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The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict SocietiesReconciliation in the Making: Overcoming Competitive Victimhood Through Inter-group Dialogue in Palestine/Israel

The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict Societies: Reconciliation in the Making: Overcoming... [This chapter explores the phenomenon of competitive victimhood (CV), which refers to the dynamic in intractable conflicts when groups seek to establish that they have suffered more than their adversary. Significantly, CV has been found to severely impede conflict resolution and reconciliation. In order to overcome CV, the creation of a superordinate shared identity has been proposed. However, whilst previous studies have emphasised the need for an inclusive victim identity, this small-sample case study, drawing on interviews with members of a reconciliation-oriented group of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians, suggests that the key may lie in an identity construct that emphasises the shared humanity instead. Mutual humanisation and acknowledgement, facilitated through sustained inter-group dialogue, was not only found to reduce CV, facilitate reconciliation and foster a piercing vision of peace: Significantly, respondents explicitly expressed the desire to reject victimhood altogether as a defining part of their sense of self.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict SocietiesReconciliation in the Making: Overcoming Competitive Victimhood Through Inter-group Dialogue in Palestine/Israel

Part of the St Antony's Series Book Series
Editors: Druliolle, Vincent; Brett, Roddy
Burkhardt-Vetter, Olga
The Politics of Victimhood in Post-conflict Societies — Feb 21, 2018
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26 pages

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References (56)

Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
ISBN
978-3-319-70201-8
Pages
237 –263
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-70202-5_10
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[This chapter explores the phenomenon of competitive victimhood (CV), which refers to the dynamic in intractable conflicts when groups seek to establish that they have suffered more than their adversary. Significantly, CV has been found to severely impede conflict resolution and reconciliation. In order to overcome CV, the creation of a superordinate shared identity has been proposed. However, whilst previous studies have emphasised the need for an inclusive victim identity, this small-sample case study, drawing on interviews with members of a reconciliation-oriented group of bereaved Israelis and Palestinians, suggests that the key may lie in an identity construct that emphasises the shared humanity instead. Mutual humanisation and acknowledgement, facilitated through sustained inter-group dialogue, was not only found to reduce CV, facilitate reconciliation and foster a piercing vision of peace: Significantly, respondents explicitly expressed the desire to reject victimhood altogether as a defining part of their sense of self.]

Published: Feb 21, 2018

Keywords: Common victim identity; Competitive victimhood; Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Moral imagination; Peace vision; Reconciliation; Rehumanisation

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