Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s Autonomy Plan

Israel. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Israeli Prime Minister Begin’s Autonomy Plan.”  Israel’s Foreign Relations: selected documents, 1977-1979. 

Ed. Medzini, Meron. Jerusalem: Ahva Press, 1982. 276-8. Print.

(Note to the reader: The date of this document is what was provided from the archive. That actual date should be December 11, 1977.)

Five weeks after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat flew to Jerusalem to accelerate Egyptian – Israeli negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin brought to President Jimmy Carter, Israel’s response to Sadat’s peace initiative: political autonomy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (Begin took the broad idea of political autonomy from his intellectual  mentor, Ze’ev Jabotinsky). Begin wanted Carter’s approval for this idea before he presented it to President Sadat in Ismailiyah at the end of December 1977.  

Sadat was of the view that his unprecedented gesture to Israel, the trip to Jerusalem where he spoke at the Israeli parliament and asked for ‘no more war,’  that he and Egypt deserved a major response from Israel. Sadat was expecting something equally grand like an immediate Israel withdrawal from some land as a show of good faith.  That did not occur. Begin believed political realities should move at a slower more conservative pace.   Begin was almost entirely focused on the possibilities of a bilateral agreement with Egypt and, if needed, allow for some provision of ‘autonomy’ for the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin wanted to avoid negotiations with all Arab states at one, as the Carter administration strongly preferred.  For Begin there would be no territorial withdrawals from either West Bank and Gaza Strip territories along with the Golan Heights, or Jerusalem. For Begin, Israel would remain the final political authority over the West Bank’s future. 

After Sadat’s November 1977, Jerusalem visit, the Carter administration tried mightily to have Israel implement autonomy for the Palestinians. But it could not dislodge Israel or Begin from the political view that no foreign sovereignty would be allowed to evolve there. Israel continued to build and expand settlements in the West Bank to show to the Carter administration and to the rest of the world, that the West Bank would remain under Israeli control. Israel’s building of settlements greatly diminished the prospect of Palestinian autonomy ever being defined and implemented. Sadat for his part, understood that Israel’s Begin would stay fiercely committed to retaining the West Bank, but Sadat also knew that Begin might and could commit himself to negotiate the return of  Sinai to Egypt’s sovereignty. Since Arab states and the PLO at the time were totally unprepared to accept Israel’s legitimacy let alone accept engaging in the Carter administration’s orchestrated comprehensive peace process where all Arab states would be at a Middle East peace conference. 

In March 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty and initiated full diplomatic relations.  Israel withdrew ultimately from the Sinai Peninsula in return for a peace treaty from Egypt. Until 1983, discussions about the content of Palestinian autonomy were held and then they stopped.  No political autonomy for the Palestinians was to be promised again until Israel and the PLO signed the 1993 Oslo Accords.  Only in 1994 was Palestinian self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank slowly implemented and elections held for a self-governing authority in 1996. And like the late 1970s negotiations, the Oslo Accords, signed by the PLO were identical: no Palestinian state was promised with Israel remaining the source of political authority until the present day. 

If you wish to read more detail about what unfolded after Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem have a look at the interview transcripts for Roy Atherton, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, later Ambassador for Negotiations and then Ambassador to Cairo, and Samuel W. Lewis, the US Ambassador to Israel in the same time period. Other transcripts in this State Department collection focusing on the Carter administration, the Arab – Israeli conflict negotiations and the fall of Iran, are worthy of some time. We suggest the transcripts at the same location  (The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project) for Harold Saunders, Morris Draper, Joseph Sisco, Nicholas Veliotes, Mike Sterner, and Henry Precht. 

Ken Stein, January 19, 2023

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Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s Autonomy Plan

(28 December 1977)

Israel. Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Israeli Prime Minister Begin’s Autonomy Plan.”  Israel’s Foreign Relations: selected documents, 1977-1979. 

Ed. Medzini, Meron. Jerusalem: Ahva Press, 1982. 276-8. Print.

Self-rule for Palestinian Arabs, Residents of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza District, which will be instituted upon the Establishment of Peace:

1. The administration of the military government in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will be abolished.
2. In Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district administrative autonomy of the residents, by and for them, will be established.
3. The residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will elect an Administrative Council composed of 11 members. The Administrative Council will operate in accordance with the principles laid down in this paper.
4. Any resident 18 years old or over, without distinction of citizenship, including stateless residents, is entitled to vote in the elections to the Administrative Council.
5. Any resident whose name is included in the list of candidates for the Administrative Council and who, on the day the list is submitted, is 25 years old or over, is eligible to be elected to the council.
6. The Administrative Council will be elected by general, direct, personal, equal, and secret ballot.
7. The period of office of the Administrative Council will be four years from the day of its election.
8. The Administrative Council will sit in Bethlehem.
9. All the administrative affairs relating to the Arab residents of the areas of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will be under the direction and within the competence of the Administrative Council.
10. The Administrative Council will operate the following departments: education; religious affairs; finance; transportation; construction and housing; industry, commerce, and tourism; agriculture; health; labour and social welfare; rehabilitation of refugees; and the department for the administration of justice and the supervision of the local police forces. It will also promulgate regulations relating to the operation of these departments.
11. Security and public order in the areas of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will be the responsibility of the Israeli authorities.
12. The Administrative Council will elect its own chairman.
13. The first session of the Administrative Council will be convened 30 days after the publication of the election results.
14. Residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district, without distinction of citizenship, including stateless residents, will be granted free choice of either Israeli or Jordanian citizenship.
15. A resident of the areas of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district who requests Israeli citizenship will be granted such citizenship in accordance with the citizenship law of the state.
16. Residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district who, in accordance with the right of free option, choose Israeli citizenship, will be entitled to vote for, and be elected to, the Knesset in accordance with the election law.
17. Residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district who are citizens of Jordan or who, in accordance with the right of free option, become citizens of Jordan, will elect and be eligible for election to the Parliament of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in accordance with the election law of that country.
18. Questions arising from the vote to the Jordanian Parliament by residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will be clarified in negotiations between Israel and Jordan.
19. A committee will be established of representatives of Israel, Jordan, and the Administrative Council to examine existing legislation in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district; and to determine which legislation will continue in force, which will be abolished, and what will be the competence of the Administrative Council to promulgate regulations. The rulings of the committee will be adopted by unanimous decision.
20. Residents of Israel will be entitled to acquire land and settle in the areas of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. Arabs, residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district, who, in accordance with the free option granted them, become Israeli citizens, will be entitled to acquire land and settle in Israel.
21. A committee will be established of representatives of Israel, Jordan, and the Administrative Council to determine norms of immigration to the areas of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. The committee will determine the norms whereby Arab refugees residing outside Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will be permitted to immigrate to these areas in reasonable numbers. The rulings of the committee will be adopted by unanimous decision.
22. Residents of Israel and residents of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district will be assured freedom of movement and freedom of economic activity in Israel, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district.
23. The Administrative Council will appoint one of its members to represent the council before the government of Israel for deliberation on matters of common interest, and one of its members to represent the council before the government of Jordan for deliberation on matters of common interest.
24. Israel stands by its right and its claim of sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. In the knowledge that other claims exist, it proposes, for the sake of the agreement and the peace, that the question of sovereignty in these areas be left open.
25. With regard to the administration of the holy places of the three religions in Jerusalem, a special proposal will be drawn up and submitted that will include the guarantee of freedom of access to members of all faiths to the shrines holy to them.
26. These principles will be subject to review after a five-year period.