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Reconciliation in the Making: Overcoming Competitive Victimhood Through Inter-group Dialogue in Palestine/Israel

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The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict Societies

Part of the book series: St Antony's Series ((STANTS))

Abstract

This chapter explores the phenomenon of competitive victimhood (CV), which refers to the dynamic in intractable conflicts when groups seek to establish that they have suffered more than their adversary. Significantly, CV has been found to severely impede conflict resolution and reconciliation. In order to overcome CV, the creation of a superordinate shared identity has been proposed. However, whilst previous studies have emphasised the need for an inclusive victim identity, this small-sample case study, drawing on interviews with members of a reconciliation-oriented group of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians, suggests that the key may lie in an identity construct that emphasises the shared humanity instead. Mutual humanisation and acknowledgement, facilitated through sustained inter-group dialogue, was not only found to reduce CV, facilitate reconciliation and foster a piercing vision of peace: Significantly, respondents explicitly expressed the desire to reject victimhood altogether as a defining part of their sense of self.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Author interview 09, 05/2015.

  2. 2.

    Interview 06, 27/07/2016.

  3. 3.

    Interview 04, 26/07/2016.

  4. 4.

    Interview 08, 23/08/2016.

  5. 5.

    Interview 05, 27/07/2016.

  6. 6.

    Interview 02, 25/07/2016.

  7. 7.

    Interview 08, 23/08/2016.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Interview 04, 26/07/2016.

  10. 10.

    Similarly, research has found that when Jews were led to think of the Germans and of themselves as common members of humanity, this identification with a superordinate category increased forgiving attitudes (see Shnabel et al. 2013, p. 364).

  11. 11.

    Interview 01, 25/07/2016, interview 05, 27/07/2016.

  12. 12.

    Interview 02, 25/07/2016.

  13. 13.

    Interview 05 27/07/2016.

  14. 14.

    Interview 04, 26/06/2016.

  15. 15.

    Interview 08, 23/08/2016.

  16. 16.

    Interview 08, 23/08/2016.

  17. 17.

    Interview 02, 25/07/2016.

  18. 18.

    Interview 04, 26/07/2016.

  19. 19.

    Interview 07, 22/08/2016.

  20. 20.

    Interview 04, 26/07/2016.

  21. 21.

    Interview 07, 22/08/2016.

  22. 22.

    Interview 02, 25/07/2016.

  23. 23.

    Interview 09, 05/2015.

  24. 24.

    Interview 02, 25/07/2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK

    Olga Burkhardt-Vetter

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  1. Olga Burkhardt-Vetter
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Carlos III University, Getafe, Spain

    Vincent Druliolle

  2. School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom

    Roddy Brett

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Burkhardt-Vetter, O. (2018). Reconciliation in the Making: Overcoming Competitive Victimhood Through Inter-group Dialogue in Palestine/Israel. In: Druliolle, V., Brett, R. (eds) The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict Societies. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70202-5_10

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