The Fletcher School

New Book, Holy War, Holy Peace, A Fresh Look at the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Contact: Terry Ann Knopf (617) 627-2778;
terry.knopf@tufts.edu

Medford, Mass.-- Against the backdrop of suicide bombings, mass arrests, the standoff at the Church of the Nativity and Colin Powel's ill-fated peace mission, the bloody conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians continues, with no real end in sight. Now comes a bold new book, sure to provoke debate on both sides, that argues there is a different, more effective way out of the morass.

In Holy War, Holy Peace: How Religion Can Bring Peace to the Middle East [Oxford University Press: 2002],

Gopin, who has interviewed Yasir Arafat and key members of his military staff as well as top Israeli officials, exposes deep flaws in traditional Middle East diplomacy. He also examines constraints on the ability of political leaders, on both sides of the conflict, to move the peace process forward, mistakes made during the Camp David talks in the summer of 2000, and the need for third-parties to set in motion concrete and realistic steps to end the bloodshed. Finally, he offers a series of proposals aimed at long-term reconciliation -- the need for a parallel track of peacemaking that focuses on religion, culture, symbolic gestures and moral commitments.

Gopin freely acknowledges that religion has been key in perpetuating the conflict, citing as examples Hamas and Islamic Jihad Jewish assassins, nationalist religious parties, aggressive seizing of land in the name of God, suicide-mass murder in the name of God and international religious actors with vested interests in worsening the conflict.

But he also makes a provocative, if not controversial argument for including religious activists in finding a creative solution. "It is the height of absurdity that, in conflicts where religious people on both sides are playing every bit as damaging a role in undermining peace as the paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, for example, somehow these religious actors are consistently eliminated from the sphere of diplomacy," he writes.

Gopin is sharply critical of the political establishment -- on all sides of the conflict. Indeed, he charges that with the exception of a few courageous leaders, governments generally are "allergic" to any diplomatic efforts other than official ones. "They dislike anything they can't control," he writes, adding: "Ninety percent of what leaders do is what they can do politically and still stay in power or stay alive."

Analyzing what went wrong with the Camp David Meeting in 2000, Gopin provides insights into the principals and their various weaknesses, and explains why the final status deal offered to the Israelis and Palestinians was doomed.

Gopin's solution requires political elites to engage the members of both groups as actors in the peace process. He offers an utterly new blueprint for peace that is multi-religious, cross-cultural and broad-based. "The overwhelming, unrecognized, and actually feared power here rests with the moods and instincts of the majority of the people embroiled in conflict... Cultural shifts in the populations are key to determining possible elite concessions, compromises and creative problem solving," he writes.

As a way of preparing for the necessary compromises on land, refugees and sovereignty over holy sites, Gopin urges ground-breaking cooperation between the political elites and courageous religious activists. on all sides who would set the tone culturally for others though a series of relationships-building steps. These include culturally significant gestures of repentance, restitution, solidarity, empathy, cross-cultural character education and training, shared mourning of the dead, and healing of the wounded.

Only through such relationship-building steps can any formal peace process be guaranteed, he says. "Peace processes will now be seen as a society-wide transformation in which the formal peace processes and negotiation become the last and crowning achievement of social and intergroup transformation, rather than a vain attempt to impose peace where it is not wanted," he writes. Both sides will need to experiment with the vast reservoir of religious and cultural uses of ritual "to heal, to establish basic patterns of civility, to transform broken relationships, to mourn, to repent, to end war and to make peace."

About the author:
Marc Gopin, a leading scholar of religion and diplomacy, and third-party peacemaker, is a Visiting Associate Professor of International Diplomacy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a Visiting Scholar at the Program in Negotiation at Harvard University. He has trained over 500 professional from 25 countries and every major religion in the art of conflict resolution. He also works as a conflict consultant in a variety of domestic and international settings and has been engaged in a series of high-level interventions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is the author of Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence and Peacemaking [Oxford University Press, 2000]. He has also made appearances on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN News and NPR's "All Things Considered."