Issue n. 5 of Quest presents ten papers on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than focusing on its dynamics through its well-known calendar of wars, retaliations and violent confrontations, or through the parallel history of diplomatic negotiations – failed at one point or another with the exception of Camp David (1979) and of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty (1994) – this issue offers a different perspective: it does not look at the so-called hundred years war of the Middle East through the lenses of opposed nationalisms, of questioned borders and of contested land, of ethnicity or of citizenship issues. Instead, it examines and discusses the theoretical standpoints and/or the practical experiments of coexistence devised at different historical moments by some Israeli and/or Palestinian individuals, groups, associations or later non-governmental organizations (NGO) from the 1930s to the present. The approach has been interdisciplinary, as the category of ‘conflict’ is not a purely historical and political one, but one that also pertains to the individual and the communities involved. In this respect we have tried to put Israeli-Palestinian conflict in perspective, taking into account also its representation, to help deconstruct the idea that the conflict is inevitable, permanent and all-pervasive. In brief, our focus has been on some of the alternatives that from below tried to transform the conditions of a “medium-intensity protracted conflict” (alternated by periods open warfare) that Palestinians and Zionists/Israelis experienced since the times of the British Mandate (1922–1948).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Israelis and Palestinians Seeking, Building and Representing Peace. A Historical Appraisal by Marcella Simoni
Challenging National Narratives in Palestine/Israel: Interconnections between Past and Present by Giulia Daniele
A Christian Look at the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Bruno Hussar and the Foundation of ‘Ne-ve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam’ by Maria Chiara Rioli
Constructing Peace… but What Kind of Peace? Women’s Activism, Strategies and Discourse against War (Israel-Palestine 1950-2012) by Valerie Pouzol
“Hello pacifist” War Resisters in Israel’s First Decade by Marcella Simoni
In God’s Name: Jewish Religious and Traditional Peace and Human Rights Movements in Israel and in the Occupied Territories by Cristiana Calabrese
Promoting Peace: Peace Now as a Graphic Peace Movement, 1987–1993 by Jon Simons
Memory and Mobilization? Identity, Narrative and Nonviolent Resistance in the Palestinian Intifadas by Julie Norman
Hope through Steadfastness: The Journey of ‘Holy Land Trust’ by Erin Dyer
Panels for Peace: Contributions of Israeli and Palestinian Comics to Peace-Building by Chantal Catherine Michel
Palestinians and Israelis Collaborate in Addressing the Historical Narratives of their Conflict by Rafi Nets-Zehngut
Discussion
Robert S.C. Gordon: The Holocaust in Italian Culture 1944–2010 by Anna Baldini
Reviews
Todd Endelman: Broadening Jewish History. Towards a Social History of Ordinary Jews by Barbara Armani
Simone Luzzatto: Scritti politici e filosofici di un ebreo scettico nella Venezia del Seicento by Cristiana Facchini
Gianfranco Ragona: Gustav Landauer: anarchico ebreo tedesco 1870–1919 by Steven Schouten
Emilano Perra, Conflicts of Memory. The Reception of Holocaust Films and TV Programmes in Italy, 1945 to the Present by Guri Schwarz