Before the Peace Process: Historical Roots of a Dysfunctional Relationship

Abstract

This chapter offers a contextual analysis of the historical roots of what came to be a dysfunctional relationship between the Israeli and Palestinian national identities. It focuses on the first attempts developed toward peacemaking following the establishment of the Zionist Movement in Palestine in light of dehumanization and peace-less reconciliation. This chapter argues that the first attempts to accommodate opposing interests of both Palestinian and Zionist elites during the British Mandate, what can be considered the embryo of the peace process, have introduced a self-perpetuating dynamic of defining the ‘self’ as opposed to the ‘other’ that has marked greatly the process of both Israeli and Palestinian identity building. This chapter concludes that the first approaches to deal with what was still a young dispute between political elites were not only defining features for the subsequent periods, but also had deep implications in the very course of events.