In any sense of the word, “peace” requires defrauded parties to be made whole, not simply apologizing for the transgression. In the case of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict, neither party will concede to their wrong doing and if they were to do so, a mere apology does nothing to help reconcile offenses charged to the actors in this seemingly everlasting conflict. And despite their best efforts, no state directly involved can honestly say they’ve made an effort to solve this conflict with an unbiased solution that will favor both parties. Given the stated information, it is beyond evident that an unbiased third party should formulate a peace proposal for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Peace on the west bank can be achieved through a series of practical, yet demanding steps. These steps will include demolition, reconciliation, assimilation.
The Current Conflict(s)
Prior to the Proposal, it will important that one is aware of the conflict at a hand. There are two primary issues at the center of this continuing conflict. First, there is the unavoidably destabilizing effect of trying to preserve an ethnically favored state, particularly when it is mostly of foreign origin. The initial population of what is now Israel was 96 percent Muslim and Christian, yet, these refugees are forbidden from returning to their homes in the self-described Jewish state (and those within Israel are subjected to systematic discrimination).
Second, Israel’s continuous military occupation and confiscation of privately owned land in the West Bank, and control over Gaza, are extremely oppressive, with Palestinians having minimal to no control over their lives. Hundreds to thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children are held in Israeli prisons. Very few of them have had a legitimate trial; Physical abuse and torture are frequent, and Palestinian borders are controlled by Israeli forces. Periodically men, women, and children are strip searched; people are beaten; women in labor are prevented from reaching hospitals (often times resulting in death) food and medicine are prohibited from entering Gaza, thus producing an escalating humanitarian crisis. Israeli forces invade daily, injuring, kidnapping, and sometimes killing populaces.
According to the Oslo peace accords of 1993, these territories were intended to finally become a Palestinian state. However, after a few years of Israel continuing to confiscate land and conditions perpetually worsening, the Palestinian population rebelled. This uprising, called the “Intifada” (Arabic for “shaking off”) began at the end of September 2000.
Demolition
Throughout history, walls and borders have been erected to keep people in (Berlin Wall) and to keep people out (Great Wall of China). In the case of the West Bank, Israel has constructed a wall to essentially work as both a deterrent and a form of concealment. To add, not only are physical walls being erected, but theoretical walls that attack the legitimacy of the opposing party (as seen elsewhere throughout history) are being built.
A physical border is being built by is Israel and it is intended to protect Israelis from the plague of West Bank suicide bombers by keeping them out of Israel and by containing them in parts of the West Bank. From the Palestinian perspective the wall is a land claim, with intentions to create a de facto occupation of land to Israel. Inasmuch as Israel's current policy of "realignment" calls for autonomous territorial adjustment should negotiations fail, this perspective is understandable.
Physical walls aren’t the only borders being built in this conflict. An “Iron Wall”, as described and coined by (Jabotinsky, 1937), is being fabricated by Israel. He explains how the Palestinian Arabs "look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. To think that the Arabs will voluntarily consent to the realization of Zionism in return for the cultural and economic benefits we can bestow on them is infantile." In his explanation of how convinced he was that there would be a contest for the land, he noted that "Every indigenous people will resist alien settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding themselves of the danger of foreign settlement. That is what the Arabs in Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary flash of hope that they will be able to prevent the alteration of 'Palestine' into the 'Land of Israel.'" The implications of this ethnoterritorial battle had obvious concerns for Jabotinsky, who noted that Israeli continuing to build and expand could "continue and develop only under the security of a force independent of the local population–an iron wall which the native populace cannot break through." A point to be made of all this that walls and constructs are not built to protect or serve anybody else but the people who erected them. If peace is to come out of Israel and Palestine, a demolishing of all walls, both physical and theoretical must be demolished.
Reconciliation
The next phase in this journey to peace will be reconciliation. Reconciliation begins with the assimilation of the Palestinian people back into community. Specifically, this will require schools to meet the needs of all people and ethnic relation, requirements for workplaces to hire a certain number of Palestinian people in all places of work, and the inclusion of Palestinian culture in places of entertainment as well. Given the turmoil between these two people, it understandable that there will be complications during this part of the three-step plan, however, once this step is completed, step three can commence. As the people of this new borderless state begin to assimilate, reconciliation will shortly follow.
Reconfiguration
Finally, the last phase in this journey for peace between Israel and Palestine is reconfiguration. It is beyond evident that both the Israeli people and the Palestinian people want the land. Not pieces of this land but all of it and its religious implications and sentimental/historical value that mean so much to both actors. With the walls and borders destroyed and attempts to reconcile/assimilate back with one another, a final step must be taken to ensure peace for both people and will continue to do so for years to come. That final step will be reconfiguring the political makeup of the state and guaranteeing fair and unbiased capabilities. This final step will include the introduction of a representative democracy for the land. Due to recent Israeli occupation of the land, it is obvious that the people’s votes will be completely one sided, that is why for the first inaugural event, the soon to be new members of their representative democracy will be voted in by not only the people of the state, but also the UN as an unbiased third party. This action will take place once at the beginning for this new era to ensure a fair chance for the less populated Palestinian people. With elected officials of both Israeli and Palestinian relation, the hope is that this will help balance out the new state and give some power to those that are systematically inferior.
In Summary
One can witness something truly remarkable about this conflict, and that is its “refractory nature”. (Feldmen 442) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict obtains this amazing ability to resist any and all efforts to resolve it. This sense of resilience seems to be rooted in a shocking capability to adapt to changes and conflict resolutions. The conflict and its actors reinvent themselves repeatedly throughout history by altering its form and by embracing new forms in response to the international system around them, all the while preserving its purpose, as stubborn as can be.
It is beyond evident that both actors involved in this conflict are suffering a great deal and something must be done to resolve this seemingly insoluble conflict. After much review as previously explained, it is with great confidence that one could believe a plan of demolition, reconciliation, and reconfiguration could be what creates peace between the Israeli and the Palestinian people. It will not be easy, nor will it happen overnight, but it most definitely is possible, and the journey for peace between these two people must begin today.