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The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Internal Challenges on the Road to Peace

Event Series

(NYT)

Featured

Public Event | December 7, 2010
Israel (Un)Divided: Internal Conflicts and Prospects for Peace

This panel event examined various levels of internal dynamics in Israel – divides within the current government and coalition, fissures within Israeli society more broadly, and how these internal dynamics impacted the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel's own relations with the United States.

Countries: Israel, Palestinian Territories | Issue Areas: Conflict Analysis and Prevention | Specialists: Scott Lasensky

Public Event | September 29, 2010
Towards a Palestinian State: Is Institutional Building Succeeding?

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government is midway through an ambitious two-year plan to build the necessary infrastructure for a viable Palestinian state.  One-year on, our panelists assess its progress. This event, co-sponsored with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, marked the launch of a new U.S. Institute of Peace series on The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:  Internal Challenges on the Road to Peace.

Countries: Israel, Palestinian Territories | Issue Areas: Mediation and Facilitation, Rule of Law | Specialists: Neil Kritz, Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen
 
Look out for more information on upcoming events and publications in this series. 
Questions about the series? Email internal-dynamics@usip.org

Project Chairs

Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen | Program Officer
U.S. Institute of Peace

Certain domestic Israeli and Palestinian concerns—from state institution-building and secular-religious divides, to coalition politics and educational reform—have strong implications for the broader conflict, and for international efforts towards a peaceful resolution.  Through a series of panels and publications in 2010-2011, USIP will explore such critical yet oft-neglected internal dynamics.

 Series Goals

  • Analyze issues of internal significance to Israelis and Palestinians and their implications for achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict;
  • Promote debate and discussion around the impact of these issues on the ability to build consensus toward a negotiated solution among the Israeli and Palestinian publics;
  • Contribute to the field of analysis and awareness surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by emphasizing the interplay between top-down and bottom-up processes

About this Series

With the resumption of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians in September of 2010, focus on the conflict became centered once again on government-to-government peace process efforts and the paradigm of bilateral – and in some cases multilateral – relations and negotiations.  Such an emphasis, while key to efforts to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian and Arab conflict, can obscure the multitude of challenges that the individual parties face internally and the socio-political dynamics that contribute to the life of the conflict yet potentially offer opportunities for resolving it. 

Whether it is the growing tensions in Israel between the Jewish and Arab citizens of the state, or deepening political and ideological divides between secular and religious segments of society, the split in Palestinian leadership between Hamas and Fatah,  factious politics within the ruling parties, or the challenges of building a state within such a fractured and fraught context, such issues, call for serious consideration.

Upcoming panel topics for 2011 include:

Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance: The Budrus and "BDS" Effect

Arab Citizens of Israel: Assessing Mintority-State Relations

Palestinian Politics: The Conflicts Within

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