Developing a legal regime for the holy sites presents many complicated problems. Most notably, it will require the development of collaborative structures to address the complex logistics of administering the holy sites regime and involving the participation of a diverse range of interested parties (religious leaders, municipal officials, the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and international representatives). Many of these parties are deeply suspicious of one another – if not hostile. The challenges are, therefore: first to cultivate an atmosphere of trust and to develop effective collaborative structures necessary to foster the development of trust; and second, to develop the actual administrative structures. The object of this section is to describe the characteristics of these mechanisms and their adoption as an initial stepping stone in the process of creating a holy sites regime.

This idea is not original with the Holy Sites Project, nor new to the peace process. It was introduced in the Oslo agreement with the 1993 Declaration of Principles and succeeding agreements, such as Oslo II, the Hebron Protocol, and other instruments within the Oslo process. This involved the establishment of over 23 committees and structures working in the areas of security, law, civil administration, and economic development. These structures met with mixed results. Whereas security-related structures were largely problematic (with decreasing effectiveness in the period leading up to and at the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada), economic and civil structures met with better results.