Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Perspectives on the ...

power is knowledge in this world and if nobody knows something, it must be important.

This secrecy was one of the reasons for the failure of Camp David. There was too great a gap between the back-room decision makers and the public, which was not at all prepared for what it had to confront. I think the mode of negotiations has to change. The obvious response is to make it more transparent and more inclusive, and not only in terms of releasing some of the resulting ideas and ensuring they become a subject of discussion. Releasing these ideas is very important, and it is also a critical way of bringing civil society into the process. Civil society can be a constructive tool for laying the groundwork for ideas and for the implementation of those ideas, and therefore needs to be consulted. I, by the way, have discussed this extensively with European and U.S. leaders through the International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace, and some things are beginning to emerge, but this is not enough.

And now I am going to say something critical in order to reiterate the point: Tremendous work has been done by civil society on both Israeli and Palestinian sides in terms of creating at least some spaces for a different kind of existence. Civil society on both sides, however, has not acted strategically enough. That is its key weakness. When I say “not acted strategically,” I mean that it has not tried, and sometimes purposely avoided, directly dealing with decision makers. It is so much easier to get together with a few people that one agrees with, rather than to try to change the minds of those who make the decisions. Therefore, making the mode of negotiations more inclusive will force civil society to be more strategic. I see that as an advantage; it not only because it fills a credibility gap but also because it puts responsibility for the outcome of negotiations on every single Israeli and Palestinian. Then the outcome is not only a leadership issue, but also a community and societal issue. If one is part of the process, one holds at least some responsibility for the results.

In summary, I suggest that the immediate issues and obstacles are primarily the ongoing violence and the growing mistrust in both Israel and