**4. Peacekeeping**

After the Second World War, peacekeeping was understood as division between entrenched enemies.40 The guiding principle was "Good fences create good neighbors." The end of the Cold War and the growing numbers of intrastate struggles have led to alteration in this view of peacekeeping. The concept of peacekeeping was extended to cases where it is impossible to hermetically separate enemies.41

The unavoidable contact between Israelis and Palestinians shows that it is mandatory to design and implement a nontraditional peacekeeping strategy. A nontraditional strategy involves different societal elements—such as citizens, political leaders, and special security forces—in the efforts to maintain peace, order, and stability.

The challenge of peacekeeping is multidimensional. To simplify and demonstrate the need to design a multidimensional strategy to keep peace and stability, the paper suggests focusing on three levels of peacekeeping: political, military, and civilian: An Israeli-Palestinian Congress for Peace and Security can be a political institution for monitoring joint activities and coping with tensions, disputes, and ad hoc sociopolitical problems between the two sides. A joint border security force can be established to protect the east border of a new Palestinian state in the West Bank (the border between the new Palestine and Jordan in a framework of two-state solution). A joint civil guard can be established to help in keeping order and stability in places where Israeli and Palestinian civilians are in direct contact (**Table 4**).

Let me elaborate.

**Politics**. Peace revolution is a dynamic process, which has an evolutionary dynamic. Political instruments that were created to lead a change in the peacemaking phase need to be modified and changed in the peacekeeping stage. This evolutionary progression needs to be considered at the beginning of the process.

The peacemaking section of this paper proposes establishing a powerful instrument for the peacemaking part of a peace revolution—a major Israeli-Palestinian Public Negotiating Congress. The congress is a consensus-building institution that is planned to involve different societal elements of the conflicting societies (leaders, elites, and people) in the peace efforts. Its main tasks are to offer political alternatives to the violent struggle, prepare the publics for a change, and motivate the leaderships to reach agreements. However, once a peace agreement has been achieved, this peacemaking institution needs to be transformed, or it will become useless. The logic of the evolutionary progression of a peacemaking revolution proposes that a pubic negotiating congress—a major peacemaking institution—should be transformed into a major peacekeeping institution, which could be labeled as congress for peace and security.42

The inevitable friction between Israelis and Palestinians will require political instruments to cope with inevitable tensions, disagreements, and joint problems. In the post-conflict phase, a joint peacekeeping congress could deal with tensions, disputes, and ad hoc problems, initiate and coordinate joint projects in various fields (such as education, economics, and politics), and establish mechanisms for reconciliation.

Similar to the UN, which is the global peacekeeping institution, the main actual power of the peacekeeping congress (Israeli-Palestinian Congress for Peace and Security) is its very existence. In the peacemaking stage, a public negotiating congress involves the publics in the struggle for peace and generates public pressure

**291**

pdf pp./48–49.

paper.43

**Table 4.**

**Level of operation**

Civilian and police

*Peacekeeping in three dimensions.*

forces from the area?

discussed and negotiated by the two sides.

same goal is beyond the focus of this paper.

agreements/ and http://mopdocuments.blogspot.com/.

*Peace Revolution as a Three-Dimensional Process: The Israeli-Palestinian Case*

joint activities, and monitoring shared mechanisms

Coping with civilian problems and keeping law and

Political Coping with sociopolitical problems, coordinating

Military Protecting the border between a new Palestinian state

to reach a settlement. In the post-conflict phase, the peacekeeping congress should remind everyone of the high cost of conflict and the precious value of peace.

A difficult question is how to start and build this institutional evolution (from peacemaking congress to a peacekeeping congress), which is so necessary for a peace revolution. Unfortunately, this critical discussion is not in scope of this

**Goals Mechanisms**

Israeli-Palestinian Congress for

Peace and Security

A joint border guard

joint civil guard

Security cooperation and a

**Military**. In a framework of a "two-state solution," Israel demands that the new Palestinian state will be demilitarized. However, it is a joint interest of Israelis and Palestinians that the eastern border—the border between the new state of Palestine and Jordan—be protected from invasion of hostile forces (such as ISIS). Who will protect the border between Palestine and Jordan after Israel pulls back its military

In different rounds of the Minds of Peace Experiment (MOPE)—a small-scale Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating assembly, which was conducted in different locations with different delegations of Israelis and Palestinians—the delegations agreed on the creation of a joint Israeli-Palestinian security force that will operate in a security zone near the border.44 This idea has different versions with different implications. For example, in some of the assemblies, the delegations agreed that the joint security force would become part of the IDF. In other assemblies, Palestinians were concerned that soldiers, with IDF uniforms, in Palestinian areas would remind the people of the occupation and the consequences could be harmful. To prevent such complications, the delegations in these assemblies agreed that the border guard unit would have their own special uniforms. In addition, it is worth considering that the border guard unit will be linked to Israel, Palestine, and the Israeli-Palestinian Congress for Peace and Security (which was, previously, proposed as a political peacekeeping institution). Of course, the details need to be

Another option which was raised by some scholars is that, eventually, the Palestinians will need to be in charge of protecting their border. They propose a two-stage process. In the first stage, an international force will protect the border and train a Palestinian border guard unit. In the second stage, the international

<sup>43</sup> The goal of the Minds of Peace project, which was briefly presented at the peacemaking section, is to begin such an evolutionary process. A detailed analysis of the initiative and other options to reach the

<sup>44</sup> For sample agreements that ordinary people have reached, visit http://mindsofpeace.org/category/

<sup>45</sup> Compare to https://www.fpa.org/usr\_doc/Israel\_and\_Palestine\_Two\_States\_for\_Two\_Peoples\_2010.

force will leave, and the Palestinian force will take responsibility.45

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90246*

and Jordan

order in friction points

<sup>40</sup> See, for example, Snow [3].

<sup>41</sup> Ibid., 102–103.

<sup>42</sup> See, for example, Handelman [8, 11, 26, 36].


#### **Table 4.**

*Education, Human Rights and Peace in Sustainable Development*

After the Second World War, peacekeeping was understood as division between entrenched enemies.40 The guiding principle was "Good fences create good neighbors." The end of the Cold War and the growing numbers of intrastate struggles have led to alteration in this view of peacekeeping. The concept of peacekeeping was extended to cases where it is impossible to hermetically separate enemies.41 The unavoidable contact between Israelis and Palestinians shows that it is mandatory to design and implement a nontraditional peacekeeping strategy. A nontraditional strategy involves different societal elements—such as citizens, political leaders, and special security forces—in the efforts to maintain peace, order,

The challenge of peacekeeping is multidimensional. To simplify and demonstrate the need to design a multidimensional strategy to keep peace and stability, the paper suggests focusing on three levels of peacekeeping: political, military, and civilian: An Israeli-Palestinian Congress for Peace and Security can be a political institution for monitoring joint activities and coping with tensions, disputes, and ad hoc sociopolitical problems between the two sides. A joint border security force can be established to protect the east border of a new Palestinian state in the West Bank (the border between the new Palestine and Jordan in a framework of two-state solution). A joint civil guard can be established to help in keeping order and stability in

places where Israeli and Palestinian civilians are in direct contact (**Table 4**).

**Politics**. Peace revolution is a dynamic process, which has an evolutionary dynamic. Political instruments that were created to lead a change in the peacemaking phase need to be modified and changed in the peacekeeping stage. This evolutionary progression needs to be considered at the beginning of the process.

The peacemaking section of this paper proposes establishing a powerful instrument for the peacemaking part of a peace revolution—a major Israeli-Palestinian Public Negotiating Congress. The congress is a consensus-building institution that is planned to involve different societal elements of the conflicting societies (leaders, elites, and people) in the peace efforts. Its main tasks are to offer political alternatives to the violent struggle, prepare the publics for a change, and motivate the leaderships to reach agreements. However, once a peace agreement has been achieved, this peacemaking institution needs to be transformed, or it will become useless. The logic of the evolutionary progression of a peacemaking revolution proposes that a pubic negotiating congress—a major peacemaking institution—should be transformed into a major peacekeeping institution, which could be labeled as congress for peace and security.42 The inevitable friction between Israelis and Palestinians will require political instruments to cope with inevitable tensions, disagreements, and joint problems. In the post-conflict phase, a joint peacekeeping congress could deal with tensions, disputes, and ad hoc problems, initiate and coordinate joint projects in various fields (such as education, economics, and politics), and establish mechanisms for

Similar to the UN, which is the global peacekeeping institution, the main actual power of the peacekeeping congress (Israeli-Palestinian Congress for Peace and Security) is its very existence. In the peacemaking stage, a public negotiating congress involves the publics in the struggle for peace and generates public pressure

**4. Peacekeeping**

and stability.

Let me elaborate.

**290**

reconciliation.

<sup>41</sup> Ibid., 102–103.

<sup>40</sup> See, for example, Snow [3].

<sup>42</sup> See, for example, Handelman [8, 11, 26, 36].

*Peacekeeping in three dimensions.*

to reach a settlement. In the post-conflict phase, the peacekeeping congress should remind everyone of the high cost of conflict and the precious value of peace.

A difficult question is how to start and build this institutional evolution (from peacemaking congress to a peacekeeping congress), which is so necessary for a peace revolution. Unfortunately, this critical discussion is not in scope of this paper.43

**Military**. In a framework of a "two-state solution," Israel demands that the new Palestinian state will be demilitarized. However, it is a joint interest of Israelis and Palestinians that the eastern border—the border between the new state of Palestine and Jordan—be protected from invasion of hostile forces (such as ISIS). Who will protect the border between Palestine and Jordan after Israel pulls back its military forces from the area?

In different rounds of the Minds of Peace Experiment (MOPE)—a small-scale Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating assembly, which was conducted in different locations with different delegations of Israelis and Palestinians—the delegations agreed on the creation of a joint Israeli-Palestinian security force that will operate in a security zone near the border.44 This idea has different versions with different implications. For example, in some of the assemblies, the delegations agreed that the joint security force would become part of the IDF. In other assemblies, Palestinians were concerned that soldiers, with IDF uniforms, in Palestinian areas would remind the people of the occupation and the consequences could be harmful. To prevent such complications, the delegations in these assemblies agreed that the border guard unit would have their own special uniforms. In addition, it is worth considering that the border guard unit will be linked to Israel, Palestine, and the Israeli-Palestinian Congress for Peace and Security (which was, previously, proposed as a political peacekeeping institution). Of course, the details need to be discussed and negotiated by the two sides.

Another option which was raised by some scholars is that, eventually, the Palestinians will need to be in charge of protecting their border. They propose a two-stage process. In the first stage, an international force will protect the border and train a Palestinian border guard unit. In the second stage, the international force will leave, and the Palestinian force will take responsibility.45

<sup>43</sup> The goal of the Minds of Peace project, which was briefly presented at the peacemaking section, is to begin such an evolutionary process. A detailed analysis of the initiative and other options to reach the same goal is beyond the focus of this paper.

<sup>44</sup> For sample agreements that ordinary people have reached, visit http://mindsofpeace.org/category/ agreements/ and http://mopdocuments.blogspot.com/.

<sup>45</sup> Compare to https://www.fpa.org/usr\_doc/Israel\_and\_Palestine\_Two\_States\_for\_Two\_Peoples\_2010. pdf pp./48–49.

It seems that the first proposal has better chances of being accepted by Israelis and Palestinians. It is hard to imagine Israelis and Palestinians agreeing that an international force, and later a new Palestinian security unit, will be in charge of their security. A joint Israeli-Palestinian border guard unit, as in the first proposal, can indirectly serve also as a peacebuilding instrument. Its cooperative feature can help to explore possibilities of improving the relations between Israelis and Palestinians.

**Civilian and police**. The security challenges in the making of a new social order are multidimensional. The interdependence between Israelis and Palestinians, which makes the security problem so difficult to handle, nevertheless holds peacebuilding opportunities. Let me demonstrate by focusing on the three main problems: order and stability within Palestinian territories, settlements, and holy places.

1.Order and stability within Palestine: As already mentioned, the Palestinian society is suffering from symptoms of a developing entity. Israelis, who object to the "two-state solution," claim that any attempt to implement this type of solution is doomed to fail and would endanger the security of Israel.46 The fear is that a new Palestinian state in the West Bank will collapse into civil war similar to the Gaza crisis in 2008. Since civil wars usually end in the victory of one party and not power sharing,47 the results can be a hostile regime (such as Hamas and ISIS) in the West Bank. That would be a serious security threat near Israeli towns.

Building a strong and efficient Palestinian police force is necessary to prevent this dangerous scenario. Israel can help in training the Palestinian police. The cooperation between security forces of the two sides, which works quite well in the West Bank, could be modified, tailored, and expanded for the new situation. In addition, a joint civil guard can be established in order to help in stabilizing a new social order.

2.Jewish settlements in the West Bank: Any form of solution, which is based on the establishment of a Palestinian state, has to cope with the presence of Jewish settlements (about 400,000 settlers) in the West Bank. The "optimal" solution to the problem is probably a mix of three options: (1) border modifications and land exchange: annexation of Jewish settlements to Israel and compensation to Palestinians in return; (2) evacuation of Jewish settlements; and (3) Jewish settlements in the West Bank will remain under Palestinian sovereignty.48

The settlements in the West Bank that cannot be annexed to Israel (option 1) and cannot be evacuated (option 2) will need to remain under Palestinian sovereignty (option 3). This will create major security problems. For example, who will solve disputes between Jewish neighbors? Should religious Jewish settlers call Palestinian police in such matters? Can a Palestinian police officer serve as a moderator in a dispute between religious Jews?

A joint Israeli-Palestinian civil guard can be helpful in such situations. It could assist in coping with such sensitive problems that are beyond the capacity of a

**293**

*Peace Revolution as a Three-Dimensional Process: The Israeli-Palestinian Case*

regular police force. Of course, the two sides will need to discuss and negotiate the very essence of any joint civil guard. This project—the creation of a joint civil guard—has also peacebuilding implications. It can contribute to the transformation of hostile relationships between entrenched enemies who fight one another into cooperative relationships between neighbors who are trying to cope with joint

3.The holy places in Jerusalem: The holy city of Jerusalem, the walled area, which is so important to believers of different religions, needs to be administered with much care, sophistication, and creativity. A joint civil guard, which will be subject to a joint municipality, can take into consideration the needs of those who care about the city. It can become a symbol of pluralism, tolerance,

This section suggests three peacekeeping mechanisms that operate in three intertwined dimensions: congress for peace and security (politics), a joint border guard (military), and a joint civil guard (civilian). It would be important, efficient, and beneficial that Israelis and Palestinians discuss and negotiate the structure, authority, and operation of any peacekeeping mechanism beginning as early as the peacemaking step. It could help avoid future complications when implementing any negotiated peace contract. Moreover, it could be a trust-building move that demonstrates to the people that any peace agreement would be signed and implemented only when mechanisms to keep security, order, and stability are established.49

Intractable conflict is a severe crisis. It is a longtime struggle where generations in turn are born into the reality of aggression, despair, and violence. The conflict seems to have a life of its own. It is like a disease that controls the body. A revolu-

Revolution is an "overthrow of an established social order" Friedrich ([41], 5). Peace revolution is a conclusive attack on the foundations and structure of the conflict and the sociopolitical destructive mechanisms that constantly feed it. Peace revolution is planned to involve, at least, three key elements of the opposing parties (leaders, elites, and people) in a change-building process that tackles the conflict

A revolutionary peace process needs to take into consideration that peace needs

Distinguishing between the three elements of a peace revolution (peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping) is not always clear. Moreover, as this paper shows,

<sup>49</sup> Anwar Sadat, the former president of Egypt, in his historical speech in the Israeli Knesset, addressed, quite effectively, the pathological Israeli fear. To read the speech, visit https://ecf.org.il/media\_items/833.

to be made, built, and kept. Peacemaking suggests diplomatic instruments to involve key social elements of the conflicting parties (leaders, elites, and people) in a multidimensional negotiation of a peace contract. Peacebuilding offers a program to construct a negotiated framework for a new social order, which copes with the needs, fears, and concerns of the conflicting factions. Peacekeeping advocates the creation of a multidimensional system of different operating mechanisms (politi-

tionary process is needed to create a sustainable change.

cal, militaristic. and civilian) to maintain law and order.

from different levels, sides, and directions.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90246*

problems.

and peace.

**5. Summary**

**4.1 Concluding remarks**

<sup>46</sup> Cf. Inbar [36].

<sup>47</sup> Cf. Toft [39].

<sup>48</sup> For different peace plans, see Golan [40].

#### *Peace Revolution as a Three-Dimensional Process: The Israeli-Palestinian Case DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90246*

regular police force. Of course, the two sides will need to discuss and negotiate the very essence of any joint civil guard. This project—the creation of a joint civil guard—has also peacebuilding implications. It can contribute to the transformation of hostile relationships between entrenched enemies who fight one another into cooperative relationships between neighbors who are trying to cope with joint problems.

3.The holy places in Jerusalem: The holy city of Jerusalem, the walled area, which is so important to believers of different religions, needs to be administered with much care, sophistication, and creativity. A joint civil guard, which will be subject to a joint municipality, can take into consideration the needs of those who care about the city. It can become a symbol of pluralism, tolerance, and peace.
