What is the Pax Democratica Initiative?
This initiative is a novel approach to peace-making, applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a hybrid between the traditional political route (diplomacy) and an integrated equal role for civil society, to achieve a stable lasting, and positive peace for a protracted conflict rooted in deep collective trauma on both ends.
This is a solution-agnostic approach that implements lessons from psychology and history to produce a structured political process, satisfying the basic yearning of the broad population for peace, via a practical and transparent mechanism with unparalleled political legitimacy.
Pax Democratica is the brainchild of Troy Davis, president of the World Citizen Foundation.
Description:
Pax Democratica is an innovative though time-honored approach to peace-making applied to Israel-Palestine. It is a hybrid approach marrying the traditional political route (diplomacy, aka Track 1) with a peoples-to-peoples approach (aka Track 2), thus avoiding the pitfalls of either approach taken individually. Here, it means integrating politically in a simple - but powerful and maximally legitimate political process - the civil society of both sides with parliamentarians of both sides, in order to negotiate a just, stable, and robust peace while acknowledging both side’s deep collective trauma, using the fundamental principle of civic and political equality.
Operating Principles:
The structure and process are centered around a broad democratic Peace Assembly. The assembly would include around 500 delegates and is inspired by the European Parliament (1979), the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1995), the Northern Ireland Assembly (1998) (catholic-protestant), etc. The Assembly would be established following elections in both territories and would create parliamentary committees to discuss/decide issues of justice and human rights, security and defense, land and borders, transportation and ports, economics, trade and finance, water and environment, energy and resources, agriculture, settlements, etc. The (public) Assembly sessions will allow delegates to bring up issues/grievances before peers and colleagues, reminiscent of truth and reconciliation precedents. As with any parliament, the Assembly's work will be transparent and streamed locally and globally, encouraging public involvement and open discussion, promoting a needed societal catharsis, as well as a remarkable example of democracy to the citizens of neighboring States.
Four main phases :
Phase 1 NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PREPARATION: Coalition building between civil society organizations, both locally and globally, to achieve critical mass and encourage actions to be taken by the corresponding parliaments (as was done for the ICC, through the CICC). In parallel, the mobilization of friendly governments to support the initiative via an International Friends of Pax Democratica group, including pledges to finance the Assembly (estimated yearly cost < one month of war).
Phase 2 LOBBYING AND LEGISLATIVE FRAMING: Political campaigning and lobbying in Israel and Palestine to convince both governments to pass a symmetric enabling law, the Pax Democratica Act or Democratic Peacemaking Act by both parliaments. The law would set the rules and dates for the elections to the Peace Assembly, and - crucially - delegate power to its Members to negotiate a final and binding peace treaty. Given the importance of this law, vital details of the Peace Assembly will be hotly debated by both Israeli and Palestinian governments and peoples.
Phase 3 CAMPAIGNING AND ELECTIONS: Electoral campaign on both sides (3-4 months) for all parties to present their views, and organize their candidates, as well for the various civil society caucuses to organize, culminating in simultaneous elections on the same weekend of all peace representatives. This flourishing of democratic activity is an essential part of the overall long-term cathartic process.
Phase 4 OFFICIAL PEACE NEGOTIATIONS: Convening of the Democratic Peace Assembly, which will start its work by electing its own (symmetric) leadership and internal structure, deciding on internal rules, setting up offices, hiring staff, etc. The hard work will start then.
[* We have currently begun the coalition-building process and are contacting key State actors.]
Equitable and granular representation:
The makeup of the national delegations will be based on a broad cross-section and equitable representation.
An equal number of Palestinian and Israeli representatives (roughly 250 delegates for each side).
An equal number of female and male representatives.
A (quasi) equal number of delegates presented by political parties (established or new) plus Mayors of major cities, and civil society caucuses (Labor Unions, Business Leaders, Religious Organizations, Students, Human Rights organizations, and other civic spheres to be defined, and mentioned in the Enabling Law)
Rationale:
Over the last 80 years, diplomatic or the usual top-down peace approaches have all failed, and people-to-people bottom-up attempts have also all failed (though successfully experimented on small time and spatial scales). This hybrid idea is based on a study of the successful and failed peace and conflict resolution processes of the last few decades. A pattern emerged showing that purely diplomatic efforts rarely succeeded, and if they did these were conflicts lacking a deep societal cross-sectional collective trauma. The stability and likelihood of a positive peace, as opposed to a minimal non-violent arrangement, depended on a few factors, mainly:
Involvement of civil society in an integral way in the process.
International support and shepherding.
Representation of women in the process.
These factors are demonstrated in Ireland, Columbia, South Africa, Cyprus, and other high-profile case studies.
Pax Democratica Initiative Overview
This document directly describes the technicalities of the Pax Democratica proposal, not the justifications or derivation behind it.
Principles of Operation
Equality of women and men in representation.
Integration of Civil Society in core structure and process
Free Election based representation
Duality and equality between conflicted sides
Transparency and embracing of the democratic process in its broadest sense
Engagement of the conflicted societies on a fundamental level to address deep routed collective trauma and ingrained animosity
Proposed Process
Phase I
Civil Society Campaign and mobilization - Coalition building, mobilization of friendly International governments (Friends of Pax Democratica), public PR and pressure campaign on on Israeli and Palestinian governments
Phase II
Passing of election law through respective parliaments (Israeli Knesset and Palestinian Legislative Council). Law to set identical rules in both societies to elect the Peace Assembly representatives). The law will also authorize the Assembly to handle peace negotiations and bring to an agreement.
Phase III
Peace Assembly implementation. Meetings in secured compounds. Elected officials paid equal pay and given operating budgets for staff and expenses. Assembly will incorporate free grievance sessions and sessions will be broadcast globally live with full transparency.
Phase IV
After a workable resolution is reached, the Peace Assembly may be converted into a long term body to address the implementation of the peace process and its development, as well as coordination on common issues such as land, water, environmental, and other areas.
Proposed structure based on principles of operation
An equal number of seats in the Peace Assembly for men and women, with an allowance for non-binary gendered representatives to claim their designation.
Composition:
120 Israeli Women
120 Israeli Men
120 Palestinian Women
120 Palestinian Men
Each of these groups is balanced between political party-assigned representatives (elected by party affiliation) and common citizens elected through different civic organizations (unions, art councils, religious councils, Political Activism organizations, etc.) as well as large city mayors (up to 10 seats reserved). No individuals who are affiliated directly with a terrorist organization will be permitted as candidates.Working organization:
The Assembly will have topical committees (E.G. resources, labor, reconciliation, security)
The Assembly representatives will also be able to organize in joint Caucasus across both camps (E.G. progressives, conservatives, religious, gender issues. Etc. )Funding:
Funding will be through international national donors and will cover the physical compound construction, infrastructure and maintenance, security needs, offices, and staff. The intention of the funding also takes the trickle down of funds into the corresponding societies which is expected to encourage added stability for the process.