Abstract

The sacred land of Palestine is under the commotion of blood and smoke. The origin and fundamental grounds of 70 years old between Muslims and the Jewish community. Since the inception of Israel, the western world has supported and expanded the reigns of Israel by shrinking the geographical and religious space for Palestinian Arabs. The conflict embraced ethnoreligious, racial, territorial, and ideological emotions, which remain unresolved even after numerous agreements and accords. The said conflict is evaluated through the lens of Edward Azar’s protracted social conflict theory, which encompasses communal content, governance, deprivation of human rights, and international linkages towards the Palestine- Israel conflict. The paper will highlight the major constraints and deep-rooted causes of the Palestine Israel conflict.

Key Words

Protracted, Communal Content, Deprivation, Governance, International Linkages

Introduction

Conflict Analysis is comprised of vast academic and scholarly works. The transformation of Arab into Israel and Palestine gave rise to new conflict in Asia, ultimately ended up in riots, violence, and wars. Declaration of Israel to the occupation of Palestine's land has a long history based upon foreign interventions, malign agenda, the role of peacekeepers, and deprivation of societal needs. The ethno-religious and racial discrimination in Palestine-Israel leads the conflict to violence, wars, and bloodshed. Interests of western countries, the USA in Israel, and the role of Arab Countries as a mediator in peacekeeping and prosperity in Palestine cannot be undermined. The paper will investigate the major paradigms of socio-political conflicts in the region through the application of the Conflict Analysis tool.

Theoretical Framework

Conflict analysis has a wide range of Theorists and models to diagnose and analyze the conflict through different perspectives. Different theorists have highlighted distinct aspects of conflict and derived their own methodology and models from probing into the conflict. Burton theory of Human needs, Galtung ABC triangle model, and Aristotle's theory of nature and nurture had drawn considered results on Palestine Israel conflict. However, in this paper, the researcher shall evaluate the Palestine – Israel conflict under the framework of the protracted social conflict theory of Edward Azar. The four postulates of PSC theory would be applied to the conflict to highlight the communal issues in Israel, the role of government in addressing the human needs, and distribution of power among communities, keeping in view the foreign intervention and international linkage.   

Edward Azar Theory

'Protracted social conflicts occur when communities are deprived of the satisfaction of their basic needs on the basis of the communal identity. However, the deprivation is the result of a complex causal chain involving the role of the state and the pattern of international linkages. Furthermore, initial conditions (colonial legacy, domestic historical setting, and the multi-communal nature of the society) play important roles in shaping the genesis of protracted social conflict.’  

The determinants of PSC theory are:

1. Communal content

2. Deprivation of human needs

3. Governance / State Role 

4. International linkages 

In Communal Content, Azar emphasized the communal factor as the most predominant factor in the PSC model. He also highlighted the effects of divide and rule policies of Colonialism which leads to inadequate distribution of power within communities and societies. These rivalries travel down for ages and defend the discrimination among societies in terms of dominant and oppressed groups. This dominance surprisingly increases with the coalition by other community groups, which also represses the needs of weaker groups in society. Azar also introduced the concept of reconciliation. The best solution in the nation-building process is eliminating disintegration, discernment, and social injustice.

The second vital factor of Azar’s theory)deliberates the socio-economic development of conflicting groups that negates the universal clause of Human Needs. The survival of societies lies in the uniform distribution and equity of rights in terms of food, security, self-esteem, and all human needs. Azar emphasized the political, identity, and security needs of the community in depth. The communal disorders of power facilitate the powerful group and induce a sense of deprivation and grievances in weaker groups. The catastrophic attitude of authority in resolving such discrepancies in society leads to protracted social conflict. Eventually, such conflicts end up in violent manifestations.

State Role/ Governance is the third foundation. The Azar's theory identifies the unjust provisioning of human needs to communal groups. The theory reveals the main cause of protracted social conflict mostly derived from the dominance of one elite group and exclusion of minor groups. The role of governance in the legitimization of power and provisions create a comparative and competitive conflict scenario among all communal groups. The weaker state has less command and control on the implementation of policy, economy, and development of society and mostly relay on foreign funding and aid. Internal issues and domestic crises are always well managed by good governance and strong institutional infrastructure. 

Once the government is powerless and dependent relies upon external force in policymaking and designing the framework for institutional structure, its development and decisions have become prone to foreign dictations. Azar exposes International Linkages as the fourth significant pillar of PSC, based on the accessibility of human needs to all communal groups equally. International linkages are further classified into Economic Dependency and Client Relationships as dictated by foreign powers to materialize and disseminate the internal policies for development and security. The foreign interference eradicates the domestic socio-political and socio-economical system of the state and encourages the discrimination of communal groups in accessibility and prosperity. The disjoint in domestic and foreign policies are induced by the client's loyalty and obedience. The sense of belonging and autonomy of freedom is compromised through weaker state roles and stronger influence of foreign involvement.

Palestine-Israel Conflict

Palestine has been a sacred and holy sanctuary for almost all religions for ages. It always attracted the worshippers of Islam, Christianity, Zionism, and Judaism. Arab Muslims have been residing in Palestine for more than a thousand years. During British colonization, western Zionists started migrating from the west to Palestine, and in 1948, United Nations declared Israel as an independent state within Palestine Land. This declaration not only distributed the land territory unevenly but also excited the religious, cultural, and emotional state of the Palestinian people.
The geographical size of Israel in 1948 has increased incredibly till now as depicted below:-
 


































Image 1

The foreign involvement, boosting progress, and socio-economic development of Israel had severe impacts on the psycho-social development of Palestine. The illegitimate occupation of land provoked the Muslims of Palestine to war. In multiple wars between Israel and Palestine, well supported by the U.S. and the west with Arab Muslim countries had outnumbered the majority of unarmed Palestine and backed Israeli armed personnel. After the wars, seize fire was accompanied by peace agreements. However, due to Israeli political aggression and Palestine, social injustice brought both parties on war grounds and violence. 
The recent attack of Israeli forces on the Aqsa Mosque in the month of Ramadan, 2021, killed hundreds of Muslims while praying. The seize fire is done after losing hundreds of innocent children, males, and females by airstrikes of Israel in Gaza. The conflict is analyzed through the lens of Azar’s theory in a subsequent manner. 
The Palestine-Israel conflict is not on the division of territorial land; the conflict of racial, religious, cultural, and ethnic identical groups commences since the inception of Israel. These identical groups are the focal point of protracted social conflict which falls under Communal Content, the first precondition of PSC theory, and acts as a catalyst in creating disarticulation between state and society. The beginning of Zionism and its offshoots in Israel were contradictory to the Islamic ideology of Arab Palestine. The Palestine Arab’s sense of ownership, nationalism, and sense of belonging with land had serious issues with the Israeli Jewish occupancy. U.N.'s decision of recognizing Israel establishing an independent Jewish state was the biggest shock to Muslims who have been residing in this land for centuries. The foreign-backed Zionism, development, and attorney to Jewish State oppressed the Muslim community in Palestine, and as a result, Palestine declared a full-scale war against Israel occupation. Communal factor in Palestine and Israel has a great impact on Muslims and Jews globally.
Considering the second precondition of Azar PSC is clearly visible with thousands of internally displaced Palestinians and well settled Jewish. During the partition, Muslims were deprived of basic human needs. The disposition and displacement of Palestinian to other parts of Palestine as well as to neighboring countries is a clear justification of the Jewish hegemonic design of the elite communal group. The Jewish proclaimed this land belonged to their forefathers and illegal occupation by Muslims and evacuated Arabs Muslims from their own homeland created grievances between both stakeholders. These deprivations comprised of political, development, and security needs of both groups. After a number of wars and successive development of Israel, the deprivation of human needs in the Muslim community in Palestine has remarkably increased. Water scarcity in Palestine and availability of drinking water, irrigation, and domestic use is a global issue now. Moreover, the health, education, social security of Palestinian Muslims is also compromised by a strong Jewish lobby.
Azar’s third precondition of PSC also fulfills the criteria of “Governance and State Role." The dis-agreement of Israel with Palestinians' legitimate rights created differences between the Labor and Likud Par-ties also divided Israeli society. On the other hand, Palestinians strongly oppose the Oslo accord which creates chaos in Palestine society. Since Oslo II between Palestine Liberal Organization and Israel. In September 1995, the Likud government strongly opposed the peace process of the Oslo Agreement and caused various violent activities between Palestine and Israel. 
The last precondition to PSC is very evident
by the interest of the U.S. and Western countries in the development and progress of Israel and proved Azar's "International Linkages” to conflict. During five wars between Israel and Palestine from 1948 to 2021, European countries and the USA facilitated the arms, ammunition, and logistic support to Israel. The Arab countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, and other allies, had supported Palestine. The western intervention is stronger due to their gigantic power and economic infrastructure. Secondly, the distribution of more than 8 million dollars by the USA in the name of peacekeeping missions and development to Israel is also debatable. The weak governance in Palestine is one of the reasons for portraying their humanitarian issues, territorial conflicts, and composed bargain with Israel and the international world. The media is also biased in portraying Israel as more affected due to the dominant foreign policies of the state. 


Image 2


Critical Analysis

The conflict of Arab Muslims and Israeli Jewish has a long history in both religions; moreover, the sanctity of land is also significant for both religions. Azar's theory of PSC is applicable to Palestine- Israel conflict through all aspects. However, in the modern war era, the role of media, information warfare, hybrid warfare, and technological advancement in conflict and peace resolution are not answered. As the Edward Azar theory was given in the early 1990s, the development in the academia of peace and conflict study is remarkable. The PSC theory pointed out the root cause of the conflict in a true manner. However, for peace resolution and sustainable peace, a lot of other variables need to be discussed and emphasized.

The role of a neighboring country in resolving the water crisis is also under consideration to resolve the matter of scarcity by providing a secondary water source in Palestine. The role of the United Nations seems biased in this conflict, and it also proves the role of economically powerful state and their design. The role of the United Nations and peacekeeping agencies need to understand the founding stakes of conflict before making any accord or agreement. The vision of the ex-President of the USA, Trump, depicts the deployment of Israeli forces in figure-II of the map. and their negative agenda of command and control in the region. The OIC, Organization of Islamic Countries, needs to emphasize more on this issue in order to have sustainable peace. The religious scholars of Jews and Muslims can also mediate the sense of hatred and rivalry among Muslim-Jewish relations to sustain peace and prosperity in this contested space. The driving force of Religious demonstration and teachings are always strong and long-lasting in launching protest and direct violence. 

Conclusion

Any conflict based on race, religion, land, and ethnicity has deep emotions. The conflict analysis tool provided by Azar's PSC is relevant in finding the founding core causes, proximate reasons of conflict, and protruding deficit human rights among Muslims of Palestine. These issues need to be negotiated on multiple aspects in order to achieve harmony. Palestine suppression and Israel's hegemonic design of expansion are the evident sources of conflict that need to be curtailed at the earliest unless the next violence, bloodshed, or war erupts. 

References

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