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Israel-Palestine: Taking Peace into their Own Hands

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The Israel-Palestinian conflict has been raging for 70 years. Numerous peace attempts have been made at a state level, but a different approach is emerging.

The Minds of Peace experiment tried something new in peace negotiations.

“One of the missing components in almost all of the peace processes so far is the participation of the people in the struggle to end the conflict,” said Dr Sapir Handelman, Minds of Peace founder.

“Without public involvement, it is impossible to build an effective peace process and to end the conflict,” he said.

Minds for Peace host public meetings where rival group representatives can negotiate solutions.

“The idea is very simple: You take an Israeli delegation, and a Palestinian delegation, in front of an audience, and the most important thing within the delegation is to seek people from within all the political spectrum and from all walks of life,” Dr Handelman said.

They have conducted 26 public negotiations in the past 3 years, about difficult issues like borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and security. Almost all ended with agreements.

“Our mission is to translate this result to a mass movement that will lead to the establishment of a major Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating congress with political power,” Dr Handelman said.

“We have two choices…killing each other or living together,” said a congress attendee, Maze. “And the whole Israeli [delegation} and the whole Palestinian [delegation] – all of them said to me ‘we want to live together’.”

People Choosing Peace: Angelica (Colombia)

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I was born in Buga, a town in the Cauca Valley, a region where the sun shines all year long, where Salsa moves everyone’s hips and the Pacific Ocean blesses you. I have been always a migrant, always traveling and exploring, but London has managed to enchant me with its multiple faces.

I arrived eight years ago to study and to stay, at least for a while. At that time, I felt Colombia hostile and distant to whom I was. But life is humble and it will always give you a deeper and broader perspective of things you once thought were definitive.

For that reason, I found myself looking for my roots and on this path, the Truth, Memory and Reconciliation Commission was the perfect re-encounter with Colombia: it gave me a strong, challenging and very real taste of the country I left, but it also prized me with a loving, generous and life-changing experience.

The Commission has been a door to a gifted world, a world of art and politics, creativity and self-expression. But most of all, a world in which it is possible to contribute to peacebuilding for my own country from abroad. Peace does not have borders and we do not stop being Colombians when we’re not living at home. Distance shouldn’t be a reason for not actively contributing to the achievement of peace in one’s homeland.

This is precisely why, despite being a migrant, I am today part of a project that looks to burst disruptively into the political landscape of Colombia through the empowerment of ordinary citizens; within Colombia, and amongst Colombians abroad.

This project has been challenging, but we have been blessed with the strength of those brave and determined leaders from the most difficult and forgotten regions of my country. Despite putting their lives at risk every day, they are still willing to give everything to achieve a more peaceful country. There is much to learn from them.

There are still so many more things to do, many more stories to share, and much more to create. But, for now, I want to leave this note thanking the Commission for all it has given us, for the photographs and for this space that allows to us express who we are.

Source: Conciliation Resources Photo: Ingrid Guyon/Conciliation Resources

Reintegration or Re-recruitment: Preventing Old Wars from Fueling New Wars

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The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), devastated Uganda, and its neighbors, for decades, and its leader Joseph Kony became infamous with the Kony2012 campaign. An estimated 12,906 fighters have returned to civilian after fighting with the LRA, but when fighters return from armed groups their prospects are often limited. Now, experts are alarmed that many are being re-recruited into other violent groups.

“You have youth who are incredibly vulnerable to armed group recruitment,” said Sean Poole, from Invisible Children.

“Whether that is forced recruitment because they live in a really remote location, or incentivized recruitment, that we see so much of in the Central African Republic or the Democratic Republic of the Congo where armed groups become the most viable employment offer in a region,” Mr Poole said.

Returned LRA fighter, Ogot, was abducted when he was 15, and spent 5 years with the rebel group. He told us that violence is a difficult pattern to change after returning.

“Because, you know, when you are in the bush your mind is thinking of killing, arresting [abducting] others. Then afterwards you want to destroy the whole world – you have that black heart,” Ogot said.

“We continue to see victims of one conflict be enveloped into another and we are seeing that right now with central Africa and South Sudan,” said Mr Poole.

“I would say there’s no easy solution to these problems but we see the strongest efforts to push back against armed-group recruitment at the local level, so we really push that we should be supporting local leaders who are developing community-to-community interventions to support victims that are returning and limit the exposure of individuals to armed-group recruitment,” he said.

Aid agencies are providing psycho-social support and conflict-sensitive education for returnees.

“Like Gulu Support the Children Organization (GUSCO), and those of Windle Trust, who gave us advice, and they were even taking others to school,” said Ogot.

“GUSCO helped us a lot, giving me advice. You could stay there and [they would] counsel you like they were your real parents.”

Could Direct Talks Build Peace between the USA and North Korea?

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Despite harsh rhetoric from the USA and North Korea increasing fears of another Korean war, and concerns over nuclear threats, recent talk of peace negotiations have provided some hope.

A ceasefire agreement ended the Korean War in 1953, but a full peace treaty was never signed, and now with North Korea testing its nuclear program, tensions have reached a dangerous level. A war of words between Washington and Pyongyang has observers worried.

“The United States has great strength and patience with its allies, but if it’s forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” US President Donald Trump said at the United Nations in September.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reciprocated, stating that “The mentally deranged behavior of the U.S. president…insulted me and my country…Action is the best option in treating the dotard…”.

The situation has major repercussions for the rest of the world, even before it reaches the level of war.

“Any kind of instability in Asia that raises the specter of war, at a minimum could rattle global markets, and at a maximum could bring us into a global recession,” said Gregg Brazinsky, a specialist on U.S.-East Asian relations at The George Washington University.

Suggestions for resolving the crisis have included economic sanctions, military strikes on North Korea’s nuclear facilities, and the forging of a protective nuclear agreement between China and North Korea.

Former US president Jimmy Carter has had a lot of experience negotiating with North Korea and he said that none of the suggestions offer and immediate way to end the present crisis, because the Pyongyang government believes its survival is at stake.

So, what could help de-escalate tensions?

“I think better mutual understanding between the United States and North Korea – I think Americans’ overall understanding of North Korea and why they’re developing nuclear weapons programs and why they’re so hostile to the United States is very poor,” Dr Brazinsky said.

“I think a lot of what the North Koreans really want is direct talks,” he said.

President Carter said from his experience direct talks were indeed what leaders in North Korea wanted – he even offered to attend negotiations himself, if need be.

“I admire Former President Carter’s commitment to peace and I believe he’s very sincere in wanting to try an bring about a solution, I am just skeptical that he alone could accomplish very much, there needs to be a broader shift in US policy for us to achieve anything in this situation,” Dr Brazinsky said.

Peace talks could take several different forms, one option is multi-lateral talks – involving other nations like South Korea and China, but some observers believe direct talks between the US and North Korea may have more success.

“Of course we would have to be very cautious in keeping South Korea informed on everything we do if we were to undertake this kind of bi-lateral talk, but I do think this kind of direct approach might enable us to improve the overall climate of US-North Korean relations in a way that the multi-lateral talks never seem to,” Dr Brazinsky said.

“You know, it’s not going to change North Korea overnight, it may not even get them to abandon their nuclear weapons program, but it would make them less likely to use any weapons they develop against the United States and our allies, and I think that’s what we really want,” he said.

People Choosing Peace: Magdalena (South Sudan)

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My name is Magdalena Nandege. I am 23 years old and from South Sudan. I come from Homiri, a village in Budi county. It has a population of about 150,000 people, most of them agro-pastoralists − like my mother, who is a farmer. The county has two secondary schools and eleven primary schools, none of which have access to electricity. Only fifteen per cent of the population is literate.

I am currently training to become a midwife at the Health Science Institute of Torit, the capital city of Imotong state. We are now twenty-four students, down from an original group of thirty-seven – some students stopped coming because of the lack of security, poverty and inadequate transportation. I chose this career because I believe it is important to take care of women.

This belief also led me to enroll in the Youth Peacemaker Network (YPN) of the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI). I joined the YPN in 2014 after hearing about it from the Eastern Equatoria Youth Union, of which I was secretary for gender and social welfare.

Through this program, I have acquired skills to promote peace within myself and the youth in our community – through conflict management, mediation, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), meditation and entrepreneurship. The program has also helped me acquire confidence by using my artistic talent for a just cause. Drama and stories are very important to convey messages. As a peacemaker, I often train people or engage in community dialogues. I have noticed that when problems are really hard, it is easier to use art, to use words that people understand, because people are able to differentiate between good and wrong through art.

Recently, I have made a short movie on gender-based violence, Magda and Boniface – Forced Marriages, with a group of friends and colleagues from YPN. We used a tablet provided by WPDI to make the film because we could not afford to buy a camera. A fictionalized version of situations that take place in our communities, the film was shot in English, and also in Toposa, Juba Arabic, and Arabic – everyone used their own language.

Through my studies and training with WPDI, UNESCO and UN Women, I have acquired skills in peace-building, conflict management, mediation, meditation, business skills, and the fight against gender-based violence. I have learned a lot about peace and human rights. But this needs to be translated in the languages that people speak at home − it must talk to their hearts.

I think that art can do a lot for peace in South Sudan, so much more than long speeches. It can show positive characters that people can identify with, inviting them to practice peace and sustainable development. We need more art in South Sudan so we can have more peace.

Source: The UNESCO Courier, Image by WPDI.

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