- by Green
Olive staff -

The Innovations
in Conflict Resolution and Mediation conference at Tel Aviv University was
the first of its kind and an invitation was extended to Ariel University, built
in one of Israel’s largest settlements on land occupied since 1967. At the
time, the occupation was unanimously declared illegal by the United Nations
Security Council in Resolution 242 and many more resolutions have followed
since. Despite condemnation from the Council of Presidents of Israeli
Universities, Ariel University was granted full university status in 2012.
One of the panels the Green Olive Collective attended is particularly
relevant to our tour guides and discussed the important role of narratives in
conflicts and their resolution. Among the panellists was Ariel's Idit
Miller, who presented research that was academically flimsy and
ideologically very dangerous. You can read an abstract of her work here and see an interview with her here. She interviewed Palestinian
and Jewish-Israeli factory workers in the Barkan Industrial Park - itself built
on illegally occupied land, near Ariel.
The facility employs several hundred Palestinians and her research saw her
conduct anonymous interviews with 25 of them and a similar number of Jewish
staff members. She proudly described how Palestinian staff have the same
salaries and all the same workers’ rights as their Jewish Israeli counterparts.
She said some were managers and overwhelmingly they reported a great sense of
pride due to the economic benefits these jobs brought them. Furthermore, she
said that there was a happy, politics-free coexistence at the factory that
benefited Jews and Arabs alike.
While we haven’t conducted our own research in the communities, and admit
that it would usually be dangerous to discount rigorous academic work out of
hand merely because it didn’t align with our personal ideology, this is not the
case here. Firstly, the intrinsic institutional and political bias of somewhere
like Ariel University conducting this research should make the public very
cautious. Second, there is much plainly contradictory evidence which Miller
ignores. Palestinians employed in Israeli businesses in the Occupied
Territories have only benefited from Israeli labour laws since 2007 after a
long legal battle. Kav LaOved, the Israeli workers’ rights organisation,
claim that especially in smaller factories Palestinian rights remain frequently
abused. You can read an (admittedly slightly outdated) report on the generally
tough conditions faced by Palestinians employed in settlements here.
Even if we accept that the specific factory used in the research is a
shining example, the general effect of the settlements on the Palestinian
economic and way of life cannot be forgotten. Neither can the fact that the
land the factory was built on was never paid for but won in military action! Human
Rights Watch claim that Israeli businesses operating in Area C (land
occupied since 1967 and since 1995 formally under Israeli civil and military
control) costs the Palestinian economy $3.4 billion a year.
Meanwhile just over a month ago a Palestinian employee at the facility
smuggled in an automatic weapon and shot three of his co-workers, killing two.
While this is undoubtedly an awful act of terror, the incident was brushed off
by Ms. Miller as insignificant when building an overall picture of coexistence.
The terrorist who attacked the Barkan industrial
park is still at large.
The IDF destroyed his family home on November 6. |
The theoretical framework for her research came from Allport’s 1968 contact
theory. In a nutshell, it claims that under the right conditions contact
between two groups can reduce tensions and increase cooperation. One of the
explicit conditions is equality. This was addressed in a cursory manner
by Miller and she used other research which had found limited success under
less than ideal conditions to upend this pillar of the theory. The inequality
in the park makes the research ludicrous. Palestinians may have the same
minimum wage as their Israeli colleagues, but they live under military rule
where they can be arbitrarily detained and tried in a military court.
Palestinians may have the same holiday leave as their colleagues, but while an
Israeli can take their vacations on the beach of Tel Aviv or in the jungle of
Thailand, most of the Palestinian workers do not have access to a coastline or
an airport.
The irony of the situation was not lost on the other panel members, the
moderator nor the audience. Everyone listened respectfully, but when question
time came around both Miller and the Tel Aviv University administration were
peppered with tough questions which they barely managed to answer. TAU and
the moderator Dr. Steven Klein came in for criticism for their normalisation of
the occupation by even allowing Ariel to participate. Klein admitted many
academics, including himself, opposed Ariel being represented, but said as an
officially recognised university there was nothing TAU nor he could do.
Other audience members and panel members, notably Jeremie Bracka of
Monash University, said that her research presentation was unacceptable. It
should also be noted that other panel members proposed many interesting
concepts that do recognise Palestinian narratives. It was Bracka who movingly
suggested that until Israel recognises the trauma of the nakba peaceful
coexistence is impossible.
What do you think about mainstream Israel’s treatment of institutions in
the settlements? Many would argue that the international community and the UN
are very clear on this matter and we should follow their lead. Others claim
that international law is irrelevant because the land of Israel was gifted to
the Jewish people by God in the Bible and is governed by higher laws. Others still
may point out that although Ariel University is on territory claimed in battle
in 1967, Tel Aviv University itself sits on the remains of the Arab village
Sheik Munis, destroyed in 1948. Ultimately, what’s the big difference? Let us
know what you think below, on our Twitter page or in our Facebook comment section.
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