The Israeli Peace Camp

This introduction raises two fundamental questions: the first one tries to give a definition of what a peace camp is. What we call “the peace movement” in Israel is, in fact, an indistinct galaxy, a world that subdivides into a multitude of organizations and individuals, some highly prominent, and others completely unknown. It is a complex realm, crisscrossed by multiple currents that are often at variance with one another. It resembles no other peace movement in the world. Four main tendencies can be distinguished within this heterogeneous movement in Israel. The second question is that of the decline in the movement's capacity to organize mass demonstrations. Some argue that it is a result of a host of sociological changes that have come about in Israeli society. But the weight of sociological factors is secondary to emotional factors. The feeling of fear inspired by the Palestinians, the lack of confidence in the “other” that a great majority of Israelis refuse to consider a “partner for peace” weighs far more heavily than any sociological variable. This is one of the book's central arguments.

Download Full-text

Maps with a Mission Post-1967

The Politics of Maps ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190076238.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 125-144

Author(s):

Christine Leuenberger ◽

Izhak Schnell

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Law ◽

Left Wing ◽

Peace Negotiations ◽

Human Rights Organizations ◽

Historical Justice ◽

Persuasive Power ◽

Historical Presence ◽

Peace Camp ◽

Scientific Standards

Post-1967, the “peace camp,” what are considered left-wing peace and human rights organizations, also actively used maps to put forth their geopolitical visions of an Israeli territory delimited by international law, while drawing on scientific cartographic conventions. Maps produced by the “peace camp” are informed by a range of very different discourses, which include concerns about Israel’s occupation strategies, its compliance or non-compliance with international law, its demography, the need for the recognition of Palestinians’ human rights and historical presence in the region, and the feasibility of particular territorial solutions. Organizations such as Peace Now, B’Tselem, the Geneva Initiative, and Zochrot (Remembering) used various visual and textual signifiers to communicate concerns in regard to territorial annexation, to propose territorial compromises for possible peace negotiations, and to challenge Hebrew topography by retracing alternative Arab topography in the search for historical justice. Such maps tended to invoke legal as well as scientific standards to give the maps authority and persuasive power in the attempt to increase the legitimacy of the geopolitical visions put forth.

Download Full-text

When peace is not enough: how the Israeli peace camp thinks about religion, nationalism, and justice

Choice Reviews Online ◽

10.5860/choice.51-5257 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 51 (09) ◽

pp. 51-5257-51-5257

Keyword(s):

Peace Camp

Download Full-text

Unmaking Palestine: On Israel, the Palestinians, and the Wall

Journal of Palestine Studies ◽

10.1525/jps.2005.35.1.25 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 25-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Graham Usher

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

International Law ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Current Policy ◽

Military Rule ◽

Late Nineteenth ◽

Full Force ◽

Peace Camp ◽

Partial Integration ◽

The Continuum

Placing Israel's separation wall in the continuum of the Zionist project in Palestine since the late nineteenth century, this essay sees the wall as the latest component of long-held policies of exclusion, control, and containment. In particular, it sees the wall as the culmination of Israel's quest to deal with its ““native problem,”” which had been largely solved with the 1948 war, but which returned full force with the 1967 conquests. The author traces the evolution of Israel's approach to this problem, from ““partial integration”” (and direct military rule) to separation (with indirect military rule and limited Palestinian self-government); settlement and land alienation have been constants. After deconstructing Sharon's current policy, the essay ends by examining Palestinian options for confronting a bleak future, focusing in particular on an as-yet inchoate strategy of nonviolence, campaigns for enforcing international law, and nurturing the most important potential alliance in the struggle against occupation: the Israeli peace camp.

Download Full-text