This article has been translated from its original Hebrew.

I spent the first half of my life in Haifa, and the second half in Jerusalem. I know firsthand two very different models of shared life between Jews and Arabs.

In Haifa, coexistence is almost taken for granted. Populations live side by side, sometimes intertwined, shopping, eating, and enjoying each other’s businesses, enriched by cultural cross-pollination. I remember, as a child in a secular family, that during Passover we would drive to Arab bakeries to buy pita. Later on, when I devoted myself to the study of religion, I enjoyed walking along Ben Gurion Boulevard during Christmas, lit up in bright colors with a large Christmas tree at its center.

In Jerusalem, shared life looks very different. Like in an earlier era, the city is divided into “quarters”: ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods next to secular ones, and the city’s Palestinians mostly living in East Jerusalem. The key difference is that Palestinians in East Jerusalem are residents, not citizens. Theoretically, they can apply for citizenship, but in practice, it is complicated – and many are not interested in doing so.

There’s another difference. While Haifa is holy only to the Bahais, Jerusalem is holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. And not only holy. For both Jews and Palestinians, Jerusalem is not just a religious symbol, but a national one, woven deeply into their collective identity. For Jews, as everyone knows, it is the ancient capital of King David’s kingdom, the site of the Temple, the cultural and spiritual center, the city to which they swore to return “next year” for two thousand years.

For Palestinians, Al-Quds is the trust placed in them by Saladin. During the Ayyubid dynasty (12th–13th centuries), he invited Moroccans and Kurds to settle around al-Aqsa to protect the site from Crusaders (the Mughrabi Quarter near the Western Wall was named for the Moroccans who lived there). This demographic and theological addition shaped Palestinian identity as the guardians of Islam’s holy places in the land. This explains, in part, why the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa remains such a constant flashpoint – not only religiously, but nationally as well.

Between the two cities, Jerusalem better represents, sadly, the model of life across the whole land, from the Jordan to the sea. Inevitably, any future Israeli-Palestinian peace must pass through Jerusalem, even if in the far-off future we would like to achieve Haifa’s natural coexistence.

The new Ir Amim report outlines in broad strokes a path toward dignified shared life in Jerusalem, as a first step toward shared life in the entire land. Peace will pass through Jerusalem – and in passing, it will also divide it. Not physically, but certainly in the sense that neither people living here can be denied the right to live, nor to manage their lives, in the city.

Jerusalem contains it all: the religious and the national, and both peoples of this land. From Jerusalem, hope can emerge, because its residents, in spite of constant friction and unequal status, live together side by side – most of the time successfully and peacefully. More than a third of East Jerusalem’s residents work in the Israeli economy; the light rail runs right along the border between east and west; and we all meet each other regularly.

The future must include both full equality of basic rights for all city (and country) residents, and a measure of separateness between the two peoples through a flexible framework of arrangements. There will be no wall as a border, but in compliance with the will of the peoples and their right to self-determination, there will be two political entities. Alongside this, the historic quarters will remain – always shifting with the spirit of the age but based on a clear principle: each community maintains its boundaries and its distinct character. Freedom of movement will be preserved, but each national community will have sovereignty.

To that end, already now East Jerusalem residents must be allowed to develop their own national institutions, while at the same time ensuring their equal rights as city residents—until they eventually become citizens of a Palestinian state.

And one final note: unlike the proposal in the plan that the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa remain a Muslim worship site under Palestinian-Jordanian administration, with the “status quo” preserved, I believe Jews should not be denied the right to pray on the Mount—the holiest place according to our tradition. At present, Jews are discriminated against there in this regard (at least officially – though in recent years Jews have prayed on the Mount against the status quo). This must change. If we are committed to equal rights for all the city’s residents and the land’s citizens, those rights necessarily include freedom of religion and worship.

Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem, a home for all her sons and daughters.