A federation of Israel
Regional cantons give Israel’s diverse communities meaningful authority over education, culture, planning, and local services—within one constitutional state.
Eretz–Ard · The Jerusalem Union
Two peoples. Two states. One shared homeland.
A federative proposal for Israel and Palestine: distinct national homes joined by shared institutions, an open Jerusalem, mutual security, and a common economic future.
I
One framework, built in three layers
The proposal begins with reforms that can be pursued within Israel, extends them to a federative partnership with Palestine, and opens a path toward regional integration.
The Jerusalem Union
Israel and Palestine remain constituent states while sharing a federal capital, selected institutions, an economic area, and enforceable rights.
A regional horizon
Reconciliation becomes the foundation for Israel’s deeper integration into a cooperative Middle East.
II
Sovereignty without separation
The model combines the strongest parts of two-state and shared-state approaches. It does not ask either people to dissolve its identity.
Constituent states
Israel and Palestine retain national institutions, citizenship, public culture, and substantial domestic authority.
Shared federal institutions
A balanced parliament, federal council, supreme court, bill of rights, and limited common responsibilities.
Jerusalem federal district
An undivided metropolitan capital organized into Israeli and Palestinian boroughs with a shared Holy Basin.
Local autonomy
Cantons and community councils protect cultural diversity without turning every disagreement into an existential struggle.
Security transition
A phased structure joins Israeli security needs to Palestinian equality, accountable policing, and the gradual replacement of military rule.
Common market
Movement, infrastructure, trade, labor, and investment can turn unequal dependency into shared prosperity.
III
The ideas beneath the institutions
Political architecture will endure only if it reflects the histories, identities, moral languages, and material lives of the people who must inhabit it.
Shared origins, distinct peoples
Population genetics and ancient DNA illuminate deep Levantine continuity and centuries of mixture. They can challenge fantasies of exclusive belonging—but biology does not determine political rights.
Two movements for dignity
Jewish Zionism and Palestinian nationalism can be understood as parallel responses to exile, dispossession, foreign power, and the desire for collective agency.
Religion as a resource
Halacha, fiqh, covenant, sulh, pluralism, and sacred responsibility can support reconciliation when religious identity is engaged rather than dismissed.
Truth before trust
Acknowledging the Nakba, Jewish exile and persecution, occupation, terror, displacement, and competing memories is not a contest in suffering; it is groundwork for repair.
IV
A territorial language for shared life
The maps are proposals for discussion—not predetermined borders. They test how national, regional, and local autonomy might coexist with open movement and shared institutions.
Illustrative district model: federal districts, Israeli and Palestinian cantons, and a shared Jerusalem framework.
IV · A
The Jerusalem Federal District
Nine boroughs—four Israeli, four Palestinian, and one shared Holy Basin—form a common metropolitan capital for both states and the Union.
V
Documents and research
Begin with the summary, then explore the institutional, economic, religious, and historical arguments in depth.
Jerusalem Union — summary
A concise introduction to the overall political framework.
Jerusalem Union — full proposal
Institutions, territory, citizenship, refugees, security, economics, and reconciliation.
Religion, identity and a post-colonial Middle East
A religiously and legally grounded case for shared sovereignty.
Israel–Palestine economic assessment
The costs of unequal integration and the potential of a common economic framework.
Genetics of Jews and the wider Middle East
Research notes on ancestry, continuity, mixture, and the limits of genetic claims.
Selected essays
Further writing by Rafi Gassel on indigenous identity, Zionism, multinational citizenship, religion, and reconciliation.
Visit the Times of Israel blogVI
A proposal from Jerusalem
Raphael Tzion Gassel is a biotechnology professional and peace activist living in Jerusalem. His work brings together federal political design, reconciliation, Jewish and Middle Eastern history, religious thought, and population genetics. The Jerusalem Union has developed through years of dialogue with Israeli, Palestinian, and international collaborators.
Neither erasure nor permanent domination. A covenant of dignity, equality, and shared sovereignty.