Abstract
One emerging theme in peace psychology has been the need for a more differentiated perspective on the meanings and types of peace and violence. Recent work has sought to distinguish between direct and structural forms of peace and violence and their consequences for understanding behaviours and addressing different forms of violence. This change in emphasis marks a welcome move away from reliance on unidimensional constructs but nonetheless retains a focus on studying peace and violence as discernible features of external environments. Our argument in this chapter is that to understand the meanings of peace and violence, we have to examine how what is to be counted as peace or violence is negotiated within local contexts. From a discursive perspective, the focus is on how participants construct peace and violence and what they accomplish by doing so. Analysis of data from parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict shows that those involved mobilise highly varying versions of their actions and those of others. These versions construct peace and violence in particular ways and, in doing so, orient to accountability for actions occurring in the course of the conflict. For example, claims to peace can be criticised as failing to acknowledge or address previous wrongs, while descriptions of violence can be legitimised on the basis of comprising unexceptional behaviour or as being analogous to actions that have previously been praised not criticised. Peace and violence are seen as negotiated in interaction to achieve social outcomes rather than being straightforward descriptions of external actions and states.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abbas, M. (2016). Full text of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN. Retrieved from http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-pa-president-mahmoud-abbass-speech-at-the-un
American Foreign Policy Council. (2014). The world almanac of Islamism. American Foreign Policy Council/Rowman & Littlefield.
Christie, D. J., & Montiel, C. J. (2013). Contributions of psychology to war and peace. American Psychologist, 68, 502–513.
Christie, D. J., Tint, B., Wagner, R. V., & Winter, D. D. (2008). Peace psychology for a peaceful world. American Psychologist, 63, 540–552.
Debrix, F. (1999). Re-envisioning UN peacekeeping. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization, September 13, 1993. Retrieved February 19, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/middle_east/israel_and_the_palestinians/key_documents/1682727.stm
European Union. (2016). Advocate General Sharpston considers that the Court should annul the measures maintaining Hamas and LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organisations on procedural grounds. Retrieved from https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2016-09/cp160108en.pdf
Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace, and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6, 167–191.
Gavriely-Nuri, D. (2008). The ‘metaphorical annihilation’ of the Second Lebanon War (2006) from the Israeli political discourse. Discourse & Society, 19, 5–20.
Gavriely-Nuri, D. (2009). Friendly fire: War-normalizing metaphors in the Israeli political discourse. Journal of Peace Education, 6, 153–169.
Gavriely-Nuri, D. (2010). The idiosyncratic language of Israeli ‘peace’: A cultural approach to critical discourse analysis (CCDA). Discourse & Society, 21, 565–585.
Gavriely-Nuri, D. (2014). Talking peace—Going to war. Critical Discourse Studies, 11, 1–18.
Hakvoort, I., & Oppenheimer, L. (1998). Understanding peace and war: Review of developmental psychology research. Developmental Review, 18, 358–389.
Hall, R. (1993). How children think and feel about war and peace: An Australian study. Journal of Peace Research, 30, 181–196.
Heathershaw, J. (2008). Seeing like the international community: How peacebuilding failed (and survived) in Tajikistan. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 2, 329–351.
Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (1995). Retrieved from http://www.unsco.org/Documents/Key/Israeli-Palestinian%20Interim%20Agreement%20on%20the%20West%20Bank%20and%20the%20Gaza%20Strip.pdf
Jaspal, R., & Coyle, A. (2014). Threat, victimhood, and peace: Debating the 2011 Palestinian UN State Membership Bid. Digest of Middle East Studies, 23, 190–214.
Jefferson, G. (1990). List construction as a task and interactional resource. In G. Psathas (Ed.), Interactional competence (pp. 63–92). Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Kelman, H. C. (1999). The interdependence of Israeli and Palestinian national identities: The Role of the Other in Existential Conflicts. Journal of Social Issues, 55, 581–600. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00134
Kelman, H. C. (2007). The Israeli-Palestinian peace process and its vicissitudes: Insights from attitude theory. American Psychologist, 62, 287–303.
Lederach, J. P. (2003). Conflict transformation. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.
Levitt, M. (2006). Hamas: Politics, charity, and terrorism in the service of Jihad. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lubell, M. (2017). Israel legalizes settler homes on private Palestinian land. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-settlements-vote-idUSKBN15L2F3
McKinlay, A., & McVittie, C. (2008). Social psychology and discourse. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
McKinlay, A., & McVittie, C. (2011). Identities in context: Individuals and discourse in action. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
McKinlay, A., McVittie, C., & Sambaraju, R. (2012). ‘This is ordinary behaviour’: Categorization and culpability in Hamas leaders’ accounts of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51, 534–550.
McVittie, C., Sambaraju, R., & McKinlay, A. (2011). ‘There will only be lots of chit-chat’: How Hamas leaders and media interviewers handle controversial topics. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 44, 92–105.
Milton-Edwards, B., & Farrell, S. (2010). Hamas: The Islamic resistance movement. Cambridge: Polity Press.
National Public Radio. (2015). Transcript: NPR’s interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2015/03/20/394191261/transcript-nprs-interview-with-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu
Nets-Zehngut, R., & Bar-Tal, D. (2007). The intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict and possible pathways to peace. In J. Kuriansky (Ed.), Psychotherapy in a turmoil region: Reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis from a psychological perspective (pp. 3–13). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Rayner, T. (2014). Hamas leader says ‘stripping Palestinians of hope’ will lead to chaos. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@RaynerSkyNews/hamas-leader-warns-against-stripping-palestinians-of-hope-20c3aab595c5
Rudoren, J. (2015). Netanyahu says no to statehood for Palestinians. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-campaign-settlement.html?_r=0
Sales, L. (2014). ‘We want to make peace’ with Palestinians says Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s4093374.htm
Sambaraju, R., & Kirkwood, S. (2010). ‘We represent, here, the interests of the free world’: Accountability in Israeli leaders’ media talk on the Gaza Crisis (2008-2009). eSharp, 15, 133–156.
Selby, J. (2013). The myth of liberal peace-building. Conflict, Security & Development, 13, 57–86.
United Nations. (2016). Israel’s settlements have no legal validity, constitute flagrant violation of international law, Security Council reaffirms. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McVittie, C., Sambaraju, R. (2018). Constructing Peace and Violence in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. In: Gibson, S. (eds) Discourse, Peace, and Conflict. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99094-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99094-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99093-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99094-1
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)