Disempowerment and marginalisation of peace NGOs: exposing peace gaps in Israel and Palestine

Abstract

This article analyses the enabling and restraining conditions of local peace organisations in Israel and Palestine. It utilises the analytical notion of peace gaps to accentuate the interplay between local and elite levels. It also highlights the discrepancies when it comes to expectations of peace, the ability to communicate peace discourses and the power to influence and build wider domestic peace constituencies. The empirical findings reveal how current vertical and horizontal peace gaps result in the disempowerment and marginalisation of local peace NGOs on both sides. Such a precarious situation hinders broader peace mobilisation and is further exacerbated by widespread political apathy and peace fatigue among Israeli and Palestinian publics. By way of conclusion, the article argues for the need to re-politicise and re-negotiate space for a more agonistic peacebuilding, which allows for differences to co-exist.

Civil Society Democratising Global Governance? Potentials and Limitations of “Counter-Democracy”

“…69 The organisation constitutes a relatively new phenomenon in Israel, in its aim to monitor and control other CSOs, who it sees as harming Israeli national interest and/or security. 70 At its onset, the NGO Monitor mainly exerted its influence in the Israeli domestic domain, 71 but over the years, it has increasingly targeted a variety of national and transnational actors as well, such as most recently the European Union.…”

Database-Driven Empowering Surveillance: Definition and Assessment of Effectiveness

“…Research on the success of Israeli NGOs in stopping human rights violations in the OPT is more inconclusive. While some studies report good results (Fleischmann 2016; Kutz-Flamenbaum 2016; Miretski and Bachmann 2014), others report a chronic inability to influence this arena (Aggestam and Strömbom 2013;Avni 2006;Desai 2015). This inconclusiveness stems from disagreement about how to measure success, which is a point Israeli NGOs wrestle with intensively.…”

“…These NGOs' entire operation and their sheer existence are under attack from right-wing elements and their majoritarian rule in the Israeli parliament and executive branch. These forces join together to battle human rights NGOs by means of legislation, government policy, delegitimating campaigns, and a blind eye toward vigilantism against organizations and activists (Aggestam and Strömbom 2013;B'Tselem 2010a;Handel and Dayan 2017). For instance, recent policies have deprived such NGOs of the Israeli charitable tax status, while right-wing organizations do enjoy tax deductible rights (Sucharov 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, new right-wing NGOs were recently established specifically in order to monitor human rights NGOs (Aggestam and Strömbom 2013) in a way that now directs and expands surveillance toward those doing empowering surveillance. This new trend re-stresses the difficulty with the counter-surveillance term, as this would constitute counter-counter-surveillance.…”

Socio-environmental cooperation and conflict? A discursive understanding and its application to the case of Israel and Palestine

“…In the case of Israel and Palestine, water cooperation indeed takes place in the face of strong water-related inequalities and so far these inequalities persist (Selby, 2013). However, many scholars and activists do actively problematize such inequitable water relations and even aim to change them, although this is far from easy (Aggestam and Strömbom, 2013). The conclusion that water cooperation often exists in parallel with, and frequently obscures, water-related conflicts also leaves unexplained why some actors engage in cooperative and others in conflictive practices when they are equally powerful and similarly affected by water problems (such as the numerous Israeli and Palestinian communities along the Green Line, some of which cooperate on water while most do not).…”