The “Israel-Palestine conflict” has been going on for more than seven decades in which the “Middle East” and many others around the world have considered the conflict as a central and defining historical, political, and personal event. Unfortunately, many efforts have failed to bring about a clear solution of this confrontations; the situation has been full of sporadic hostility, diplomatic crises, and uncertainty (Rehan, 2023). Despite far greater focus on military, political or legal aspects, this dissertation uses constructivist epistemology to examine the less obvious causes of non-peace identity, memory, symbols, and needs.
Reference materials and sample assignments are shared to help students gain clarity on academic formats and improve their writing approach. As a trusted assignment helper in UK, we ensure guidance is provided without compromising originality. The Peace In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Assignment Sample demonstrates proper structure, analysis, and logical presentation of findings. These materials are strictly meant for reference and learning purposes only.
The leading source of the conflict is “Zionist and Palestinian national movements,” which arose in the second half of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th centuries in connection with the process of decolonization of the Middle East within the framework of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent British colonialism (Zhao, 2024). The actual armed conflict starts with the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the creation of the State of Israel with it which resulted in the displacement of Palestinians in their hundreds of thousands. Since then, different wars, uprisings known as Intifadas and peace initiatives have formed the present conditions of political and social life on the territories of modern Israel and Palestine.
Nevertheless, even possessing numerous intercession attempts like the Oslo Accords, Camp David Summit, and Road Map for Peace the parties cannot conclude an agreement. This has put successive generations of Israelis and Palestinians in a state of limbo, being afraid and depressed most of the time.
Research Aim and Objective
Research Aim
The main research questions of this dissertation shall seek to establish the various obstacles that hinder the attainment of sustainable peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the constructivist theory.
Research Objective
The research objectives of this following research are described as follows.
Problem statement
Most of the researches of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are based on material interests and power sharing regarding resources, borders, or leadership; yet the psychological, semiotic, and psychological components are left out (Nazir et al. 2022). Traditional approaches to conflict management do not fully recognize these enduring conditions, and thus short-term solutions are reached by which conflicts can be reignited under symbolic or psychological pressure.
From this perspective, the study postures that constructivism’s focus on identity, history, and historical trauma is useful in understanding why the state of peace has not been attained despite many attempts.
This research has a relevancy to the “peace and conflict” studies field by moving away from numerous structural and material factors that influence behaviors and turning the attention to ideational and emotional factors. Taking “Galtung and Burton’s theories” as the theoretical framework into consideration, the research pays much attention to the concept of defining peace not only as a lack of war but as justice, dignity, and recognition (Ballesteros et al. 2022). It also opens a new practical and theoretical agenda for those policy makers, diplomats, and academics interested in the search of the peace in the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Constructivism is an approach in world politics as advanced by “Alexander Wendt” leading to the presupposition that “social reality” is constituted through interaction. “Constructivism Theory” plays an important role that helps to understand the conflicts that raised in case of “Israeli-Palestinian” (Olsson, 2023). This theory is one type of “learning theory” by which one individual person can easily construct understanding and knowledge by interactions and the experiences. This type of theory also indicates that the learners are able to build the concepts based on the gathered new information and the active engagements. Consequently in the meaning of the “Israeli Palestinian conflict” it means that how each party perceives its-self and its opponent and how each party perceives history means the reality of the conflict.
The “Galtung s theory” is one type of concept that helps in the development of “structural violence” from the economic, political, and social structures. “Johan Galtung’s theory of positive and negative peace” is quite enlightening in providing a clear division. “Negative peace” lacks social interactions such as fighting and killing while positive peace involves elements like justice, fairness as well as healing (Oliveira, 2023). Galtung explains “acts of violence” that exist in the structures. “John Burton” classified some needs to be invariable requirements for any form of sustainable peace and those include identity, recognition, participation, etc. When these needs are not met, conflict is almost greatly expected. Basing on the two “lenses of constructivism”, this research aims at gaining a broader perspective of the challenges to peace.
As the study is focused on the experiences, thoughts and perceptions of the participants, the “research design” is qualitative and the analysis “constructivist” (Nazir et al. 2022). It entails the collection of “secondary data”, such journals, academic articles, speeches, media and other data collected by other researchers. In terms of method, “thematic analysis” is employed in the research in order to identify specific themes about post-stroke identity, symbolism, and unfulfilled human need.
|
Introduction |
Description of the background, “constructivism theory” |
|
Chapter 1 |
Discussion of the “structural and symbolic challenges” |
|
Chapter 2 |
Discussion of identity and human needs using the framework of John Burton’s |
|
Chapter 3 |
Description of historical analysis and contemporary |
|
Chapter 4 |
Brief discussion on some of “external threats and constructed notions” |
|
Chapter 5 |
Identification of some policy and recommendations |
Table 1: Roadmap
(Source: Self-created in MS Word)
Cartesian divides in the aspects of symbolic as well as structural variables characteristic of the conflict between “Israel and Palestine” make it difficult to progress towards a lasting peace. “Memory, trauma, identity, and narrative” can be considered as the types of symbolic barriers in therapy. Structural factors incorporate political systems, security forces, displacements, economic disparities, homes, and military occupation.
That is why it is sometimes difficult to solve the symbolic problems as those are connected with emotions and beliefs. For instance, for the Palestinian Arab, such key events as the Nakba of 1948 becomes a traumatic event when they were deprived of their land and dignity (Popowski, 2023). To a significant extent, the Israelis live in anticipation of the next genocide due to the impact of the holocaust that led to a culture that believes that security is inevitable and paramount.
Conflict seems to be an almost inevitable part of human existence and to express this idea. “Michael Kearney” emphasizes the “dichotomy of conflict” as war and peace in the work Vision, Mind, and Conflict. The “Dual Brain” and “Interpersonal Universals” that define competitiveness in war and cooperation in peace.
“Galtung’s structural vision” of peace when viewed through constructivist lens provides a very elaborate and complex explication of the long-standing conflict such as the one in the “Middle East, Israel and Palestine” (Kirabo Petersson, 2022). Galtung came up with a new perspective of analysing peace, different from the definition of the lack of conflict, proposing the negative and the positive peace. Negative peace is absence of war while positive is elimination of the roots of war and establishment of conditions that are peaceful, just and reconciliatory. These ideas are supported by constructivist theory that provides the understanding of the social construction and assimilation of combat stories and perceptions based on past and present experiences.
“Galtung’s Triad: Direct, Structural, and Cultural Violence”
According to Galtung, the “culture dimension” consists of three cycles of violence namely; direct, structural and cultural. “Direct violence” indicates the physical aggressions like terrorism activities, war, etc. In the Israeli-Palestinian context, this includes rocket attacks, bombing, and open combats (Ashraf and Baqi, 2023). “Structural violence” can be described in rigid policy and culture standards that work to place one group in an inferior position to the other. Some of the examples of this conflict involve access to resources, separations involving the construction of fences such as the “apartheid wall, checkpoint systems, and permit system” of movement for Palestinians mainly in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Lastly, “cultural violence” entails the stories, beliefs and images that support or rationalize the two preceding kinds of violence, like extremism of nationalist rhetoric or religious fundamentalism to support territorial calamities.
It needs to be noted that these forms of violence are interrelated since they build on each other (IBOBO and ETEMIKE, 2024). For instance, the structural disadvantage brings about animosity resulting in actual physical force and violence that in turn is rationalized through cultural narratives of both parties. In this case, constructivism is useful in demystifying these violence’s as social and political productions that are discursively and educationally produced and disseminated through media.
Discussion on Constructivism and understanding the “Social Construction of Conflict”
Constructivism, one of the distinctive approaches to international relations, asserts that some of the essential components of the world including security dangers, identities, and interests – are not inherent but socially built (Junior, 2022). In the case of Israeli-Palestinian relations, identification of the “other” is shorthand for historical saga, affective recall and political discourses.
Get assistance from our PROFESSIONAL ASSIGNMENT WRITERS to receive 100% assured AI-free and high-quality documents on time, ensuring an A+ grade in all subjects.
For instance, optimism in changing the behavior of the other is influenced by collective memory of the holocaust informing an existential security lens among the Israelis. Likewise, cultural identity of Palestinian people is associated with the catastrophe known as the Nakba of 1948 with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced and continues to be perceived in Palestinian society as an injustice and a loss of the land (Khalid, 2022). These historical experiences define how each party perceives the other: while the Israelis are convinced that the Palestinians are a security threat, the latter sees the former as settlers and colonizers. These perceptions are therefore not reflections of current actualities of the world but are sustained by school education, national rituals, and images.
Positive vs. Negative Peace: The Unresolved Conflict
The current state of affairs in the region of “Israel and Palestine” is the perfect epitome of a negative peace. Even if large-scale violence may decrease for a period of time the underlying problems, namely the settlements issue, displacement of Palestinians, lack of their state and political and trust relations, stay acute (McInerney and Archer, 2023). Yes, positively-orientated peace or positive peace is possible when the societies’ security issues are also in addition considered the society structure issues, cultural representations, and people’s feelings and symbolic requirements of both parties.
Although the “Oslo Accords” was viewed as a heavenly solution, it didn’t succeed partially because of this. The large part of them emphasized political channels and state constructionism, but failed to address “history, respect, and recognition”. This is why absence of these elements will mean that peace is nothing more than a mere abstinence from hostilities.
Both collective “memory and trauma” take significant part in the peace process, in the continuation of the war. The Holocaust, therefore, is not an event in history for Israelis but an existential story that gives a rationality to the insecurity and the establishment of Israel (Muhammad and Riyanto, 2021). Thus, the “Nakba” stands for displacement, continued military occupation and settler-colonial practices as well as non-fulfilment of the “Palestinian refugees’ rights”. Such memories are collective and are echoed from one generation to another and thereby making up a nation’s identity.
In such case identity is not only oppositional but also collective: the population forms an identity in order to oppose another population. There is no trick to being Israeli; one is either not Palestinian and vice versa (Laghssais, 2023). The “Manichean antagonism Jewish vs Arab”, victim vs aggressor does not encourage any sympathy or even humanity. It keeps two groups dehumanized and creates reasons not to reach an agreement, as compromise appears to be treacherous.
Security Barriers, Settlements, and Constructed Threats
Checkpoints, apartheid walls, and settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as the exigent siege on the Gaza strip are often being defended by Israeli’s leaders in the name of security. But from the constructivist perspective, these measures are not simple reactions to possibilities of threat. They are based on memories of history, presumed threats and emotions that people have towards the ‘other’ (McInerney and Archer, 2023). For Palestinians the latter are not only physical barriers, but political ones that represent occupation, subjugation and lack of sovereignty.
This was the reason why such security measures may be counterproductive and actually intensify the very insecurity being sought to be addressed. This is evident because the existence of checkpoints, armed patrols, and physically separated roads remind people of an imbalance of power and causes opposition hence leading to violence.
There remains the tendency on the part of both countries to build an emotional discourse that produces the other as an entity that threatens its existence. In Israel, Palestinian is stereotyped as a terrorist; this has been enhanced by media, school books, and speeches by politicians (Khalid,, 2022). In perception, Palestinian’s narratives make the Israelis as occupiers and the suppressors. These depictions are potent; the threat cannot be protested ‘rationally’, nor countered through the offer of peace.
These are anchored in such national events as the Holocaust remembrance in Israel or the Nakba Day in Palestine that unites the respective people affirmatively while at the same time cementing the separation. In such a circumstance, peace is neither just a political question but a psychological and a cultural matter.
People reject peace not only due to territorial or political issues and power-sharing but because they do not pay attention to symbolism of conflict. Acknowledgment of suffering, respect for the opponent’s worth, as well as the acceptance of the narratives of the parties involved are significant aspects of any post-war rebuilding (Junior, 2022). Indeed, the omission of these symbolic requirements makes a peace accord rather empty and ipso facto dooms it to failure.
All in all, which has been presented within the filed of constructivist paradigm, Galtung’s peace theory indicates a point that is ignored in the everyday discourse on peace namely, that peace is about politics as well as territories, about identities as well as histories, and about meanings as well as power (Ashraf and Baqi, 2023). Without addressing these aspects of structure, culture, and the psyche it is unlikely that there will be any lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestine situation. Constructivism suggests that if conflict is socially created, then peace can also be created through attempt at communication and cooperation, understanding of one another, and having a common vision of the future.
As in many similar conflicts in the world, there is an element that seems to be missing in the case of the “Israeli-Palestinian confrontation”: recognizing basic human necessities. According to “John Burton’s Human Needs Theory”, there are basis fundamental reasons that explain why most forms of political negotiations do not work (Pratiwi et al. 2022). Burton’s assertion on conflict is not born out of business interest but basic human needs namely, recognition, identity, security and participation are unmet or denied. Needs cannot be bargaining chips or be exchanged, in a manner that one party feels they have been shortchanged, and this leads to conflict.
Recognition and “Identity as Core Needs”
At the center of the problem that emerged in “Israel and Palestine”, it is find the fundamental questions of “identity and identity negotiations”. Both “Israelis and Palestinians” wish their stories, pain and desire to live in their own country to be recognized. Recipients for Palestinians are facial recognition of Palestinians as a nation with a national agency recognized and entitled to self-determination and sovereignty to the territory (Lehrs et al. 2022). A political argument has long developed in that most Palestinians are treated as a mere humanitarian issue and not a political subject with a right to have self-determination in international politics. This is why it is very frustrating and people turn into rebels demanding both, the ground and the recognition of their existence and living through the wall.
In the eyes of “Israel self recognition” implies that the Jewish nation is legitimate in its demand for a country, a state that can protect its people from persecution (Blondheim and Stergiou, 2023). It was found that many Israelis, by regarding any attempts at downplaying the legitimacy of Israel as a denial of existential self-identification, are preoccupied with defensive politics and threats. When Palestinian resistance is pinned down to anti-Israeli rather than anticipation, it strengthens the Israelis’ fear and erodes confidence.
Reference List
Journals
(Introduction)
Chapter 1:
Chapter 2
Introduction - Reflective Writing Struggling to meet deadlines? Rapid Assignment Help provides fast, reliable, and affordable...View and Download
Introduction to Study Skills and Digital Literacy Assignment Main Body Self-reflection refers to the procedure of evaluating...View and Download
Slide 1: Introduction Take the stress out of your academic journey with our professional Assignment Help Online, tailored...View and Download
Introduction to Volunteering In Sport, Health And Nutrition Assignment Volunteering refers to work undertaken without financial...View and Download
1. Introduction: Role of Influencer Marketing on Consumer's Impulse Buying Get an expert Assignment Helper to enhance your...View and Download
1. Introduction Get free samples written by our Top-Notch subject experts for taking online Assignment...View and Download