A two-state solution for Israel and Palestine - My thoughts in 2025

 About 11 years ago, I penned "A Two-State Solution with a Twist - My approach to the problems facing Israel and Palestine today" full of hope and idealism. After October 7th 2023 and the long, drawn-out war in Gaza that followed those horrific attacks, a peaceful solution seems further away than ever. Ever the optimist, I find myself revisiting my thoughts on the topic. Today, I'm finishing the post from 2014 with some edits and some newer thoughts mixed in.

Many years have passed since 1948 and whether one likes it or not (I'm looking at you, Hamas!), the State of Israel is an established fact. The only way to remove the State of Israel is to wipe every last bit of it off the map entirely, which would equate to the mass genocide of millions of innocent people. Seeing the world already tried that 'solution' some seventy-odd years ago, let's try building bridges this time instead of fences.

Just as the State of Israel is an established fact, so are the Palestinian people in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and their aspirations for a united Palestinian state. Just as the horrors of the Holocaust must always be remembered so that we will never repeat such crimes against humanity, so too must the Palestinian people find a way to live without feeling like refugees, safe and secure, in a place they can call their own, in a land that they call their own.

It is time that Israelis and Palestinians realise that they can keep fighting until the Messiah has long come and gone and they still won't have resolved their issues. While making threats and ultimatums or spouting popular rhetoric may make a politician or activist seem like a big shot - their names will be forgotten by the masses unless they achieve that which seems impossible today - A peaceful two-state solution. 

Imagine a world in which the Jewish State of Israel and the Islamic State of Palestine together form a great Judeo-Palestinian nation that governs religious sites holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and protects and maintains the Holy Land for future generations.

These two states share control in overlapping sections while non-overlapping sections are under autonomous Israeli or Palestinian control. In this Unified State made up of three separate and distinct countries, people are free to choose whether they'll live on the Israeli side, the Palestinian side or the neutral shared side. Wherever they choose to live, is also the country whose laws they choose to abide by, where they pay taxes, are citizens, choose to build a future. Now, to safeguard the unique identities of the two non-shared countries, living there means abiding by the rules: You're living in a Jewish country or a Muslim country. But, you can't try to change one into the other through activism or politics - Both are THE homeland of their own people, with all the religious and cultural values that go with it. You don't like that, then you move to the other country. As all three are a part of the Unified State.

This approach gives both the Jewish people their national homeland and modern Israelis their home, and provides a safe home for the Palestinian people. No more refugee status, no more UNRWA, no more being second-class citizens in a country not their own. 

The Temple Mount, by Avraham Graicer

Now, what I'm personally most excited about is the shared neutral country. Let's call this the Unified Holy Land as naturally, (at least some of) Jerusalem would be in the Unified Holy Land. 

The Temple Mount is THE holiest site in Judaism and the location of both biblical temples, including the Second Temple known to Christians from stories about Jesus being found there as a young teen discussing scripture, and later driving out merchants and money changers.

On the photo, you can clearly see the rectangular shape of the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock shrine with the golden canopy atop. In the centre of the image below the Temple Mount, the Western Wall plaza. The Western Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall) is literally that - the western (retaining) wall of the temple mount, the mount on which both Jewish temples stood.  

It is because of its significance to Judaism and Christianity that early Muslims built shrines and mosques on top of the Temple Mount, connecting the story of Muhammad's night journey to heaven to Jerusalem. Next to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, the Temple Mount is Islam's third holiest site. 

Due to this area's great significance to three main world religions, I've dubbed Jerusalem (at the very least this part of it) the heart of the Unified Holy Land. Not solely Israeli, not solely Palestinian, not under Israeli control but governed by Jordan or any other way, but under the shared control of the ruler(s) of the Unified Holy Land - making up Israelis and Palestinians and possibly a third (or more) party such as a Christian faction or an international body like the UN. 

As far as religious laws and societal values are concerned, Judaism and Islam have a lot in common. Both are monotheistic religions, and both Halakha (Jewish law) and Shariah (Islamic law) provide detailed guidance on ethics, ritual, food, money, family, and daily living. 

In both religions, values such as communal responsibility, social justice and collective care are seen as important. And both religions care about strong families, about respect for elders, about living a life of prayer and faith, about giving charity and helping others, especially those less fortunate. 

Keeping this in mind, I believe that it is very much possible to find a way to make laws that both main sides can agree on for the country or state I'm now dubbing The Unified Holy Land for the purposes of this blog post. And let me be entirely honest... I can't wait to visit that place and to see what being there would be like in reality.