Process

Before It Begins

The Just Peace Agreement has been published as a working draft on this website, where we ask ordinary people from all over the world to sign up online and support it. This process is going on right now, and will continue until ten million people have signed. Maybe before that time, the first phase of implementation will begin and the two processes will overlap for a while...

First Phase

The international support for the agreement through this website will lead to the Just Peace Agreement being widely discussed. Before long, some of the principal parties to the agreement in the Middle East region start to look closely at the small print, and realize that the agreement can deliver everything they need for a final settlement of the conflict. On the Arab side, we expect different countries and factions to recognize quickly that the JPA is a platform on which they can unite, despite any other differences between them.

As soon as one of the principal parties decides they want to see the Just Peace Agreement implemented, they can adopt it, which means they publicly state their intention to implement it. Then they start to implement the parts of the agreement that are their responsibility, under the guidance of an international representative called the "IVGR". These first steps involve things like renouncing the use of force and agreeing plans for demilitarization, withdrawal of occupying forces and release of prisoners. They can start to take some of these steps even before the other parties adopt the agreement and before it is formally signed. This builds up trust in them and their commitment to the agreement, and helps to induce the other parties to adopt the agreement in turn.

Once all the parties join in the first phase of implementation, following a sequence controlled by the IVGR, they can go ahead with plans to sign the agreement. At the same time, the first phase carries on with the release of prisoners, withdrawal of occupying forces, demilitarization, people voting to be Israeli or Palestinian citizens, voting for the one-to-one land-swap and marking out the final position of the border, gifts of territory and setting up the political machinery for the second phase.

The second phase formally begins on the day the agreement is signed in Jerusalem. All the things that happen in the first phase will not have been completed by then, so the two phases overlap, for at least six months...

Second Phase

A five-year economic development program starts on the day the Just Peace Agreement is signed. This is the second phase of implementation, which for a while will overlap with the first phase as all the actions in that phase are wound up.

The economic development program laid out in the agreement aims at creating a state of "parity" — approximate equality and comparability — between Israel and Palestine. All sorts of economic measures, indicators and attainments are targets for parity: industry, agriculture, services, energy, resources, and the environment; plus personal indicators like employment, income, housing, education, healthcare and welfare. A very unusual aspect of the Just Peace Agreement is that it also aims to achieve parity of the territorial areas of Israel and Palestine, not by taking a lot of land from Israel but by asking all neighboring states to give land to Palestine freely, just when the new state is established at the beginning of the second phase.

Because the aim of the economic development program is parity, most of the extra investment will go to building up the economy and society of Palestine. In purely financial terms, it will cost 18 billion US dollars a year, which is requested from the international community — one third from north America, one third from Europe, and one third from the rest of the world. In addition to this, there will be a "peace dividend" in the form of additional private investment in the development of both states, Israel and Palestine.

During the second phase, the five million Palestinian refugees living throughout the Middle East region and the rest of the world will be polled to discover where and how they want to be resettled. The agreement commits all those taking part, including Palestine, Israel, the countries the refugees are currently living in, and all other countries in the world who can receive and resettle refugees, to play their part in resettling Palestinian refugees according to their wishes.

Third Phase

It is impossible to achieve parity between Palestine and Israel within a five-year economic development program. Nor can all the Palestinian refugees be relocated and resettled in this short timespan. By the end of the second phase the best that can be expected is that the programs of resettlement and economic development will be well set up and starting to deliver. So at the end of five years, the third phase begins and continues these programs for a further ten years, with the aim of fully achieving parity and resettlement.

At the end of that time, the economic development and refugee resettlement programs will have been running for 15 years, supported by the international community to the extent of 18 billion US dollars per year. The programs cover every aspect of resettlement and development including housing and employment, industry, resources, transport, energy, the environment, services, education, healthcare, sport, social welfare and culture.

The aim is to achieve parity in all these aspects and resettle all refugees within fifteen years of the agreement. If any aspect of the aims is unfulfilled at the end of the third phase, that activity will continue until the aim is achieved.