretch of Highway 5 (and Rte 505) from Elkana to the Ariel Joint Economic Zone that passes through Palestine;

• Access to Palestine for residents of Azun Atme via the portion of Rte 505 that runs within Israel as far as Elkana

The administrative and construction issues in these roads are too many and varied to all be dealt with in a peace agreement. They will require the efforts of engineers to deal with topography and urban planners to envision the future shape of metropolitan growth for cities like Ramallah. Therefore, they are best solved by a joint administrative roads authority that will be charged with creating a master plan for Israeli and Palestinian roads and highways that gives equal consideration to both nations.

Conclusion
In any activity, good preparation is a key to success. When it comes to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, the preparation that is required cannot be limited to the efforts of Palestinians to create the institutions of their state, or of the Israelis to plan for their future security in the environment where Palestine exists as their neighbor. Thought also needs to be given to preparing for the joint administration of sensitive areas. This is especially true of Jerusalem and its borders, where Israelis and Palestinians are so closely intertwined. We anticipate the creation of bilateral institutions for the administration of East Jerusalem as a shared sovereignty: a Palestinian-governed city within Israeli-run metropolitan Jerusalem. We anticipate bilateral institutions to manage border crossings and road construction.

Preparing for these bilateral institutions now—soliciting Israeli and Palestinian buy-in, forming preparatory committees of Israelis and Palestinians, and having them create statements of shared principles for how these institutions should operate—will go a long way to reducing the fear and uncertainty that people face when contemplating the implementation of two-state solution. For when people see that adequate preparation has been made, they can be more confident to go forward.
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