Peace &Reconciliation
11 March 2021
Those of us who lived through the remarkable geopolitical transformations that occurred in the early 1990s will remember the spirit of optimism, a sense that humanity was entering upon a new age of peace, freedom and global cooperation that prevailed during that time. That optimism was perhaps best encapsulated by political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who in his influential book The End of History and the Last Man (1992) argued that with the end of the Cold War, Western liberal democracy had emerged triumphant as the final form of human government and that it was only a matter of time before the freedoms enjoyed in the West would inevitably spread to the rest of the world.
This in turn would ease the path towards achieving global peace, since democratic states by their very nature seek to resolve conflicts by a give-and-take process of dialogue and negotiations. South Africa’s negotiated transition to democracy later in the decade lent further credence to Fukuyama’s thesis.
Thirty years later, the mood is a great deal less sanguine. As reputable research bodies like Freedom House and the Economist Intelligence Unit have shown, global freedom has been in steady retreat for at least a decade. Nor is the world a more peaceful place. In North Africa and the Middle East, the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ turned out to be a false dawn, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has all but permanently stalled and countries like Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iraq continue to be plagued by deadly internal strife. These conflicts, moreover, frequently impact further afield, as occurred last week when Iranian-sponsored Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a major bombing attack on key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
The picture is not all bleak, however. Last year four countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – decided to normalise relations with Israel, a country they had been inveterately hostile towards ever since its establishment. These breakthroughs have been widely acclaimed as heralding a hopeful new era of peace, reconciliation and cooperation, not just for Israel and its neighbours but for the region as a whole.
The significance of the agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain – aptly named the Abraham Accords in reference to the founding Biblical patriarch revered by both Jews and Arabs – was the subject of a webinar held on Monday. Entitled “A new Arab-Israeli Peace and 27 Years of South Africa’s Reconciliation: Lessons Learnt” and facilitated by political analyst Muhammed Nur Nordien, the event was co-organised by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Sharaka, an NGO recently established with the aim of bringing together Israeli Arabs, Jews, Bahrainis and Emiratis. Participants included a diverse range of social activists and pundits from both the aforementioned countries and South Africa.
Having attended the event, I was struck by how a necessary realism was combined with a real sense of possibility regarding the future, together with the positivity and good fellowship expressed by people of such divergent backgrounds.
It brought to mind the complex but also exciting and forward-looking engagements that took place between South Africans from across the racial and political spectrum during the 1990s, both before and after the democratic transition.
Indeed, rekindling that culture of robust yet respectful and constructive debate over how to confront the problems facing the country and forge a better future for all is something that South Africa itself is sorely in need of. As Jamie Mighti put it in his opening remarks, the nature of diplomacy is that to resolve conflicts, one has to speak to the other side.
Through this, South Africans had succeeded not only in negotiating a peaceful transition to democracy, but in establishing a platform for stability through which the crucial debates about how to take the country forward could be held. It was this kind of commitment to engagement and dialogue that in his view the Abraham Accords embodied.
One of the points frequently made was that achieving peace and reconciliation cannot be left solely to the politicians; ordinary people on the ground also have a duty, and the ability, to make a difference. While seldom reaching the headlines, there are in fact a range of organisations in Israel and further afield that are quietly working to build bridges of friendship and understanding between Jews and Palestinians, as well as between the country’s many diverse ethnic and religious communities.
Wits SRC member Gabi Farber stressed in this regard that true unity between people does not mean that they must all be the same, but rather is achieved through respecting and indeed valuing the differences between them. One need not agree with the other person’s narrative, but one should always be open to hearing and understanding where they are coming from.
Amjad Taha, an investigative journalist and a strategic advisor in Bahrain and the UAE, further stressed that in plotting the way forward, people could not become prisoners of the past, nor could the future of the Middle East be held hostage to anyone else’s cause.
For too long, he observed, the unresolved Israel-Palestine issue had prevented the various Arab states from making peace and establishing relations with Israel, even though this would benefit not just themselves but the region in general. Today, however, there was a growing groundswell of support for peaceful coexistence and a corresponding decline in support for the actions of Palestinian militant. Sharaka project director LoreenaKhateeb concurred, saying that people were tired of conflict and it was time for a change.
It was heartening to hear Middle East issues being debated in so positive, mutually respectful a spirit. All too often, such exchanges are characterised by crude invective and finger pointing that reduces them to the level of an unseemly brawl.
As all participants in the webinar acknowledged, these are early days and what has been embarked on is still very much uncharted territory. Nevertheless, one came away from the event feeling that for all the obstacles that lie ahead, a shared commitment to the values of peace, empathy and mutual respect can indeed usher in a hopeful new era for all inhabitants of the region.
David Saks is the Associate Director of the SAJBD
