Walid Salem
The word “narrative” is a very ambiguous one. Some use it to speak about the joint perceptions and collective memories in a society to differentiate between “us” and the “others” and thus express a concentration on a neo-tribalism that is no longer relevant in the new globalized context. Others use it to discover the diversity of different narratives within a society between one group to another, according to age, sex, ethnicity or any other such variable. This second concept of “narrative” helps to place it in a position not against the other, but rather to find “bridgeable narratives” shared by groups in the same society or across a divide. It also helps identify “conflicting narratives” between groups inside or outside a society.
At the same time, the narrative approach is risky if it adopts a position that a peace agreement between two sides in conflict is not possible until the two publics come to an understanding of each other’s narratives. One can imagine how long a peace process will take–if it can ever succeed–if it is made conditional on a bottom-up process to understand each other’s narratives. A different approach might be to make it sufficient to work with decision-makers, academics and community leaders on both sides to bring them to an understanding of each other’s narratives. If achieved, this will no doubt help politicians to reach agreements on the issues at stake. It will help academics to develop new educational curricula that will include the other’s narratives, and teachers to achieve an inclusive pedagogy. And it will help community leaders, including the sectorial leaders, to become actors for reconciliation rather than incitement and enmity. This is all built on understanding ! the narratives of the other–without necessarily having to agree with them.
With regards to the specifics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one might find that a minority of Palestinians recognizes the narrative of the other even while a majority raises the question: why should a Palestinian try to understand the narrative of the other toward the same land? It was David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, who said that, “if I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: We have taken their country.” This frank assertion shows that it was the Palestinians that paid the price for the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 (and suffered another massive deportation in 1967).
Continue reading ‘The narrative in the Israeli-Palestinian context’