Title: Trust, Ethics, and Intentionality in Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation
Abstract: This chapter examines trust in the context of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict. It starts with the assumption that trust is important in the inception and development of conflict and therefore also in its resolution. Important questions in this regard are who the subject of trust is, and how this presupposed subject determines the meaning, scope, and reciprocity of trust. In order to understand this, we must contextualize trust and view it from within the particularities of the power structure in which trust is examined. It argues that the first encounter in settler colonial realities is crucial in the development of the relationship between indigenous populations and settlers. Therefore, Israeli--Palestinian distrust is rooted in the groups' initial encounter, based on their previously established perceptions of trust and the experiences that follow—violence and counterviolence—which condition and continue today's atmosphere of distrust. Following the genealogy of trust in this conflictual context demonstrates that it has realist-functionalist as well as ethical dimensions. These perceptions reflected in the literature on trust demonstrate that different perceptions of trust are related to both different self-perceptions and perceptions of others The chapter concludes that any effort for reconciliation has to start with the recognition of the mistrust as an ethical challenge. If trusting someone involves an appeal that they take responsibility for our well-being and if acting so is the best examination of morality, then the current situation of the conflict, especially in a situation in which the two peoples live in close proximity, none of them can claim morality. For them to claim morality they have to act morally, as a manifestation of mutual trust. Only in behaving according to basic moral standards of being responsible for the well-being of the Other that a transformation of the conflict can take place. The overlap in the meaning of trust in the culture of both sides is a genuine indication of the need for much deeper efforts of both sides in order for reconciliation to become an option.
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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