ABSTRACT
Mainstream conflict resolution theories developed in the post-Cold War era tend to employ ethnonational frameworks for explaining and resolving instances of political intractability and violence. Broadly, this literature suggests that incompatible ethnic and national claims can be reconciled through a peace agreement that is brokered by elite national and ethnic political representatives and through a peace process that secures the ethnonational ambitions of deeply divided communities. In the Israeli-Palestinian case, senior political representatives of both national camps have repeatedly sat down together at the bargaining table and the international community has provided extraordinary and unprecedented financial and political assistance in support of such negotiations. Despite these efforts, the conflict has escalated through the protracted mediation phases of the 1993 Oslo Accord and the subsequent 2003 Roadmap Initiative, resulting in increasing levels of insecurity for Israelis and Palestinians as well as rapidly deteriorating living conditions in the occupied territories. Rarely do explanations in the mainstream literature consider the consequences of excluding other voices and communities, which may not be represented by elite ethnonational interests, for the establishment and maintenance of a peace process.
