The 75 Year Experiment
The plan calls for an “interfaith dialogue process” to change mindsets by emphasizing the benefits of peace. This is a commitment to a grassroots approach to conflict resolution, recognizing that true peace, and the push for political leaders to take risks for peace, requires a bottom-up approach to support that peace process. And it implicitly acknowledges that the 20 years of intermittent armed conflict since the Israeli disengagement from Gaza are not proof that Palestinians and Israelis can never live side by side in peace, but rather evidence that building walls and cutting off contact between the two sides benefits neither. The paradox of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that for over 75 years the world has been unsuccessfully seeking a way to reconcile the interests of both peoples peacefully, while the answer has been staring us straight in the face.
Over the last 75 years, Israelis and Palestinians have been participants in one of the world’s largest and longest running social science experiments. The question: under what conditions can two people with competing claims on a land, best coexist? Group A, constituting about two million Palestinians, live in Gaza, where for over 20 years they’ve lived with almost no contact with Israelis, physical or virtual. Group B, containing about two million Palestinians, is in the West Bank, where the contact with Israelis is limited and often negative, due to military checkpoints and hostile neighbors, but with some 20% of adult men who work within Israel. Group C, about two million Palestinians, lives within Israel, mostly within Arab towns or cities, while attending university, working, and shopping side by side with Israeli Jews.
After decades of data, with millions of subjects, the findings are striking. October 7th was a horrific day, one that will never leave the memories of people who live here in the region. It had already been preceded by several horrific wars, and thousands of rockets launched. The Israeli government removed all Israeli citizens from Gaza in 2005, but in completely cutting off the Strip, and any contact with Jews, it fueled the radicalization of thousands of young Gazans, and the dehumanization of Israelis. In the West Bank, where many men work in Israel, or know someone who does, the situation is better. Yet there are still terror attacks several times a year. In contrast, within Israel, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews interact with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel daily, and there are virtually no violent incidents. To the contrary: Palestinians living in close contact with Israeli Jews have a higher quality of life by virtually any metric, just as Israeli Jews are clearly much safer and better off. The farther away the level of contact–the worse off each population is; the closer the level of contact, the better for each side.
We ignore this data–because “Israeli Jews and Palestinians in class together” or “Palestinians and Israelis shopping at the mall” does not make for compelling media or social media material–-terrorism and war are far more gripping. But this is not a blip–it’s the result of years of lived experiences of millions of people. The blueprint for living together in safety, dignity and prosperity is right in front of us: both populations do better with increased contact. The amazing part is that unlike difficult negotiations, this is truly a win-win.
Contrast this with what we’ve also observed, painfully, over years of experience–neither side can achieve what it wants via force. Israelis will not get the safety and security they deserve, and Palestinians will not get the autonomy in dignity that they want, through violence. The opposite is true–each act of violence furthers those goals. Palestinians have diminished autonomy over reduced territory with each violent act, while Israelis are less secure with each act of violence, which then triggers another response down the line.
It’s time to learn from history and take the winning approach – non-violent human contact is best for both sides. Rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, Point 18 should be implemented fully–with maximized contact through educational, cultural and commercial links, for a brighter future for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Mohamad Jamous is a Palestinian peace activist, humanitarian, and community leader from Ramallah, Palestine. Steven Aiello is a Jewish Israeli educator based in Tel Aviv, Israel. He’s the founder of Debate for Peace (www.debateforpeace.org)