Rami NasrallahInternational Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) |
|
Community Responses to Peace Work and Leadership/Empowerment and Normalization:
“ Dialogue with Israel should be based on Palestinian interests. When the Israelis initiated meetings in Europe that were funded by the Europeans, the Palestinians sometimes didn't understand the intent of the meetings and we didn't ask ourselves the right questions about the relations with Israelis. We were literally followers. This creates extremely negative reactions. Part of the people become "traitors" who work for Israel and part become nationalists who are against normalization. Can I free anything from Israel if I don't meet with the Israelis? I can't. The idea for the creation of the IPCC was the creation of a Palestinian agenda, for the issues of peace, development and social and economic mobility. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Personal Transformation and Personal Story and Perceptions of the Other:
“ During my experience at the Hebrew University, as a Palestinian student from Jerusalem who did not know a word in Hebrew but learned the language and received a PhD, I started to understand who this enemy is. I used to think that the enemy was the soldier that checked my ID at the checkpoint. I used to think that the enemy was the settlers. I discovered that there is a civilian side to the Israelis that we might reach an understanding with. The time I spent at the university changed my view generally and my perception of the Israelis. We, as Palestinians, really don't know at all who the Israelis are. We know the Israelis as the soldiers at the checkpoints, we know them by the Hebrew words used in the streets, but do we know the Israeli civilian life? No. That was the motivation for building a comprehensive relationship among civilians. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ [We] try to look at the issue of youth as bearers of change. There are three generations among Palestinian society. One generation is the traditional nationalistic generation of leaders. This generation still has the revolutionary culture; it is not able to build the civil culture that will help us as Palestinians to build our society, economy and democracy. The second generation is the one that lived under the Israeli occupation. This generation is aware of democratic values but is still influenced by the traditional leadership, because there is no political solution. They are reluctant, in a way. They can't move forward because there is no solution to the political dispute. This causes them not to move from the revolutionary mentality to the more civil mentality. They are stuck in between the national movement and state building. This generation sometimes uses violence in order to provide legitimacy to their leadership. Because there is a struggle and occupation, fighting the occupation is a legitimate act by the Palestinians. This approach belongs to the revolutionary mentality. There is a third generation that I am afraid will follow the first and the second. I am afraid they will not be able to think about the future, and will use the same methods as the first and second generations. We have to avoid this. We have to provide this generation with the tools to use their energies in a positive way, not a negative one. We can fight and kill the Israelis, they can also kill us, but this will not contribute to our state building and social democracy building. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Vision and Leadership/Empowerment:
“ If you are an architect you should know how to use architecture to create change. If you come from the field of communications and media, you should know how to use your profession as a tool for change. The same is true for all the other professions. We are trying to bring all the young Palestinians together in order for them to establish their own agenda for change. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ Working on conflict resolution means we have to acknowledge that the conflict is not only political, but also social, economic and educational, regional and local. We need to figure out how to deal with all these conflicts within a single framework. Political conflict could be solved but the educational, intellectual, conflict will continue to exist, so the region should be in sync to be able to work it out. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Occupation and Leadership/Empowerment and Civil Society:
“ We keep thinking about occupation and its consequences, but we don't think about the ways that we can change it. For example, if Sharon got crazy one day and decided he was going to give us the West Bank and Jerusalem back, what would we do with it? This is our main concern: what is our role as Palestinians once occupation is over and how can we be prepared. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ I don't do this work for the benefit of Israelis or for peace. I do this for the benefit of Palestinians. The creation of a viable and democratic Palestinian State is a Palestinian interest and an Israeli interest at the same time. I work for the Palestinian interest. The Israeli interest doesn't concern me much. I am not concerned about loving the Israelis, embracing them and living with them in love and friendship. What concerns me is being able to play a part in achieving peace as a way of life. Nobody loves peace because he was born that way, or has romantic feelings towards peace. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ According to the polls, most Palestinians, 70 to 80 percent, support peace despite the conflict, the bloodshed, the curfews, humiliation at the checkpoints and the hard economic situation. The Israelis support peace by about the same percentage, despite racist mentalities of separation, of aggression and state terrorism. Israelis believe in peace, but there is a difference between believing in something and realizing it. We don't seek peace as a romantic concept, we seek practical solutions that have benefits and build bridges for peace. This is mainly an internal Palestinian issue. We can't achieve peace without a strong civil society, a free economy, universities, research and normal life. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Political Peace Processes/Political Leadership and Civil Society:
“ The leadership is not able to think of creative ideas about how to make a just peace. They know what to demand but they do not know how to build systems to achieve peace. Part of my duty is to think of the system. Peace is a whole system. Everything should work together in an integrative way. Economy, education, democracy, culture, trade, infrastructure, etc., should work together smoothly as a part of a peace agreement. The leaders are responsible for signing the agreements and we should find ways to implement them. Peace agreements will not tell us how to do it, rather what piece of land we will get. I assume that if we get all that we demand, we will ask the question, "What are we going to do with what we achieved?" I want to answer this question, irrespective of when the Israelis are going to leave us to establish our state in all the areas occupied in 1967. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Perceptions of the Other and Israeli/Palestinian Power Dynamics and Zionism:
“ Understanding them doesn't mean we have to love them. I don't want to love the Israelis or for them to love us, but there are interests. If we are strong as a society and as an economy, we can be part of the equation, if we are not strong we can't. Therefore what attracted me was how to learn from the Israelis how to build myself, how to enhance our collective intellect and qualifications and how to deal with issues not only based on sentimental considerations. Their return to this land was not based only on sentimental values; they had a complete agenda. Regardless of how this agenda affected me and of the tragedy it caused the Palestinians, it was an effective program. If we want to deal with the Israelis as equal counterparts we can't do it without absolute knowledge of the Israeli side. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ You should start with knowledge. There are three interconnected equations. Knowledge changes attitudes. Attitudes change images. Knowledge about the other side changes the image of the other side. It is very important to strengthen this equation. We sometimes draw conclusions about ourselves without having sufficient knowledge required. We sometimes create attitudes that limit us because we don't have sufficient knowledge. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ I didn't have doubts about my work itself; I had doubts about the timing. Sometimes I have a feeling that we are not prepared, as Palestinians and Israelis, for a historical compromise. Each side, especially the Israelis, has its interests as terms of reference before reaching an agreement. They are scared of demography, they want to keep occupying the land and that's why they want to pull out of Gaza, not because they want a real peace process. With this mentality of building walls and eliminating a threat, we will not have peace. They consider us a demographic and terrorist threat. They accuse us of not belonging to the area. Their solution is to build a wall. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Israeli/Palestinian Power Dynamics:
“ We and the Israelis are neighbors; one living in a posh villa with a swimming pool and guards, and the other living in a situation worthy of animals. […]The poor neighbor will always try to steal from his rich neighbor. In this situation there can be no peace. If the Palestinians don't reach the same level as Israelis, there will be no peace. My work aims to strengthen the Palestinian side on all levels. When we started working in Jerusalem, we met people who felt inferior to Israelis. We have the feeling that the Israelis are subcontracting the Palestinians. The Israeli peace activists approach peace as a kind of mental therapy. They say "Ah, there is a good Palestinian." ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Vision and Political Peace Processes/Political Leadership and Conceptions of Peace:
“ I differentiate between peace building and peace making. Peace making is an agreement with elites. Peace building is engaging the majorities on both sides to benefit from peace as a way of life, and as something that can contribute to them on a collective level and on an individual level. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
^ back to top
