Former Canadian Ambassador to Israel Michael Bell suggested that Israel and the Palestinian Authority jointly administer the area of Jerusalem's ancient quarters. Bell said the area is “too small, too densely populated, and too architecturally linked for them to govern the Old City on their own.” He added that there is insurmountable distrust between the PA and Israel.
The idea, jointly proposed with former United States Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer, is to create a “special regime” for administering the Old City. “The parties don't lose control of the Old City because they jointly would be appointing the administrators of the city,” Bell told the Toronto Globe & Mail.
“In the past, there were only three options to resolving the status of the Old City: complete Israeli sovereignty, complete Palestinian sovereignty, and some kind of shared or divided sovereignty,” Bell said.
“This proposal offers a fourth option, one that allows the parties to postpone the difficult task of dealing with the Old City and lets them get on with the other matters of a peace treaty between them.”
A joint committee would appoint a chief administrator from outside of the PA and Israel. The special regime would have its own independent security force and bureaucracy.
“Anything that has to do with life in the city – entry and exit, access to the holy sites, property ownership, zoning, archaeology, etc. – would be governed by this regime,” explained Bell. “Anything pertaining to broader national matters – political rights, health care, education, etc. – would still be governed by the respective national government.”
The proposal would mean that the city of Jerusalem would relinquish at least part of its sovereignty over the Old City.