ABSTRACT
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict commands significant international attention and study, even though it is not the largest, deadliest, or longest-lasting conflict in the world. Despite this attention and analysis, however, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains intractable. This chapter provides an overview of peace efforts over the past decades, arguing that several factors explain the lack of a resolution to the conflict twenty years after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Not only do Israelis and Palestinians understand the history and sources of the conflict differently, but, due to their different experiences of the conflict (“terrorism” on the Israeli side and “occupation” on the Palestinian side), Israelis and Palestinians tend to have different conceptions of “peace.” In addition to failing to adequately engage with both narratives, official peace efforts have falsely treated the conflict as static and Israeli and Palestinian societies as homogeneous monoliths, overlooking the shifting dynamics of the struggle and the multiple diversities within each population. The international community would do well to learn from Israeli and Palestinian nonviolent efforts for a “just and lasting peace,” which have persisted even in times of violent conflict, since the ongoing conflict will continue to affect regional and global politics until a durable resolution is reached.
