Background: The Centrality of RefugeesIsrael-Palestine is a region comprised of refugees from both sides, whose experience and identity construction lies at the very core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many Jewish-Israelis emigrated from Europe, after they survived the Holocaust, or from North Africa and Asia, where they were persecuted by their Arab governments and communities. During the 1948 war, and later on in 1967, many Palestinians became internal refugees (within Israel) or external refugees (to neighboring Arab countries) when they were either forcibly expelled from their homes or fled due to fear of the Israelis. To this day, many of them still live in refugee camps. However, before the war of 1948, for a period of time, many of these Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis were also neighbors. This rich and complex parallel history has not become part of the normative Israeli and Palestinian discourse. Palestinians, for the most part, want to speak only of "what was" prior to 1948 or 1967, and Israelis only of "what came to be" after each war. Clearly, these subjective constructions have also social and political reasons and aims: the Palestinians want to restore what was in Palestine prior to 1948 as part of their solution (eg., the "right of return"), while the Israelis want to legally establish what became the reality after the 1948 and 1967 wars. Now, as many of those on both sides who lived through the 1948 and 1967 wars near the end of their lives, it is essential that they share with each other—and with their children and grandchildren—their respective experiences, and the independent identities constructed out of those experiences, so that a compromise may be established based on inclusion rather than exclusion of the "Other". Whatever will be the legal and political solution to the issues of borders and to Palestinian refugee resettlement, only when each side acknowledges the difficult-to-confront realities and shared human experiences of the other will true reconciliation be achieved. The Need for a Truth and Reconciliation ProcessThe issue of refugees for both Palestinians and Israelis is so emotionally charged and complex, and so central to the identities that have energized the conflict, that no broad political settlement will likely be sustained without addressing the issue on a more fundamental, psycho-social level. This is a critical role for a future Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Israel and Palestine. The experience of South Africa shows that the TRC process can provide essential social and psychological healing (as a bottom-up process) in parallel to formal, top-down political peace agreements. Events of the last four years in Israel and Palestine only highlight the need for a similar, bottom-up peace process, involving face-to-face encounters between Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian peoples, especially those who feel most strongly about the refugee issue. That being said, such a process will be anything but easy, precisely because of the political pressures that exist at the national levels. Moreover, a national process that ignores local cultural distinctions, refugee experiences, and a range of potential local solutions, may actually undercut the possibility of broader reconciliation. A New MethodologyFor this reason, the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME) has developed a new "localized" methodology for approaching Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. The methodology focuses on recording oral histories to document Palestinian refugees who fled, or were forced out of specific locations within Israel and Jewish-Israeli immigrants who settled in those same locations, many of them after fleeing the Holocaust or persecution in Arab lands. It also involves recording local Palestinian-Israeli encounters that bring together a small number of such families—up to three generations each—over several days. This new methodology is based on three broad assumptions:
In recent years, some Jewish-Israeli scholars (e.g. Kimmerling, 1992, 1995; Morris, 1987, 1993; Pappe, 1988) have begun publicly addressing the stories behind the expulsion/ fleeing of Palestinians from their homes during the 1948 and 1967 wars. They have examined the part played by Jewish-Israelis, and the effects of these actions on Israeli and Palestinian society. These accounts challenge what has been traditionally taught in Israeli educational and academic institutions. At the same time, Palestinian scholars (e.g. Kanaana, 1992; Kanaana, & al-Kabi, 1987; Khalidi, 1959; Khalidi et al., 1992) have also explored some of these issues. Some of this work has resulted in “memorial books” (Slyomovics, 1998), which provide a picture of the political, cultural and architectural aspects of Arab villages and neighborhoods that were either depopulated or destroyed by the Israelis. The PRIME approach builds upon a review of this research and other data that deal with the experiences of Palestinian refugees and of Jewish-Israelis who were once refugees themselves. Initial Work (2001-2004)Beginning in 2001, PRIME initiated a pilot project that successfully tested oral history and video taping techniques involving interviews with Palestinian refugees from Haifa and Jewish-Israeli immigrants to Haifa who had fled persecution (Bar-On, 2004). From 2002-2004, PRIME selected two localities to continue oral history interviewing where Jews and Arabs used to live together prior to the 1948 war—Haifa (expanding the work of the pilot project) and the Beit Jubreen areas [1]. In order to locate interviewees, PRIME used:
Researchers, working together from both communities, provided information on the history of the places and people to be interviewed. Two Palestinian and two Jewish-Israeli interview teams conducted audio or video-taped interviews with selected Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis in their homes. In the case of videotaping, each team also included a videographer. These personal interviews were conducted in the individual’s native language. The interviews used a modified “life story” approach (Rosenthal, 1993), and focused on all periods of the person’s life. However, special emphasis was given to the experiences leading up to, during, and immediately following the 1948 or 1967 wars. During the interviews, the individuals were also given the opportunity to show photographs or other artifacts and talk about the personal importance that these objects have for them. By the end of 2004, approximately 300 interviews (150 Palestinian refugees from Haifa and Beit Jeubreen, and 150 Jewish Israelis who immigrated to these areas to flee persecution) will have been recorded. In addition, based on what was learned from the life story interviews, PRIME also conducted a joint encounter between willing Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis, including three generations in each family, who told their life stories. The overall goal of the encounter was to explore avenues of mutual recognition and reconciliation between the two peoples by focusing on shared localized histories, rather than by engaging in an abstract dialogue about political issues. In the encounter, Palestinians and Israelis first met separately for one day, then together for 2-3 days. The participants were asked to share their personal histories with one another, to visit each other's homes, to learn the history of the regions, and to reflect on how their experience could enhance acknowledgement and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. Each group was co-planned and co-facilitated by Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli facilitators. The encounter was also videotaped so that group facilitation, the themes of importance to the group, and the group dynamics could be analyzed. These videotapes are also in the process of being edited into a film by a joint team of professional Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers. All of the above work from 2001 to 2004 was funded by a grant of $344,440 from the Wye River Foundation. As of December, 2004, all Wye River funds will have been expended. 2005In the next phase of the project, PRIME will undertake:
Working together with a methodologist and an oral history expert, PRIME will develop a framework for appropriate indexing to encode the data for easy access and analysis using a multi-media database. Then, a statistical sampling of the oral histories, encounters, and associated maps, photographs and other data will be evaluated using the indexed database. PRIME will conduct preliminary analysis of the data and gather a team of experienced Truth and Reconciliation ‘partners’ from regions that have undertaken ‘localized’ Truth and Reconciliation processes—‘partners’ who have worked together on the ground in such places as South Africa, Rwanda, and France-Germany, to share the lessons they have learned from their experiences. This gathering will review PRIME's preliminary analysis of data and undertake an internal evaluation of the project. This consultation with TRC ‘partners’ will also assist PRIME in the development of criteria for evaluating the psychological and social impacts on Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians who provided oral histories and participated in encounters, as well as the wider value of using oral history and encounter techniques developed through the project in building trust and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. For example, attitudes of tolerance among individuals exposed to the database of oral history interviews and among participants in project encounters will be compared to attitudes of those who did not share these experiences. Evaluators will also explore differing concepts of locality that emerged from interviews and encounters: while for the Arab-Palestinians, the actual place of their homes, village or town is the crucial parameter, for the Israeli-Jews, their land, as a national home, is the crucial parameter. These and other differences that surface from database analysis will be considered in refining the reconciliation process. Based on these lessons learned, PRIME will undertake an additional 40 oral history interviews (20 Palestinians and 20 Israelis) and one encounter. These will also focus on additional localities where there may be less of a history, than in earlier interviews, of coexistence or of communication between Israeli-Jews and Palestinians. PRIME will then analyze the data from these additional interviews and encounters, evaluate effectiveness and scalability, and develop a preliminary plan for the structuring and eventual implementation of a broader Truth and Reconciliation process among Palestinians and Jewish-Israelis. Finally, an intimate gathering of civil society members in the region will be organized to explore receptiveness to the methodologies and implementation strategies identified PRIME for a future Truth and Reconciliation process in the region. Indicators of project success
Project Timeline (2005)
Follow-on PlansSuccessful use of "localized" interviews and encounters in building attitudes of reconciliation and in potentially finding local resolutions to conflicting claims will provide the foundation for follow-on efforts to gain support for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission based on techniques tested and proven during the one year evaluation effort. Such follow-on efforts will likely include:
Project FundingInitial work (2001-2004) was funded with $344,440 in U.S. State Department
from the Wye River Foundation. PRIME also raised an additional $404,000 in
private donations and in-kind donations (primarily in the form of professional
salaries and organizational overhead). Project ManagementPRIME's co-directors—Sami Adwan, Prof. of Education, Bethlehem University and Dan Bar-On, Prof. of Social Psychology, Ben Gurion University—serve as project directors. PRIME’s work is based in part on Prof. Bar-On's pioneering research on methods of reconciliation between the children of Holocaust survivors and perpetrators and how these techniques (called To Reflect and Trust or TRT) might be applied in other post-conflict situations (Bar-On, 2000). PRIME's projects also draw much from Prof. Adwan's research on Palestinian and Israeli school textbooks and his experience with people-to-people dialogues in the region (Adwan and Firer, 2004; Adwan and Bar-On, 2004). PRIME does not take political positions, beyond favoring a Two State Solution between Israel and Palestine. It focuses on projects that will help create a social infrastructure capable of sustaining peace between Israelis and Palestinians in parallel to the implementation of formal political agreements that will enable the establishment of a Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel. Footnotes[1] The choice of these locations was not coincidental: Haifa is know as a town of positive mutual experiences between Jews and Arabs prior to 1948 and Beit Jubreen was an area in which Jewish and Palestinian farmers used to communicate prior to 1948.
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