Abstract
The Palestinian–Israeli conflict, now over 66 years old, has witnessed many attempts at reaching a political solution, because the conflict has always attracted the attention of regional and global political decision makers. This conflict and the lengthy negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians from the Madrid conference through the Oslo Accords to the recently terminated peace talks have been studied by many scholars, who have examined the peace-building attempts from many different angles.
What Joyce Dalsheim provides through her new work, Producing Spoilers: Peacemaking and the Production of Enmity in a Secular Age, is different: it is provocative in terms of the approach that has been adopted in the cases examined in the book. Unlike much of the literature that examines the Palestinian–Israeli conflict, this book gives little attention to the usual debate over the historical context of the conflict, although at one point it does examine the conflicting narratives. By shedding light on unpopular local efforts and initiatives in Palestine and Israel that work beyond what she calls it ‘mainstream’ peace-building norms, Dalsheim discusses the concepts of heterotopia, deconstructing nationalism, sovereignty and human liberation.
The author discusses how unsuccessful the mainstream peace-building efforts of the international community and the representatives of the Palestinians and the Israelis have been, because they were constructed on political concepts that adhered to the necessity of national and land divisions as an acceptable basis of any solution. She also presents stories about attempts to achieve local solutions by local Palestinians and Israelis, who are seeking peace in a different way. These attempts are characterized by their focus on family and local community interests, or by their belief in the importance of living in the land rather than controlling and having the sovereignty over it.
Other ideas the book presents are in the shape of suggested solutions that encourage seeking combined or alternative narratives for both Palestinians and Israelis, or advising the Palestinians to give up their aspirations for independence and self-determination and even accept being second-class Israeli citizens with no right to vote in return for gaining freedom of movement within the state of Israel.
The book is divided into seven chapters, each containing an argument on a controversial topic within the Palestinian–Israeli context such as secularism, recognition, historical narratives and anachronism. The book would be of interest to students studying the conflict, peace activists and politicians.
Chapter 1 takes on the notion of nationalism, arguing that a nation is a constructed and built concept. The book equates the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas with the radical Jewish settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, both of whom the author calls ‘spoilers’ of mainstream peace process efforts. In the argument, the author considers that although these spoilers are not part of mainstream peace building, they are part of peacemaking efforts because they set the boundaries of acceptable solutions.
In Chapter 2, the author tries to show the necessity of taking steps towards the deconstruction of national identity as vital to reaching alternative solutions that are not based on nationalism and territorial sovereignty. Yet she defends the importance of recognizing cultural differences. She discusses the Palestinian and Israeli journeys towards recognition, arguing that there are individuals on both sides who share the belief in living in the territory rather than controlling it.
Chapter 3 addresses the different histories that the Palestinians and Israelis narrate on which they base their claim on the land of Palestine. The author explores the history of the old Jewish community of the city of Hebron, seen as an ‘ideal’ place in which Jews and Arabs used to live on good terms before the creation of the State of Israel. She also examines the account of Dennis Ross, the American diplomat, who is seen by many Palestinians as a biased mediator, and his approach to the different histories.
In Chapter 4, Dalsheim addresses the concept of achieving human liberation, referring to Mohamad Bamyeh’s argument about reaching a common narrative as a means of overcoming conflicting narratives and reaching possible solutions to the conflict. Furthermore, she argues that an idea of human liberation that is not based on nationalism should take into consideration all of the groups involved, including those who ‘live in the past’, meaning the religiously motivated Jewish settlers in occupied Palestinian land.
Chapter 5 contains examples of local solutions based on maintaining good neighbour relations between Palestinians and Israelis at the local level for the benefit of family and local community rather than for the interest of the nation as a whole. The author applies Foucault’s term ‘heterotopia’ to these initiatives as she sees them as a different sort of solution that contributes to peace building from the bottom up.
In Chapter 6, Dalsheim discusses a controversial suggestion from Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh in which he questions the worth of struggling for an independent Palestinian state in the face of the agony in which the Palestinians are living. He suggested instead that Palestinians should consider temporarily giving up their quest for self-rule and their aspirations of state creation and continue to live under Israeli control, becoming second-class citizens of the State of Israel without having the right to vote in return for freedom of movement and other requirements of daily life. In this chapter, the author goes even further in discussing the problems in the popular sovereignty concept, concluding that such a concept is theoretical and fictional, and that it can be problematic to adopt the fiction, as it could jeopardize the ability to achieve peace, justice and human liberty.
In Chapter 7, the author concludes her book by suggesting that there is a repeated pattern that can be found in the stories of initiatives of bottom-up peace building. They all challenge the mainstream peace-building approach that complies with the international political norms that see the nation-state as an acceptable political order. This pattern revolves around the idea of focusing on finding spaces for coexistence, and placing local community needs over concepts of sovereignty and nationalism.
Overall, the book advocates provocative ideas that would be unpopular, and even unacceptable, to Palestinians and Israelis alike. The notion of destroying national identity and nationalism to reach alternative solutions that do not comply with the mainstream national aspirations of Palestinians and with what the majority of Israelis would accept could be characterized as unrealistic.
Although the book looks at alternative solutions to the Palestinian–Israeli conflict, the bulk of it focuses on what the Palestinians could possibly do to reach peace solutions by adopting alternative measures and approaches to peace building. Most of examples in the book support the concepts being advocated, such as the deconstruction of nationalism, finding heterotopic spaces, or non-hegemonic political structures, concerning the necessary steps that the Palestinians should take. The book provides only a limited examination of the possible decisions that Israeli society could make to reach such solutions.
The author has not discussed in depth the likelihood of the creation of an independent Palestinian state on the lands that have been occupied since 1967; the alternative solutions discussed in her work always include the possibility of Jewish settlers being able to continue living in the West Bank. She has not examined how Israeli identity should be deconstructed to allow for alternative peace solutions. Furthermore, she has not examined the possibility of Palestinians – including the refugees, who are the major component of the Palestinian cause – going back to live in the homes they were forced to leave in 1948.
Although Dalsheim declares that she does not attempt to provide a narrative to the conflict, she manages to introduce a glimpse of both nations’ narratives. However, the book’s lack of grasp of the historical dimension of the conflict itself would seem to simplify the conflict and amplify a few attempts that are based on personal initiative and not national consensus.
The book is recommended for students and scholars of the Middle East and peace and conflict resolution studies.