A Different Kind of Peace Initiative
Pax Democratica is not a think tank, a political movement, or a diplomatic track. It is a proposal — a structurally different way of approaching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and a growing coalition of people committed to advancing it.
Why We Exist
Every approach to Israeli-Palestinian peace for the last thirty years has been built on the same architecture: a small group of political actors, negotiating in private, attempting to deliver an agreement to their respective publics. The architecture has failed. Repeatedly. Predictably.
Pax Democratica exists to advance a different architecture — one grounded in the empirical record of peace processes that have actually succeeded in the modern era. That record points unmistakably to the inclusion of civil society at the structural level of negotiations, not at the margins.
Our mission is to bring this proposal — a democratically elected Joint People's Assembly — to the organizations, governments, scholars, and citizens whose engagement is necessary to make it real.
What We Stand For
Equality of standing
Both peoples enter any peace process as equals, with equal voice, equal representation, equal resources, and equal claim on the outcome.
Democratic legitimacy
Decisions of consequence require legitimacy. In a conflict between two peoples, that legitimacy can only come from those peoples — not from their political elites alone.
Inclusive process design
The communities that will live with the outcome must help design the outcome. Anything less is fragile by construction.
Trauma-aware engagement
Peace processes that bypass collective trauma produce agreements that collapse under the weight of unaddressed grief. Acknowledgment must be built into the process, not deferred for later.
Evidence-based optimism
We are not utopian. We are empirical. The successful precedents are real: Ireland, El Salvador, Colombia. The proposal applies their lessons to the Israeli-Palestinian case.
Long-horizon commitment
This is a multi-year campaign. We are building infrastructure for sustained advocacy, not a one-time push.
The People Advancing Pax Democratica
Pax Democratica was developed by Amos Elroy — a long-time advocate of democratic governance and federalist approaches to international peace. Amos's background includes leadership roles in the Global Peoples Assembly movement, the World Democracy Movement, the American Movement for World Government, and the World Citizen Foundation.
The proposal has since grown into a broader effort, with input from peace researchers, civil society leaders, and diplomats engaged with the Israeli-Palestinian question. We are actively building a coalition of partner organizations and advisors — scholars of conflict resolution, leaders of peace organizations, journalists, faith leaders, and policy practitioners.
If you want to be part of that coalition — whether as an organization, an advisor, or an advocate — we want to hear from you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this another track of negotiations parallel to existing diplomacy?
No. Existing diplomatic tracks operate on the architecture we believe is structurally broken. Pax Democratica is a replacement architecture, designed to bypass the elite-driven approach that has repeatedly failed. It is not a supplement; it is a substitute.
How is this different from past civil society initiatives?
Previous civil society initiatives — dialogue forums, joint declarations, people-to-people projects — are valuable, but they are advisory. They lack democratic legitimacy and decision-making authority. The Joint People's Assembly is different in kind: it is a democratically elected body with the authority to reach binding territorial and security agreements.
Does this require Hamas to agree?
No. Assembly delegates are elected from civil society — trade unions, civic organizations, religious bodies, professional associations — not from political parties. Hamas neither authorizes nor delegitimizes a body that is not drawn from its political ecosystem.
What does it cost?
The assembly's operations — equal salaries, office budgets, support staff for 480 delegates — are funded by the international "Friends of Pax Democratica" coalition. The cost is meaningful but is dwarfed by the cost of continued conflict. Concrete budget estimates are available on request.
How long would the assembly run?
The assembly is a multi-year process. Comparable peace processes — Ireland, Colombia — required four to six years of structured engagement. The assembly is designed for that horizon, with mechanisms for confidence-building, trauma-informed dialogue, and binding agreement in distinct phases.
What can I do to help right now?
Read the proposal, then bring it to a peace organization, faith community, civic association, or professional body you belong to. Urge a formal debate. Propose a resolution of support. The full guide is on the Take Action page.
Get in Touch
For coalition membership inquiries, media requests, scholarly engagement, or any question about the proposal, email us directly. We respond personally to every serious inquiry.
aelroy@gmail.comRead the Proposal
The full case for the Joint People's Assembly — including the historical evidence and the design of the process — is laid out in detail.