ABSTRACT
This chapter raises the question as to whether southern Mediterraneans see the Mediterranean as a unifying neighbourhood and whether they identify it as an undivided space around which the north and the south share common values. It theorizes that southern Mediterranean elites and civil societies alike do not perceive the Mediterranean as a uniting space and see more dividing fractures than merging values. In spite of the differences between governments and ruled, southern Mediterraneans, like those in the north, focus more on the contradictions and conflicts that pervade this zone; southern Mediterraneans believe that the partnerships, always initiated by the north, such as the Barcelona Process or the Union for the Mediterranean, are aimed only at protecting the north’s own interests to the detriment of the south. In sum, southern Mediterraneans regard the Mediterranean as a zone of perpetual conflict, domination, and inequalities, rather than a zone of peace and prosperity. The overall predominant, enduring perception is that the Mediterranean is a divided zone, where the Judeo-Christian north still dominates the Muslim south and prevents it from ever emerging as an equal partner.
