Final Report Summary - TRANSPEACE (Transnational community mobilisations for peace: French Jewish mobilisations in Israel)
What do French Jewish movements achieve with regards to peace in the Israel / Palestine conflict? How do they mobilise, and what sort of impact do they have, both in the location of the conflict and the society where they mobilise? While it has become very commonplace to mention the growing internationalisation of the conflict, many commentators point at the effects of the so-called 'importation of the Israel / Palestine conflict in Europe' which would be directly connected to a rise in anti-Semitic violence.
TRANSPEACE aimed at challenging these assumptions by concretely looking at mobilisation processes carried out by Jewish peace movements and their effects. It did so by carrying out a double fieldwork, in France and in Israel / Palestine. Like its questions, the project results are at the junction between different bodies of scientific literature:
Jewish peace movements may formally take the form of social movement organisations, yet it is not primarily through this angle that they carry out their actions. These are either organised in networks in which they appear as participants, or may take the form of advocacy and outreach carried out by prominent activists and public intellectuals and aiming at shaping the content of public debates. They are no mass mobilisations but rather thrive in a social movement sector where actions carried out by a limited number of well-connected activists are likely to appear as successes. Modes of actions which - like the so-called 'flotillas' aimed at trespassing the Gaza blockade - require more resources will be carried out in larger networks of activists. Critical connections include sister organisations in Israel, which are very important in helping stage local direct actions, and Palestinian ones which add legitimacy to protest actions. Ideologies, especially pacifism, anti-imperialism and feminism, strongly contribute to reinforcing these ties between organisations otherwise competing in the same social movement sector and to make coalitions possible.
International Jewish peace movements fit into a larger context of 'internationalisation' of the Israel / Palestine conflict, in which an increasing number of international actors are directly involved in the stakes of the conflict. However, a key precondition for such internationalisation is the existence of strong local networks geared towards welcoming internationals. A space is created and sustained for internationals to intervene and they carry out specific tasks (such as monitoring of everyday interactions between Palestinians and the IDF). While the impact of such actions on the conflict itself is difficult to assess, Israeli and Palestinian movements strongly argue in favour of such international supports. Israeli movement activists often go as far as to say that they do not believe in a domestic path to peace and hope for international pressure being put on Israel and forcing it to change its policies.
A key differentiating element between European Jewish peace movements and their American counterpart is their attitude vis-à-vis the European Union (EU). While being very critical of the EU's association policies with Israel and of its Mediterranean neighbourhood policies, they increasingly address their advocacy at the EU level - especially through the European Parliament which is increasingly viewed as a key arena for creating democratic debate on policies tackling the Israel / Palestine conflict. French movements also find key partnerships with local authorities eager to build on their actions to reinforce their profile as actors of city diplomacy and decentralised cooperation. Local authorities are therefore key sources for funding and outreach for Jewish peace movements, which are also involved in local interfaith or intercultural dialogue initiatives.
A major result of the project lies in the analysis of the local impact of Jewish peace movements. The fieldwork does not support the so-called 'new anti-Semitism' thesis linking the importation of the Israel / Palestine conflict, increased connections between movements supporting Palestinian rights and Islamist movements, and an increase in anti-Semitic violence. Networks carrying out peace or solidarity actions in Israel / Palestine in which Jewish movements participate are overwhelmingly secular, even if the rhetoric of interfaith dialogue is often mobilised. They frame the conflict in national terms and not religious ones, and are very attentive to distinguish not only Israelis from Jews, but Israeli politicians (and their international supports) from the Israeli population. They are aware of the controversial role of Islamist movements and of Hamas in the oPt, and do not steer away from criticising their leadership, just like they do for Fatah - although such criticism is generally carried out amongst activists. They try to raise awareness of concrete aspects of a highly complex conflict, an attempt which places them in a contradictory position: while their analyses of the conflict aim at communicating its complexity, slogans used to mobilise newcomers generally oversimplify their own views: for instance the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction campaign simultaneously mobilises highly complex analyses of the economic aspects of the conflict while relying on a simplified view of the results achieved by boycott. Anti-Semitic radicalisation therefore occurs outside movements mobilising for Palestine, but peace movements are involved in the general polarisation of French society around issues linked to the Israel / Palestine conflict.
A last aspect of this impact of Jewish peace movements in France lies in how they can be understood to contribute shaping French society. Jewish identities in France are the product of a very idiosyncratic history which has in turn placed them as key support to the secular Republic, victims of the Pétain regime and of further anti-Semitism, and actors in France's colonial history, especially with regards to Algeria. Discourses on the Israel / Palestine conflict and on Jewish mobilisations fit into this framework and indeed one may argue that they address French issues pertaining to the memory of the Holocaust, decolonisation, and integration of migrants rather than with events occurring in the Middle East. Although many French Jews have a keen interest in Israel and in the future of the peace process, the polarisation occurring around these themes has much to do with the structure of the French political space around such key issues as laicism, immigration and security.
The results of the project have been disseminated in departmental seminars, international conferences and peer-reviewed articles. A panel in an international conference is scheduled in March 2013 and further articles have been submitted to international journals. The theme of partnerships between local authorities and civil society organisations (CSOs) on matters linked to the Israel/Palestine conflict is also explored in further EU funded applied research projects dealing with city diplomacy (AWARD), where the principal investigator acts as consultant.
TRANSPEACE aimed at challenging these assumptions by concretely looking at mobilisation processes carried out by Jewish peace movements and their effects. It did so by carrying out a double fieldwork, in France and in Israel / Palestine. Like its questions, the project results are at the junction between different bodies of scientific literature:
Jewish peace movements may formally take the form of social movement organisations, yet it is not primarily through this angle that they carry out their actions. These are either organised in networks in which they appear as participants, or may take the form of advocacy and outreach carried out by prominent activists and public intellectuals and aiming at shaping the content of public debates. They are no mass mobilisations but rather thrive in a social movement sector where actions carried out by a limited number of well-connected activists are likely to appear as successes. Modes of actions which - like the so-called 'flotillas' aimed at trespassing the Gaza blockade - require more resources will be carried out in larger networks of activists. Critical connections include sister organisations in Israel, which are very important in helping stage local direct actions, and Palestinian ones which add legitimacy to protest actions. Ideologies, especially pacifism, anti-imperialism and feminism, strongly contribute to reinforcing these ties between organisations otherwise competing in the same social movement sector and to make coalitions possible.
International Jewish peace movements fit into a larger context of 'internationalisation' of the Israel / Palestine conflict, in which an increasing number of international actors are directly involved in the stakes of the conflict. However, a key precondition for such internationalisation is the existence of strong local networks geared towards welcoming internationals. A space is created and sustained for internationals to intervene and they carry out specific tasks (such as monitoring of everyday interactions between Palestinians and the IDF). While the impact of such actions on the conflict itself is difficult to assess, Israeli and Palestinian movements strongly argue in favour of such international supports. Israeli movement activists often go as far as to say that they do not believe in a domestic path to peace and hope for international pressure being put on Israel and forcing it to change its policies.
A key differentiating element between European Jewish peace movements and their American counterpart is their attitude vis-à-vis the European Union (EU). While being very critical of the EU's association policies with Israel and of its Mediterranean neighbourhood policies, they increasingly address their advocacy at the EU level - especially through the European Parliament which is increasingly viewed as a key arena for creating democratic debate on policies tackling the Israel / Palestine conflict. French movements also find key partnerships with local authorities eager to build on their actions to reinforce their profile as actors of city diplomacy and decentralised cooperation. Local authorities are therefore key sources for funding and outreach for Jewish peace movements, which are also involved in local interfaith or intercultural dialogue initiatives.
A major result of the project lies in the analysis of the local impact of Jewish peace movements. The fieldwork does not support the so-called 'new anti-Semitism' thesis linking the importation of the Israel / Palestine conflict, increased connections between movements supporting Palestinian rights and Islamist movements, and an increase in anti-Semitic violence. Networks carrying out peace or solidarity actions in Israel / Palestine in which Jewish movements participate are overwhelmingly secular, even if the rhetoric of interfaith dialogue is often mobilised. They frame the conflict in national terms and not religious ones, and are very attentive to distinguish not only Israelis from Jews, but Israeli politicians (and their international supports) from the Israeli population. They are aware of the controversial role of Islamist movements and of Hamas in the oPt, and do not steer away from criticising their leadership, just like they do for Fatah - although such criticism is generally carried out amongst activists. They try to raise awareness of concrete aspects of a highly complex conflict, an attempt which places them in a contradictory position: while their analyses of the conflict aim at communicating its complexity, slogans used to mobilise newcomers generally oversimplify their own views: for instance the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction campaign simultaneously mobilises highly complex analyses of the economic aspects of the conflict while relying on a simplified view of the results achieved by boycott. Anti-Semitic radicalisation therefore occurs outside movements mobilising for Palestine, but peace movements are involved in the general polarisation of French society around issues linked to the Israel / Palestine conflict.
A last aspect of this impact of Jewish peace movements in France lies in how they can be understood to contribute shaping French society. Jewish identities in France are the product of a very idiosyncratic history which has in turn placed them as key support to the secular Republic, victims of the Pétain regime and of further anti-Semitism, and actors in France's colonial history, especially with regards to Algeria. Discourses on the Israel / Palestine conflict and on Jewish mobilisations fit into this framework and indeed one may argue that they address French issues pertaining to the memory of the Holocaust, decolonisation, and integration of migrants rather than with events occurring in the Middle East. Although many French Jews have a keen interest in Israel and in the future of the peace process, the polarisation occurring around these themes has much to do with the structure of the French political space around such key issues as laicism, immigration and security.
The results of the project have been disseminated in departmental seminars, international conferences and peer-reviewed articles. A panel in an international conference is scheduled in March 2013 and further articles have been submitted to international journals. The theme of partnerships between local authorities and civil society organisations (CSOs) on matters linked to the Israel/Palestine conflict is also explored in further EU funded applied research projects dealing with city diplomacy (AWARD), where the principal investigator acts as consultant.