The Fourth Authority - Council of the People

Introduction

A hundred years of wars in the land and the Middle East have taught us how dangerous nationalism can be when it becomes a tool of governance, power, and coercion. Peoples and nations sought rule in the name of identity, and in the process harnessed the resources of culture, religion, language, ethnicity, and community.

Thus, politics in the Middle East became politics of identities. Governments and parties took the inner strength of communities, ethnic groups, faiths, and human groups—and turned it into a tool of struggle, violence, control, war, and power.

We seek to return power to the people.

Not to the people as an abstract concept alone, nor to the individual alone, but also to the place where the person actually lives their life: the community.

The family unit is not the only component of the political framework. Between the individual and the government stands the community: the place where a person receives language, identity, culture, faith, responsibility, belonging, and shared life.

For many years the community was neglected in government institutions. A large part of the public found itself without a clear community home, without a framework in which it could express its ideas, desires, and connection to the government in a present and healthy way. Conversely, existing strong communities found their way to centers of power through crooked paths, through political bargaining, agreements, and coalition funds—which harmed the leadership of the state and also corrupted their own leadership.

Therefore, we see regulating the community as an authority in its own right as an opening to new relations between the individual, the community, and the government.

The community will express the local, cultural, spiritual, and social characteristics of the individual. The central government will guarantee their liberty, security, rights, and justice. And between the two will stand the Council of the People—the Fourth Authority—alongside the judiciary, the federal government, and the executive branch—which will regulate the status of communities and give them a clear constitutional and political place.

The idea of The Fourth Authority includes four foundations:

A political and constitutional home for all communities in the land.

Proper representation for communities through the Council of the People.

The ability to balance the central government and oppose laws that harm communities or individual liberty.

Connection between communities and local government, so that public life will stem from the individual, the place, and the community—not only from parties and distant centers of power.

Above all stands a federal central government, applying equally to all inhabitants of the land, guaranteeing individual liberty, security, justice, and welfare, and giving just and equal place and expression to every individual and every community.

Regulating the Status of Communities

Communities will have a clear constitutional and legal status: community-government relations, legal standing, public responsibility, transparency, leadership duties, and oversight mechanisms.

The government will regulate fair and equal funding for communities in areas such as education, religion, culture, charity, welfare, and community justice. Funding will be determined according to clear and equal criteria, not according to political power, proximity to government, or coalition extortion.

Regulating the status of communities in the land will bring a profound change to society as a whole. It will cleanse central politics of dependence on sectoral bargaining, reduce coalition funds, and create true political equality for all communities—regardless of their partisan status or electoral strength.

Community

A community is an assembly of people whose social ties and relations are expressed in one or more of the following ways: faith, culture, ethnicity, purpose, path, ideological identity, or geographic location.

A good community is one that unites people around responsibility, values, mutual assistance, and public action. The more a community can unite a wider public around it, deepen its activity, and act for the benefit of its members and the land—the more it will receive broad support, welfare, and recognition from the government.

Each community will have autonomy to choose its leadership in a way that reflects its cultural, religious, or organizational lifestyle. However, every community will be required to give full accountability for its actions before the central government and The Fourth Authority.

Community leaders or officials convicted of crimes, corruption, or serious breaches of public trust will be barred from public or community office until full investigation and according to law.

Family

A family belonging to a community may affiliate its children with the parents’ community until age 13. This affiliation will count as part of the community’s membership but will not annul the child’s right to choose their own path upon maturation.

In cases of separation or divorce, children’s community affiliation will be determined by mutual parental agreement, and absent agreement—by legal or mediation proceedings prioritizing the child’s welfare, identity, stability, and future liberty.

The Individual

Every person aged 13 and above will be free to choose their community and identity. The central government will be entrusted with their right to just trial, full liberty, and full security for body and property.

Communities will be required to respect the individual’s choice, even when that choice is inconvenient for them. Their role is not to imprison the person in an identity imposed upon them, but to enable them to integrate in a good, free, and respectful way into the community to which they belong.

Every person may choose one primary community, in which their life’s anchor will be. This community will be called Primary Community— the community they prefer over the other communities of which they are members.

In addition, a person may be a member of up to two Choice Communities, which express additional aspirations, goals, ideas, interests, or identities in their life.

Primary communities will be responsible for the broader and deeper areas of community life: education, religion, culture, charity, welfare, and community justice.

Choice Communities

Choice communities are easier to create, based on an idea, goal, region, interest, shared identity, or way of life.

All communities will manage their registries legally, and community membership will be supervised by the central government and The Fourth Authority.

A number of 1,000 people will suffice to create a choice community in the community registry. This community will be entitled to funding for events and public activity according to its membership and areas of activity.

When the number of choice communities unites to 60,000 people, or when one choice community grows to this number, its transformation into a primary community may be considered by the Presidency institution and the Council of the People.

Primary Communities

Primary communities will be declared by the Presidency institution and The Fourth Authority, and will receive broader independent status in community justice, charity and welfare, education, culture, and religion.

Declarations of primary communities, official recognition of choice communities, unification of several choice communities, or unification of several primary communities—will be the responsibility of the Presidency institution and The Fourth Authority.

In every such declaration, aspects relating to righteousness and justice, individual liberty, education, religion, culture, public responsibility, and protection of individual rights will be examined.

Community Justice

Internal disputes within a primary community may be resolved through a community court, local mediation, or legally recognized community judicial institutions.

Disputes between members of different communities will be adjudicated in general civil courts, such as the Magistrate’s Court or a similar institution established by law.

A local or community court will be authorized to hear only civil and internal matters, and only with the consent of the parties. Criminal matters, violations of fundamental rights, serious offenses, or issues with broad public implications will be adjudicated in state courts.

Primary communities with similar characteristics may cooperate in mediation systems and courts, such as rabbinical courts, Sharia courts, or other community courts, provided all operate under one law, fundamental rights, righteousness and justice, and protection of individual liberty.

Council of the People

The Council of the People is the representation of all communities in the land. It will be a house for discussions, agreements, dispute resolution, and safeguarding the place of communities within the political structure.

The Council of the People will have the ability to oppose laws of the central government by vote when such laws materially harm communities, individual liberty, righteousness and justice, or the federal balance of the land.

Representatives of the Council of the People will be responsible for faithfully representing their communities. The President of the State will preside over the Council, and the voting power of communities will be determined according to their membership numbers and constitutional rules ensuring balance between community size and protection of small communities.

The Central Government

The central government will be a federal government entrusted with all inhabitants of the land. Its main responsibilities will be individual liberty, one law for all, just trial, security, economy, infrastructure, foreign policy, and political arrangements with other peoples and lands.

Establishing The Fourth Authority will fundamentally change the government structure. It will reduce dependence on sectoral politics, strengthen communities, and leave to the central government those areas requiring general, equal, and binding decisions for the entire land.

Local Government

Local government will be the point of connection between the individual, the community, and the central government. It will assist communities in providing services in education, religion, culture, welfare, and community justice—all according to law, regulation, and in accordance with community membership numbers and needs.

Instead of turning local government into a mere arena of party struggle, significant community representation must be integrated. The primary communities in the geographic area of the local government will receive a regulated place in the local council or an advisory-community body attached to it.

Thus, local government will be able to express not only political lists, but the real life of the place: communities, families, synagogues, schools, culture, neighborhoods, ethnic groups, faiths, and local needs.

The Fourth Authority is not intended to dismantle the state, but to restore life to its proper place.

The individual does not live alone before the government. They live in family, community, city, language, tradition, faith, and memory. A state that does not recognize this turns the individual into a lonely figure before a large system; and a state that recognizes this can build deeper peace between person and person, community and community, and among all inhabitants of the land.

The Council of the People is the way to return power to the place where life truly happens—to the individual and their family, community, and land.