Developing agency through peacebuilding in the midst of intractable conflict: The case of Israel and Palestine

Abstract

This paper discusses the presence of ‘peacebuilding islands’ within civil society as potential agents of transformation in the midst of intractable conflict. Focusing on the particular case of the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict, the argument stems from a deconstruction of the legacy of national myopia perpetuated through social and political institutions and the capacity of individuals to impact them. Inspired by feminist organisations and the personal experience of feminist peace activists in Israel and Palestine, the author discusses the intersection of a variety of peacebuilding and educational initiatives as paramount to the building of a culture of peace in the region. The study embraces strategies that challenge the structural, socio‐cultural and inter‐personal status quo as part of a multi‐layered effort at transforming conflict in the Middle East.

Keywords:

• Peacebuilding
• Agency
• Israeli‐Palestinian conflict
• Feminism
• Peace education
• Contact programmes
• Social change

Notes

1. This is a term defined by Anne Goodman as a ‘complex interlocking set of problems that will have to be solved together if they are to be solved at all’ (Goodman, 1999), and seemed appropriate to use in this context.

2. The Zionist movement began in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland under the leadership of Theodore Hertzl. The goal of Zionism was to establish ‘for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law’ (Kjeilin, 2003).

3. Another paradox emerges in this context: Conflict tends to springboard women's liberation from traditional social constructions of gender, whereas it also embeds hyper‐masculinities through socially sanctioned militarisation or gorilla violence, which is indeed the case in both Israel and Palestine. (Sharoni, 1999; Firer, 2003; Rubenberg, 2001; inter alia).

4. The loss of women's rights to ‘exercise leadership on the political and social levels, rights won in periods of conflict’ (Bop, 2003) is discussed by women's rights activist, Codou Bop as ‘the most extreme and most long‐lasting of their losses’ (Bop, 2003).