Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
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Bargaining and conflict management are essential approaches in numerous work-related and social settings. Thus, the presence of strong intractable conflicts that are virtually unresolvable despite the potential roadblocks might be solvable only with help of highly skilled and patient negotiators. Such conflicts may be long, complex and may involve a number of people; they also have adverse effect on the parties involved. This paper focuses on one live and actual conflict and its description involves identification of the parties involved, nature of conflict and the overall importance of the conflict. Analyzing the nature of negotiations as the potential strategies for their resolution will help to better understand what these challenges are.
Background on the Parties Involved
An example of an intractable conflict is the Israel-Palestine conflict which has been ongoing for many years and entails several parties including Israel, Palestine and their neighbors the Arab countries and international players like the United Nations and the United States. The two principal actors in the conflict are Israel and the Palestinian people, which is governed, politically, by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and at some times, the Hamas (Caplan, 2019). The conflict is based on the issue of rivalry over certain geographical regions where each side of the conflict has laid own claims of sovereignty for instance, the west bank, the Gaza strip and east Jerusalem.
Israel which was formally formed as a Jewish state in 1948 has had issues of territorial gains and defense against the neighboring Arab countries. For the Palestinian people the key goal is the admission of their right to self-determination and creation of the state. Both the parties have strong historical, religious and cultural connections therefore making their conflict worse (Caplan, 2019). Besides, being that the conflict is partly a regional one, regional and international actors have attempted to mediate and negotiate the conflict, including United States, the European union and neighboring Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan with Little success.
Nature of the Conflict
The conflict in the Middle East with particular reference to Palestine and Israel is historical and it involves involvement of two distinct and diametrically opposed truths. The Palestinian Arabs have had a significant problem since 1948 when the state of Israel was established (Dwiastuti, 2021). hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out of their homes and are referred to as Al-Nakba or “The Catastrophe.” There are Palestinian refugees to this date and many stay in camps in neighboring countries waiting for a solution to return to their houses.
Security is by far the major concern as far as Israel is concerned. The country has been attacked several times by Palestinian militant groups and the latter has retaliated by the use of force and this has remained as cycles (Dwiastuti, 2021). Israel also wants to gain international acknowledgment of its sovereignty as a Jewish state on an Israeli territory, Palestinians, on the other hand, want to achieve international acknowledgment of their rights to self-determination.
Significance of the Conflict
The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians remains important not only in the Middle Eastern affairs but also on the global level. It has a bearing on security in the Middle East region particularly in the Israeli Arab relations (Gelvin, 2021). It also determines international relations in terms of the support given to Israel from countries like the US while there are many Arab countries which support the Palestinian cause.
Still, the humanitarian shares are heavily affected crossing humanitarian suffering of the country. The Israelis and Palestinians have since been subjected to loss of dear lives, displacement and loss of business among others as a result of the violence. Gaza strip has been observed to be in a critical humanitarian situation whereby families and individuals are struggling to access necessities like clean water, electricity and medicine (Gelvin, 2021). The sufferings of the Palestinian population in Gaza especially through food insecurity, water insecurity, and periodic military operations common in the region because of the Israeli government’s blockade of the region.
Negotiation Challenges
An important factor which makes it exceedingly difficult to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the problem of equality in power relations between the two factions. Israel has more power in the balance due to the military might and economic power that the country possesses (Gelvin, 2021). On the other hand, the Palestinians cannot boast of having the same much muscle and political solidity especially with the Palestinian authority on one side and Hamas on the other side.
Another challenge is that the relations of confrontational hostility remain effectively mutual; there is an extraordinary level of distrust between the sides. Long-sustained on- going impaired negotiations coupled with cycles of Violence have created despair and optimum disbelief about imaginable end through negotiations. This mistrust is further exacerbated by the existent internal politics on each side, in the Israeli and Palestinian societies in particular (Gelvin, 2021). With both parties being very polarized, moderates within the parties find it almost impossible to push for dialogues that would lead to the peace process.
Conclusion
The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is one of the most talked about ones with a lot of literature being devoted to the Israeli Palestinian negotiation challenge. Due to historical, cultural, religious and political strong connection to the land and political, security and humanitarian challenges involved the conflict is regarded as one of the most sophisticated in the modern world. Despite the many efforts to reach a negotiating resolution the issue persists. It is therefore important for negotiators, policy makers and conflict solvers to gain an insight of this conflict. These two groups should talk to each other although not yield as it may be possible that with diplomacy, everybody will be protected and it will be possible to have peace. But to achieve this will entail more than just words and gestures; the parties will need to work very hard in terms of compromise, trust and understanding and finding ways of addressing the issues that triggered this conflict in the first instance.
References
Caplan, N. (2019).
The Israel-Palestine conflict: contested histories. John Wiley & Sons.
Dwiastuti, I. (2021). The Roots of Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Political Culture Analysis.
AEGIS: Journal of International Relations,
4(2), 19-33.
Gelvin, J. L. (2021).
The Israel-Palestine conflict: a history. Cambridge University Press.
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