In the context of promoting awareness of the repercussions of violations of rights and freedoms on the civil peace system for the Palestinian society, The Civil Coalition for Promoting Civil Peace and the Rule of Law held a citizen gathering, entitled: “Regional identities and the emergence of local fanaticism at the expense of the national identity and its impact on civil peace”, at the Innovation Hub in Ramallah. Representatives of political parties and active social movements in the city of Ramallah, academics and researchers with expertise in the political and social fields, representatives of local and municipal bodies, political and human rights activists, and youth and women participated in this session.
The session aimed to introduce concepts related to regional and narrow identities, the impact of local fanaticism on the civil peace system through the emergence of a culture of security chaos and violence and the environment incubating them, and the social, political, economic and cultural contexts that led to the creation of fanaticism and regional identities at the expense of the Palestinian national identity inclusive of all Palestinian segments. Throughout the session, the participants addressed the causes, backgrounds, and main factors related to identities and determined the most important effective forces that have an impact on dismantling the crisis and solutions to this problem in Palestinian society. They also identified the main and influential players, the roles and responsibilities of the concerned parties, and their reflection on the state of the Palestinian political and social crisis, its effects, and solutions through researching the possibility and ways of promoting civil peace and citizenship and preserving Palestinian social cohesion. They also presented proposals and recommendations that would contribute to activating the legal system and the rule of law in the Palestinian society, by laying the foundations and rules for the existence of a regulating body to formulate common understandings related to reducing intolerance of the family and tribal committees and manifestations of violence in order to achieve a state of social cohesion.
During the session, there were many interventions on regional and national identities, where Mr. Alaa Lahluh addressed the concepts of belonging and national, religious and doctrinal identites. He discussed these identities by invoking the historical context of the problem, loyalties and fanaticism in Arab society in general, and Palestinian society in particular. This is in order to understand the situation and provide solutions to this phenomenon. Mr. Lahlouh explained that the nature of Palestinian society is far from violence and power struggles between religious or sectarian sects. This is due to the absence of many sects or ethnic nationalities as in other societies, but the problem lies in the intolerance of the family, tribal committees, home and parties, at the expense of the unifying national interests that concern Palestinians in general.
Ms. Nibal Thawabet presented an intervention on the role of the media in creating the collective identity of Palestinians, where the importance of traditional and modern media was discussed along with their impact on enhancing Palestinian social cohesion. She indicated that the media plays an important role in strengthening civil peace. This is due to the role that it plays in influencing and opening dialogues and presenting ideas to citizens, which are reflected in their behavior and ideas as a whole. The media also has a great duty and responsibility to spread the culture of tolerance, citizenship and civil peace, and to renounce hate speech, fanaticism and attack, and it must certainly be objective and impartial, away from the intolerance of the ideology of a particular political party.
While the interventions of Dr. Inshirah Al-Nabhan and Mr. Abdel-Ghani Salameh focused on the problems of identity and loyalty in the Palestinian society, the context of the Palestinian national identity and the factors affecting the historical and political contexts of the formation of identities for the Palestinian society. The culture of fanaticism and narrow identities have led to cases of violence and murder in the Palestinian street, says Mr. Abdul Ghani.
On the other hand, the absence of the rule of law in many Palestinian areas has increased the complexity, along with the absence of citizens’ representation in the Palestinian political system, as a result of the political division taking place between the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the political/factional level, as well as at the level of regional geography. In light of this split, the absence of the oversight body represented by the Legislative Council led to the citizens’ lack of confidence in the Palestinian political system, thus creating a large gap between the two parties. The absence of laws that deter cases of violence and murder and the absence of a law enforcement authority led citizens to resort to tribal committees instead of the political system and the law.
Through the implementation of this session, an effective atmosphere for dialogue and discussion was created amongst the participants in a way that is reflected in the work to enhance awareness of combating rights violations in order to preserve the social fabric and social cohesion. There was great interest from the participants and speakers regarding this issue, as it is considered the main core in the context of the social and political factors that lead to achieving civil peace and social cohesion. Therefore, the participants agreed on common concepts related to identities and problems in Palestinian society.
The participants presented different points of view through their diverse experiences in a way that enriched the discussion and came up with several recommendations aimed at strengthening civil peace, including:
1. The importance of amending the Palestinian curriculum to include strengthening social cohesion by reconsidering educational and patriotic books, as well as mechanisms for providing information.
2. The importance of developing policies that promote Palestinian civil peace and using the media in a way that reflects positively on the citizens.
This session comes within the “Strengthening the democratic participation and egalitarian social cohesion of the Palestinian citizens, in Area C” project, implemented by The Palestinian Association for Empowerment and Local Development—REFORM, in partnership with the Civil Coalition for Promoting Civil Peace and the Rule of Law and funded by ACPP.
