Year XXXVIII, Number 3, November 2025

Phil Saunders 
Chairman of Challenge, Co-founder of the Federal Forum.

Naomi Tsur 
Director of the Federal Lobby.

Historical Background
In 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Mandatory Palestine into two states. Ever since then, the international community has insisted upon a two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Largely forgotten is that the 1947 United Nations Special Committee for Palestine also presented an alternative to partition – a federal state embracing the land in its entirety. Though rejected in 1947, this important alternative possibility continues to be developed by independent minds until this day. Daniel Elazar evaluated eleven such federal options in his seminal 1991 book ‘Two Peoples… One Land’, and in 2021 the Israeli-Palestinian Federal Forum was established to bring federalist thinkers together for the first time, in order to generate a common platform for this neglected alternative.

Federal Rationale
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a situation where two peoples both lay claim to the same land. If this land were to be divided, neither would fulfil their national aspirations. Their long interrelated history has generated myriad sites of cultural and religious importance to Palestinians and Israelis throughout the land, and both peoples demand unrestricted access to all locations of reverence. Under such circumstances, a pragmatic outcome would be for these two peoples to share the land they both view as their ancestral homeland. However, each of them cherishes their own unique identities and cultures and are steadfastly determined to retain them. Federal arrangements are uniquely positioned to accommodate such situations, and have been successfully implemented in other lands, including some of similar size, population, and complexity.
 
Embracing Reality
Notwithstanding the numerous wars that have defined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1947, the reality on the ground is that Israelis and Palestinians are becoming increasingly interwoven with every passing year. They share one currency, and their economies are enormously dependent on each other. On the ground they are sliding into a one-state reality, albeit a deeply dysfunctional one. Rather than fight this trend and attempt to enforce a last-minute and very painful disengagement, federalism offers an ethical mechanism to transform this reality into a sustainable shared future, with democratic civil rights, mutual respect and self-determination for both peoples. A federal approach would offer an optimal combination between two states and one state, with the two peoples sharing mutually beneficial resources, while also enjoying self- governance. It would embrace the needs of all parties and transform violent rivalry into a mutually-beneficial win-win.

Local Benefits
Palestinians and Israelis would share the entire land, ensuring everyone’s right to work, travel, and worship anywhere within it, with full equality under federal law. This would be achieved through a step-by-step process, gradually distancing the two peoples from the preceding decades of hostility, and bringing them into a new more positive reality. Domestic security would ultimately be jointly safeguarded, and investment in the economy, environment and tourism would generate prosperity for all. Both peoples would incorporate peace and reconciliation into their educational systems.

Regional Benefits
Israel-Palestine is the birthplace of the three Abrahamic faiths, and there are great commonalities between them. The Abraham Accords recognize that interfaith relationship and seek to transform religion from a source of conflict into a source for reconciliation. A federal solution to the conflict would keep the Holy Land intact, create positive relationships between all religious identities, instead of disconnection and disengagement, and enable the Abraham Accords to reach their full potential. This vision and paradigm are advocated by the Israeli-Palestinian Federal Forum, a group of Israelis, Palestinians, and international supporters who see federalism as the best and most realistic approach for a just, sustainable, equitable and democratic resolution to our conflict. It is a flagship project of the conflict transformation organization Challenge. https:// challenge.org.il/federal-forum/

Guiding Principles
Members of the Israeli-Palestinian Federal Forum have agreed the following ten principles to guide our work together. Its members have developed a variety of specific plans to achieve the goals set out in the above principles. They all strive to give expression to the ideas inherent in these principles.
1.    Federalism is the optimal arrangement of government for a just, sustainable, equitable and democratic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Federal systems are highly customisable to match local circumstances and cultures.
2.    The whole land, between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea, is inhabited by diverse cultural communities, including two major peoples: Palestinians and Israelis.
3.    A federal solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would enable both peoples to enjoy selfdetermination, autonomy, security and cooperation, with the benefit of interconnected economies.
4.    Both peoples, including their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, hold a deep and unbreakable connection to the entire land. Both see it as their ancestral, historical, cultural, religious, and national homeland.
5.    Both peoples should be able to implement their right of self-determination within one shared historical, religious, and cultural homeland.
6.    We understand that in reality both peoples are increasingly interconnected and interdependent economically, in terms of infrastructure and ecosystems.
7.    Both peoples include diverse ethnic, cultural and religious communities. In a federal framework these communities throughout the land can enrich each other and benefit from cooperation, while preserving their distinct identities.
8.    We seek a creative paradigm to design a win- win solution for the benefit of all, that finds a balance between our needs for autonomy, security, cooperation, and shared responsibility for the land.
9.    Federalism will recognise and protect minority cultures, providing equal opportunities and security for all.
10.    The federal framework we develop together, will acknowledge both peoples’ struggles, and enable us to build a shared future founded on trust, justice and reconciliation. Having agreed on the above guiding principles, the Israeli- Palestinian Federal Forum is now evolving from an internal working group into an outward-facing movement. We are currently reaching out to Palestinians and Israelis, in the Holy Land as well as in the Diaspora, to join us. At the same time, we are also keen to work closely with veterans of the federal movement in Europe and elsewhere, and to join forces with federal experts from beyond our arena. We gain confidence from the fact that many thriving federal structures in the world were born after decades, if not centuries of conflict. We are convinced that the time has come for all of us to work together, in order to build up our Federal Movement, and pave the way for a Federal Reality in the Holy Land.