Peace-Making in Divided Societies

The Israel-South Africa analogy This paper explores the lessons that the unresolved Israel-Palestinian conflict can draw from South Africa's 'negotiated revolution'. Six realms are compared: economic interdependence, religious divisions, third-party intervention, leadership, political culture, and violence. Contrasting insights form two opposite solutions to a nationalist conflict and shed light on the nature of ethnicity and the limits of negotiation politics.

Executive Summary

Conceptual clarifications: The purpose of the Israel-South Africa analogy

The colonial analogy
The apartheid analogy
Strategic implications

The relevance of the Middle East for South Africa

Conclusion: visions of endgame
Islamic extremist positions
Jewish extremist positions
Two-state positions
A multicultural liberal democracy?

Notes

Bibliography

Heribert Adam, a political sociologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, was born in Germany and educated at the Frankfurt School. Professor Adam has published extensively on socio-political developments in South Africa and comparative ethnic conflicts. He served as President of the International Sociological Associations Research Committee on Ethnic, Minority and Race Relations, was awarded the 1998 Konrad Adenauer Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.