A Swiss Model for the Palestinians

Israel’s Knesset has formally rejected creation of a Palestinian state. To many friends of Israel, this seems understandable after October 7^th and given the apparent continuing support for Hamas amongst many ordinary Palestinians.

But for friends of Israel who also seek a solution to the statelessness of Palestinians, and, through the right solution, a more secure peace for Israel, the Knesset decision begs the question: might there be a model of a Palestinian state that could win Knesset support in the future, a proposal that obviated the problematic alternatives of assimilation of a hostile population or forced migration of that population out of the territories?

I want to suggest a demilitarised Swiss model as an alternative: a confederation of Palestinian cities, without military forces, based on local identity and autonomy for each city. Implementing this model would involve 4 steps.

The first step would need to be a formal peace settlement following the current war against Hamas in Gaza, based on recognition of and security assurances to Israel by Arab states. As has been the record with many in the past, this proposal could fall at this first hurdle if, once again, the majority of Israel’s Arab neighbours decline the opportunity to make peace with Israel and fail to force Palestinian leaders to formally endorse the settlement.

The second would be the creation of an Arab-Israeli ‘Marshall-type’ Fund and Plan to develop – and in Gaza, reconstruct – Palestinian cities. The Plan would include housing, infrastructure, and settlement programs in each city.

A new Palestinian administrative body would be appointed by the Fund’s investors to implement, with Fund oversight, a civil reform and development program as a crucial step to re-establish Palestinian confidence in the integrity of day-to-day governance.

As part of the new Plan, there would be, as the third step, delineation of city borders – borders with each other and with Israel – and appointment of an interim administrator to oversee agreed economic, infrastructure, and services plans for each city. The administrator would also oversee newly established, jurisdiction-limited, police forces for each city. The Plan would include a program for the recruitment, vetting, and training of civil servants and police to be appointed into new administrations in each Palestinian city.

One could imagine that the Palestinian Confederation would involve 5 separate jurisdictions in Gaza: North Gaza, Gaza, Deir el Balah, Khan Yunis, and Rafah. In the West Bank, with some aggregation of current administrative districts, separate jurisdictions could be established around Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm.

The confederal system of autonomous cities in this proposal might even afford the chance for protective consolidation of Christian Palestinian populations in the cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem.

An independent statutory Palestinian electoral commission would be established. Internal city electorates for the eventual election of a Governor and council for each city would be developed over a two-year period. In elections held in three years’ time, only candidates who affirmed the new peace settlement and new confederal constitution would be eligible to stand for election.

The fourth step would be creation of a Palestinian Confederal Council consisting initially of city administrators and, in the future, of elected city Governors. The council would be responsible for the confederation’s relations with the international community, not least with the members of the new Arab-Israeli Palestinian Fund.

The Palestinian Confederal Council would be responsible for the implementation of electoral commission decisions into the future. It would establish an independent high court to oversee constitutional matters and as an appeal court from city jurisdictions. It would, finally, oversee independent statutory intelligence, corruption and public prosecution entities that would monitor and hold accountable the various city administrations between elections.

The Palestinian confederation’s constitution would declare the polity to be neutral and would prohibit the establishment of armed forces, or indeed paramilitary style police forces in any of the Palestinian cities.

The administrative home of the Council of the Palestinian Confederation would be Ramallah, the current home of the Palestinian Authority.

Many Palestinians might find this confederal state to be less than they had hoped for. The problem for ordinary Palestinians has been that they have been poorly served by their leaders and by the leadership of Arab neighbours. Their options are now extremely limited.

The adaptation of the Swiss model of confederation proposed here might not provide the model of state Palestinian leadership has consistently and mistakenly suggested might be possible, but it would be viable, and it would allow for a peace that finally enabled Palestinian autonomy, and economic development and prosperity.

More importantly, a confederation of demilitarised Palestinian cities would provide a state solution that did not threaten Israel’s security. The proposal presented here – grounded in a formal peace settlement, and with a Swiss-style polity involving a constitution and decentralised power structure preventing the establishment of armed forces – would have some chance of acceptance from ordinary Israelis, a future Knesset, and a new Government formed through Israeli elections, after Hamas’s defeat in Gaza.