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New language - From solutions to reconciliation

By Marzuq Halabi

Friday, 04 December 2009 12:22

A continued attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using the language of “solutions” will not deliver anything except more floundering and failure. The language of solutions thus far, has revolved around procedural and technical approaches and a search for the “common interests” that the two peoples share. The result has been that all the given “solutions” to date were narrowed down to the level of what is current, daily and practical.

Despite the importance of these factors to the lives of the Palestinians in particular, but for Israelis as well, the deeper aspects of the conflict—namely the moral or implicit values that are basic factors in chronic national conflicts—have remained outside the discussion. The scope of negotiations ought to be expanded beyond the limits of procedural and immediate solutions to focus on a historic reconciliation between the two peoples. Such a shift in the language of the discussions could bring the real points of conflict and implicit values to the surface and afford a much greater degree of flexibility to the negotiation process.

The Oslo accords demonstrated that the quest for solutions is very limiting. The accords were aimed at alleviating the impact of the occupation and gradually improving the living conditions of Palestinians through measures and techniques adopted on the ground. This aspect may be important in itself, especially for those living under occupation, but it did not stem from a realisation of the need to change the wider context of the conflict. In fact, it simply reflected and replicated existing power structures. Consequently, there have been extensive forces—on the Palestinian as well as the Israeli side—that worked against it.

Moreover, the mindset that informed the Israeli approach to the Oslo Accords also included the reasons for its failure. This is evidenced by the fact that the accords were governed in essence by considerations that favoured Israeli security, which perhaps coincided with the immediate short-term interests of the Palestinians but not with their long-term need to ease the grip of the Occupation. Also, the accords assumed that the problem centres round the Occupation, which essentially meant overlooking the first stage of the Palestinian tragedy, i.e. from the Nakba to the Occupation in 1967.

The fundamental problem with the Oslo Accords was that the language of negotiations did not address the moral components of the conflict. It did not expand to include an Israeli acknowledgement of the historical injustice that the Zionist project and the establishment of Israel, as the national homeland of the Jews, brought upon the Palestinians. It did not address the history that created the refugee problem. In other words, the Oslo-style solution was not fair to the Palestinians, not in its approach to day-to-day life nor from a historical or moral point of view. It did not consider the basic factors underlying the conflict, such as the refugees, historical justice, Jerusalem and sovereignty.

As far as the Israelis are concerned, the Oslo Accords did not address Jewish existential fears nor the Holocaust and its impact on Israeli experience. From the Israeli point of view, they did not include anything except a series of measures and procedures that did not permeate to the core of the Jewish existence in the land of Israel, and did not develop a mechanism to grant that longed for legitimacy within the Arab world.

Palestinians and Israelis need to develop a language of reconciliation. Perhaps now is the time. Following the violence of the second Intifada and the latest war on Gaza, I cannot see how returning to the language of the Oslo Accords and the “two-state solution”, which has so far failed to contain the underlying components of the conflict, will advance the situation.

We must move towards a language of reconciliation which highlights history, ideology, morality, and self-preservation as the points of departure for achieving a settlement. A reconciliation process would address the Palestinian issue from its beginning with the Nakba, the refugee issue, the Palestinians’ loss of a homeland and their need for the Jews to recognise the historical injustice they inflicted on them. It would also address Jewish history and Jewish ties to the land, the Holocaust and fear of annihilation, and the Jews’ desire to be accepted by the Arab world.

The language of reconciliation encompasses an acknowledgement of sin, of responsibility and the possibility for forgiveness. Ultimately, it could allow the two people to break through the impasse and begin to read and write history from a common script.

Global Arab Network

* Marzuq Halabi is a journalist, writer and a political advisor. He writes a regular column for al-Hayat. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).