"so this is going to continue for how many generations, then ?"
until liberation and return, until our human rights are respected and honored, until the end of racism and apartheid. or do you think palestinians don't deserve the same rights as everyone else? in case you don't understand what "normalization" means, it is to normalize the current status quo and make palestinians accept permanent inequality and injustice. of course we will never accept that! (duh)

Corey, your response demonstrates all of the failings in understanding that initially led Palestinians to reject people-to-people dialogue projects. Your answer focuses on the way in which your interactions with Palestinians have transformed your personal understanding of the conflict. You highlight how you have become more open and understanding. You make clear that talking with Palestinians has been important in helping you see Palestinians as equal to yourself and as individuals with legitimate grievances and rights. However, instead of taking this information and saying that your new understanding has led you to actively opposed occupation and to work for a transformation of the unjust structures found in your society, you instead say that Palestinians need to do more to convince Israelis that they really are good people. This approach focuses on transforming Israeli attitudes while leaving unchallenged the structural and systemic inequalities that are at the root of the conflict.

In this approach Palestinians are responsible for “humanizing” themselves to Israelis and proving that they are worthy of respect and equality. Rather than focusing on ending oppressive actions, this approach places primary responsibility on the shoulders of the victims, asking that they prove that their victimization is wrong. The whole structure of this dialogue is imbalanced. Palestinians cannot initiate dialogue projects of this sort due to Israeli military restrictions which ban Palestinians from traveling to locations where they can meet Israelis and which ban Israelis from entering Palestinian areas. The special military dispensation that is needed to make these programs happen guarantees that Palestinian voices are never equally heard during the planning process. These programs are also premised on an idea of false equality. They hold up each group’s suffering and narrative as equal and present Palestinians and Israelis as equally responsible for the conflict. While it may be true that each side has suffered, there are real legal and structural imbalances that exist between Israelis and Palestinians and which leave them unequal. Because these types of programs don’t address or usually even acknowledge the political and power imbalances that exist between Palestinians and Israelis they cannot work.

I was present at the Palestinian NGO Network meeting in late 2000 when the decision was made to cut all people to people programs. This decision was taken in the context of the violence occurring at the beginning of the second Intifada, but it was not a reactionary decision. Rather, it was a decision made after a careful review of how people to people programs had worked over the previous decade. Prior to that decision I spent six months talking with both Israeli and Palestinian participants in people-to-people and peace education programs. On the Israeli side the programs got mixed, but generally favorable reviews. On the Palestinian side these programs were universally condemned. They were not condemned because Palestinians didn’t want peace. They were condemned because they were set up in a way that only allowed for transformations in interpersonal relationships. When issues related to ongoing injustices arising from the occupation and impacting Palestinian lives were raised they were shut down by Israeli participants. During the peaces process Palestinians saw these programs continue while the political situation deteriorated. Personal relationships are nice, but because they didn’t lead to political action and efforts to transform injustice Palestinians ultimately saw them as at their best useless and at their worst damaging. Damaging because they gave a venire of normality to what remained an abusive and unjust situation. They provided a false yes to the question, “can’t we all just get along”. They were picked up in the international press as demonstrations of how the “peace process” was working when in reality Palestinians rights were being stripped away.

Please note that the decision to cut people to people programming in 2000 was not a ban on all contact with Israelis. It explicitly left open room for cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations and this cooperation continues. It also left open the possibility of cooperation in a basis of true equality. We see this type of cooperation today in Nilin, Bil’in and Sheikh Jarrah as Israelis involved with Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah and Anarchists Against the Wall work with Palestinians to bring change. To answer your question about where normalization starts and ends, in my opinion it starts and ends in situations where an individual or group tries to bring together Palestinians and Israelis as part of an effort to demonstrate that normal relationships can exist between the two peoples but where they do not first openly address the deeper structural injustices and inequalities that exist between the two people.

The ban on normalization programming also was not a ban on individual contacts with Israelis and therefore has no relevance for the types of contacts that might happen at Gas stations, in stores and in hospitals. However, as I am sure you are aware, these types of interactions are also very limited due to Israeli imposed restrictions on the movement of both Palestinians and Israelis which make it illegal for Israelis to enter Palestinian areas and which ban Palestinians from Israeli areas. When Palestinians can enter Israeli controlled areas, whether in settlements or in Israel, they do so on military issued permits that place them on an inherently unequal footing. When my daughter had heart surgery in a hospital near Tel Aviv several years ago, over half of the patients in the pediatric cardiac care center were Palestinians from the West Bank. They were all thankful for the care they received, but also very conscious of the fact that they were only present in the hospital as a result of having received a special permit. In most cases both parents could not be present to support their young children because both did not receive permits.

Daily interactions happened between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis in the hospital, but they were far from normal. Take the following (real) experience as an example:

Hospital psychologist: “Your daughter is having heart surgery today, that must be stressful.”
Me: “Yes”
HP: “Where do you live?”
Me: “Ramallah”
HP: “Oh, I did my military service in Ramallah.”
Me: “Oh”
HP: “So do you want to share about your feelings.”
Me: “Thanks, but no.”

There is an unconscious acceptance of militarism and occupation in Israeli society that really doesn’t allow for normal interactions between most Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. However, people on the powerful side of this imbalance aren’t generally conscious of the screwed up nature of these relations.

Finally, a brief comment on people-to people programs that are aimed at building understanding between youth and/or young adults. Of all of the types of normalization programming these are the worst. They are abusive and in many instances do more to undermine peace than to build peace. They take young adults and push them together in unnatural environments where young adults are asked (forced) to see each other as “equal”. It is great when Avi and Mohammed can get along at a camp in Maine and can appreciate their shared love of soccer, but the truth is that they are not equal and as soon as they leave their camp setting they must reenter their lives. Avi will have to join the military. Mohammed will face all of the restrictions on his life that come with living under occupation. More often than not this results in youth becoming jaded. What happens when Mohammed returns home and realizes that despite the fact that he and Avi had a good time together Avi is still going to participate in a system that oppresses Mohammed? How does this build trust and understanding? Avi may feel like he is a more humane soldier as a result of his time with Mohammed, but what change does Mohammed see?

These programs also place the burden of social and political change on the backs of children while failing to challenge the political injustices that leave these children unequal. They build up false hopes while doing nothing to bring about the changes needed to make the hopes for change that they raise a reality. Adults can make their own conscious decisions about participating in these types of programs, but to target these programs at youth is abusive.

None of this is to say that building understanding is not important. It clearly is important for people to understand each other. Getting Israelis and Palestinians together is a great idea. However, when they come together they need to come together as true equals who are working to end real injustices, not just to change attitudes.

'So I suggest putting your views to the test and come live in the West Bank if you are Palestinian, Israel if you are Jewish and join your brothers and sisters living here.'

I am not an armchair psychologist, but a basic ingredient for moving forward is acknowledging and correcting the wrongdoing. Also, the above sentence is quite telling about Corey's point of view. First, There is no recognition of Palestinians living in Israel or historic Palestine. Yes, it is not black and white. Second, my parents who were born in the Ramallah area cannot come back to the oPt to live because upon leaving the oPt, they were told to leave their ID cards at 'border control' and that they would returned to them upon their return. However, upon their return, they were informed that they no longer hold West Banks IDs and they can only come in as tourists. When my parents wanted to prolong their stay beyond the three month visa, their 'request' was denied. During this same year, my cousin was denied entry because he had 'violated' his three month visa status - to the land where he was born...Need I say more? Yes, I do. With all due respect, who are you to decide who YOU want your 'neighbors' to be given that you are talking about the indigenous people here?

Acknowledge the wrongdoing...the dispossession and forced displacement of a people, and then we can 'dialogue.'

It's a jab in any context. Telling Palestinians Yala, is like asking the African Americans during the times of slavery to solve White racism. Several carts before the horse, you know
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Not speaking about the origin of Jews/Palestinians, I liked the Anon calling the BDS "aparteid". Next time he will call the demand of equal rights for Palestinians "racism".

About dialog and status quo - given that "peace process" has been doing exactly this - preserving the (real) aparteid Zionist rule on Palestine, it is no wonder that the same Zionists use fancy names for the same goal - to stop Palestinians from getting their rights, their land and their equality.

Anon speaks as if the call for BDS is an order from some "government", while it is NOT. It is a call of Palestinians themselves, and if they want BDS, it is NOT for Anon from Germany to teach them how they should manage their matters.

On the other hand, Zionists are always happy to speak between themselves and pretend they are "dialoging". See the farce by BHL in Paris - a bunch of Zionists pretending to speak in the name of Syrians.

"I encourage those of you who haven't been fully brainwashed by this article to check out the Facebook page, it grows by about a hundred people per hour. Very exciting!" - James

This article merely highlights the distortions, exaggerations and lies of Ethan Bronner's article. Taking just one of Bronner's lies at face value, then the Facebook page has gone from "22,500 active users" to around 6,700 fans (assuming an "active user" = a fan who Likes a page). That's a LOSS of 15,800 fans in just over 2 days or a loss of 310 fans per hour.

Exciting? NOT VERY!

Peres : a former Haganah member (a terrorist Jewish militia that participated in the Nakba) and the butcher of Qana ....and now the old guy preaches peace ...REALLY