Endorsement of the Dajani Peace Plan

Two peoples in two states in a shared homeland

• A sovereign, independent, and secular State of Palestine will be  established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip next to a sovereign,  independent, and Jewish state of Israel. Formal statehood will end the  occupier-occupied relationship between the two peoples of Palestine and  Israel.
• Israel will recognize the Holy Land as the homeland of the Palestinian people, and Palestine will recognize the Holy Land as the homeland of  the Jewish people.
• Palestinians will accept the legitimacy of Jewish historical rights in  Palestine and accept a Jewish minority residing in an independent State  of Palestine, enjoying full civil rights equal to those of the Arab  majority. The Arab minority of Israel will enjoy also full civil rights  equal to those of the Jewish majority in the state of Israel. Jewish Palestinians in the State  of Palestine and Arab Israelis in the State of Israel will be given the option to hold dual citizenship.
• The recognized borders of Israel and Palestine will be equivalent to  pre-1967 borders with mutually agreed-upon adjustments and consensual  land swaps—a principle both sides have already accepted. Said land-swaps  would be equal in size and quality.

Refugees - Palestinian and Jewish

• The Palestinian Diaspora, displaced by the 1947-48 and 1967 wars, will  be allowed to exercise their right of return to the State of Palestine.  However, the demand that these refugees would be allowed to return to  their original homes is no longer realistic or practical, given the  global, regional, and local developments that have occurred since 1948.
• For those who choose not to exercise their right to return to a  Palestinian state, compensation would be offered, facilitated by the  assets allocated for the implementation of peace. This would be  facilitated by a joint-agreement between the State of Israel, the Arab  oil-producing countries, and the international community to monetarily  compensate Palestinians displaced in wars after 1947. These assets will  primarily help facilitate the resettlement and absorption of the  refugees in their natural national habitat. This would replace  international services such as UNRWA originally designated to help  Palestinian refugees. 
• Jewish refugees forced to flee Arab states in the late 1940s and early 1950s will be similarly compensated from the same fund.

Jerusalem

• Jerusalem must also be recognized as a city with a ‘dual identity.’  Jerusalem’s Old City is the ‘religious city’ mentioned in holy  scriptures and with deeply holy sites to all Abrahamic religions.  Outside the walls of the Old City—built by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver more than five hundred years ago—is the ‘municipal city’  that has been annexed into the broader concept of Jerusalem over the  last hundred years. It is this municipal territory that can be shared as  two capitals for Israel and Palestine.
• The religiously-weighted ‘old city’ and the more administratively heavy  ‘municipal city’ are radically different in meaning and status. As  such, they must be placed under different models of governance. While  keeping the city geographically unified—and without the use of modern  walls and barbed wire, the Old City of Jerusalem will be placed under  the sovereignty of God—the sacred authority all sides acknowledge and  respect.
• The two federal government structures, their Parliament/Knesset, and  Supreme Courts of Israel and Palestine will both be seated outside the  Old City, in West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem respectively. The affairs  of the overall city would be run on a day-to-day basis by a  municipality that represents all Jerusalemites.
• The city’s religious sacred sites, however, should be open to all.  Currently, Muslims are freely allowed to visit Jewish and Christian Holy  sites such as the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in  Jerusalem. As such, non-Muslims would be permitted to enter Muslim Holy  sites such as Al-Haram al-Sheriff and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

At present, Jerusalem is physically united but is divided demographically, politically, psychologically, and religiously. And  though the present situation reflects these divisions in a ‘de-facto’  status, this plan proposes granting a mutual de-facto and de-jure status that acknowledges these divisions while providing a way to satisfy both sides’ attachments to the city.

Cooperation and Coexistence

• Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip will have the right to  travel freely and to work in Israel. Israelis will be allowed to move  freely and work in the independent Palestinian state.
• A joint-commission will be created with the task of implementing a  peace education curriculum educating people in both states about the  history and culture of both Jews and Palestinians—together with the  meaning and importance of the Holy Land to each community in preparation  for the implementation of this plan. Learning at all levels will be  supervised by this joint commission in order to ensure that it is void  of indoctrination, hatred, and incitement.
• Economic cooperation between Israel and Palestine will aim at securing  the welfare and prosperity of both peoples. Similar to the issue of  refugees created by the war in 1948, the international community and  Arab oil-producing countries would finance the bottom-up building of  Palestinian infrastructures and the economy along with funds diverted  from any theoretical military spending.

A Pathway to Peace

• The above peace plan would be implemented in stages during a mutually-agreed timetable, encouraging both parties to honor  previous agreement commitments and building the trust and  confidence-building measures vital to any effective peace agreement. The  United States, as part of its historical role as a third-party in the  negotiations, would supervise the list of steps the two sides should  take in the implementation of this plan. The European Union and the international community will also play a positive role in  people-to-people engagements.
• This proposed alternative peace plan fulfills the Palestinian dream to  self-determination in establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. It also fulfills the Israeli dream of Jewish self-determination in Eretz Israel while keeping Jerusalem united to defuse the legitimate grievances that fuel Palestinian hatred of  Zionism. 
• By accomplishing these feats, the drawing of final borders  between Israel and Palestine will be far less contentious, as the  borders proposed in this plan merely designate where Israeli and  Palestinian security services operate—not a civil barrier preventing  Israelis or Palestinians from moving throughout their historical  homeland.
• It is possible—with creative thinking, trust building, as well as  fresh, out-of-the-box proposals—for this conflict to come to an end. But  for the Arab and the Muslim world to come to accept a Jewish state,  Jewish self-determination, and residential rights in the Holy Land,  Zionists must reciprocate by recognizing Palestinian sovereignty in the  West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

The reciprocal recognition of sovereignty and self-determination  rights in the Holy Land is the premise for Jews and Palestinians to  believe once again in compromise, peace, and coexistence. Accepting this peace plan would constitute a breakthrough in the  process of forging relations between Israel, the Palestinians, and the  Arab as well as the Muslim world.

This is a win-win Peace Plan.