Israeli and Palestinian ‘springs’ needed to break stalemate

The two-day seminar (July 12 and 13) was overshadowed by the Middle East Quartet’s failure to achieve any progress in restarting the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at a meeting in Washington on Monday. Some participants voiced the idea that Israeli and Palestinian springs (paralleling this year’s Arab Spring) might be the solution, pushing leaders to return to the negotiating table.

The seminar’s 40 participants included current and former policymakers, government officials, diplomats, civil society organizations, academics and journalists from the Middle East, including representatives from Israel and Palestine, as well as from other parts of the world. Together they examined the prospects for peace in the region against the backdrop of the changing political landscape in North Africa and the Middle East as well as the role of new media and visual media and that of the creative community, in promoting the peace agenda through better people-to-people contacts.

In the opening session of the seminar, Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Zsolt Nemeth underlined the importance of reinvigorating all efforts aimed at seeking a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with a view to ensuring sustainable stability and peace in the region. “With the North African and Middle East region in upheaval, some would say now is not the right time to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. I believe the opposite is true.”

In a statement delivered by Kiyo Akasaka, UN under-secretary general for communications and public information, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon raised concerns about the continuing impasse in peace negotiations. “The historic changes in the region only emphasize the urgency for action,” he said. In his message Ban set as an immediate priority the return of Palestinians and Israelis to negotiations without preconditions. The UN secretary-general warned both parties to avoid steps that might damage trust. He underlined that continued expansion of settlements into the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is contrary to international law and Israel’s roadmap commitments. “The situation in Gaza is unsustainable. I continue to stress the need for the free and secure movement of people and of construction materials and other goods, and for the implementation of all aspects of Security Council Resolution 1860.” He also stressed the importance of progress on Palestinian unity, especially the Hamas and Fatah reconciliation process, to the peace effort.

The first panel discussion of the seminar was dominated by Monday’s news of the failure of representatives from the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States to release a joint statement on resuming the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister and a leading proponent of the peace process, stressed his concern over the stalled peace talks. Speaking as the chairman of the Geneva Initiative, an unofficial peace plan formally launched in December 2003, Beilin drew a pessimistic picture of the current situation in both Israel and Palestine. He claimed that the Palestinian’s plan to seek a vote on their statehood in the UN in September would not result in meaningful change.

In the same panel discussion Ambassador Riyad H. Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations, accused Israel of responsibility for the failure of the Quartet. He restated the Palestinian position of refusing to return to the negotiating table if Israel does not change its policy on the construction of Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories. In direct opposition to Beilin’s statement, Mansour claimed that a UN vote on Palestinian statehood would force Israel to return to the negotiating table. Another participant on this panel, Geoffrey Aronson, director of research and publications at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, pointed to possible practical problems around the expected UN decision on Palestinian statehood, focusing on the relationship between state-building and sovereignty.

A panel discussion focused on the implications of the Arab Spring on Israeli-Palestinian peace was the scene of hot debate. Afif Safieh, former Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations and the Russian Federation, underlined that the developments in Egypt and Syria had contributed to the reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas. He also portrayed the stalemate in the peace process as not related to the Arab states’ denial of the existence of the Israeli state, but instead to Israel’s position of refusing to recognize the existence of a Palestinian state. Safieh described the first Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation from 1987 to 1993, as a “Palestinian Spring.”

In evaluating messages for Israel emerging from the Arab Spring, Ron Pundak, director general at the Peres Peace Center in Tel Aviv, described the current Palestinian authority as more peaceful, and called upon Israelis to rush to the street to protest the position of the Israeli coalition government. Joe Lauria, a correspondent with The Wall Street Journal, expressed the belief that a possible reaction of Israeli and Palestinian people may be effective in pushing leaders back to the negotiating table. According to Abderrahim Foukara, Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera, Palestinians have been watching the Arab Spring not only with sympathy but also with empathy, and the democratic revolutions in the region will have positive effect on Palestine. Foukara expressed the possible effects of the Arab revolutions on Israel by raising this question: “What will happen if Egypt, Syria and Libya shift to democracy?”

In a panel dominated by discussion of the role of the media, including social media, in transforming societies, Riyadh El Hassan, chairman of the Palestinian News and Information Service, blamed “information dictatorship” for preventing change by supporting the status quo in the past. But he also emphasized that without the emergence of appropriate conditions for change, media can not create change. Focusing on the recent developments in Yemen, Hakim El Masmari, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post, claimed that President Ali Abdullah Saleh himself started to use media and social media before the wave of the Arab Spring had reached Yemen, and that was the reason why the uprising in that country still hasn’t come to a conclusion.

During another panel discussion titled “Putting a face on conflict: the role of social media, TV and photojournalism,” participants discussed both the positive contributions and the risks of social media. Anthony Mills, press and communications manager of the International Press Institute, listed the establishment of Al Jazeera-style 24-hour news-based television channels and the transition from traditional media to online and social media as an important change in the region. But he also highlighted new challenges, especially for editors, with regard to the fact-checking information from social media sources, which do not necessarily contain balanced, accurate reporting. He emphasized the vulnerability of social media to misinformation. Riadh Guerfali, co-founder of the collective blog Nawaat.org, shared the story of their years-long social media-based fight against overthrown Tunisian leader Bin Ali.

Nasser Shiyoukhi, a photojournalist for The Associated Press in Ramallah, accused Israeli security forces of trying to prevent him from reflecting the region’s realities to the world. Shiyoukhi’s presentation led to lively debate. On the other hand, Barak Ravid, a diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, claimed that Arab states are not issuing visas to Israeli journalists. Pundak preferred to portray both Israeli and Palestinian media as maintaining old habits in the coverage of the other side.

The final panel discussion, titled “Toward Peace: understanding the ‘other,’” included Samir El Youssef, co-author of “Gaza Blues,” Benny Ziffer, literary editor for Haaretz, Simon Shaheen, director of the Near Eastern Music Ensemble, and Samia Steti, programming director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, as well as the author of this article.