The Missing Peaces

Jerusalem's Old City covers only one square kilometer, but it embodies every aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Within its walls, overlapping demographic, economic, political, religious, security, and symbolic issues pose substantial challenges to even the most experienced negotiators. It is widely believed that the impasse over Jerusalem -- especially sovereignty over the walled Old City and its holy places -- will prevent a final-status Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. For such a crucial issue, the Old City does not receive the serious attention it deserves; commentators proposing plans for Israeli-Palestinian peace often simply sidestep the Old City entirely.

The January/February 2009 issue of Foreign Affairs is a case in point. Although Richard Haass and Martin Indyk identify the difficulties in agreeing on a formula for Jerusalem in their article, "Beyond Iraq," they stop short of proposing ways to overcome the seemingly irreconcilable differences. Writing in the same issue, Walter Russell Mead ("Change They Can Believe In") focuses on the Palestinian refugee issue as the key to a peace deal and pays little attention to Jerusalem.

Many peace proposals tend to focus exclusively on sovereignty when it comes to Jerusalem. There has been no shortage of plans for the future of this troubled city, but attempts to resolve the Jerusalem issue since 1948 have always failed because they have invariably hinged on the question of sovereignty -- reducing the issue to a dispute over territory and political control. The two parties' sovereignty claims should not be devalued, but because these claims are mutually exclusive and based on such diametrically opposed historical narratives, the standard compromise solution -- shared governance -- simply will not work.

Jerusalem cannot be approached as a traditional case of conflict resolution, and the exercise of sovereignty cannot become a sine qua non for either side. Quite simply, the Old City cannot be divided between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It is too small, too densely populated, too architecturally linked, and the Israelis and the Palestinians are too riven by systemic distrust for them to govern the Old City on their own. There is no evidence that the ingrained biases, resentments, and prejudices would subside quickly if leaders in both camps signed a peace agreement. The parties would not be capable of resolving their differences on their own for at least a generation, particularly when a small but significant minority of provocateurs on each side would likely seek to undermine any peace treaty. A long-term study, undertaken by the University of Windsor, in Canada, revealed that approaches such as the Geneva Initiative (the peace proposal drawn up by a senior-level Israeli-Palestinian nongovernmental group in 2003) and the Clinton Parameters of December 2000 (former U.S. President Bill Clinton's outline of the essential elements needed to end the conflict) have perpetuated exclusivism by focusing excessively on questions of sovereignty in the Old City. A different perspective is required.

BEYOND SOVEREIGNTY

The most promising alternative to a street-by-street, site-by-site division of the Old City is to construct a special regime that defers the issue of sovereignty and instead focuses on how to administer and manage the Old City with strong third-party participation. The Jerusalem question can only be resolved as part of a grand bargain. In the context of a two-state solution, fair, equitable, and sustainable governance arrangements for the Old City can be designed if both the Israelis and the Palestinians are ready to treat it as a single entity.

The key is addressing the needs of all the Old City's stakeholders: residents, decision-makers on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians outside Jerusalem, international actors with an interest in the Middle East's stability, and the many Christians, Jews, and Muslims around the world who revere the Old City's religious sites. Understanding and addressing all of the stakeholders' deeply rooted spiritual and practical needs is the only way to find a viable solution.

At its core, the conflict is about control over Jerusalem's holy sites, especially the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount; the Western Wall; and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre -- all of which are located within the stone walls of the Old City. Most important, the Islamic and the Jewish sacred spaces of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount pose a particular problem because they overlap physically and are historically interconnected and indivisible. Given these sites' immense religious, cultural, and emotional power, they must be administered fairly and equitably. The involvement of an impartial third-party administrator -- chosen by the Israelis and the Palestinians together -- is essential, as it would build confidence between the two sides and reinforce it over time. In the meantime, sovereignty claims would not be relinquished but be deferred. This would not constitute internationalization -- an idea that both parties oppose -- as there would be no international jurisdiction. Rather, this new regime would be created by the Israeli and Palestinian governments and would be accountable to them. Such a special autonomous governance regime with a strong third-party presence would be the optimal system for the interim management of the Old City.