Harvard University social ethics professor emeritus Herbert Kelman spoke May 3 at the Wayne State Alumni House regarding the methods of resolving international ethics and conflicts – primarily as they pertain to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – in the Max Mark-Cranbrook Peace Lecture organized by the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Kelman defined his first main peace-making method, conflict settlement, as a process yielding agreement in which third parties play a major role and the quality of the relationship between two groups does not change. His method has been tried on the children of Holocaust survivors and the children of Nazi perpetrators. He defined conflict resolution, which he calls the best solution, as an agreement between two groups that is arrived at interactively instead of forcibly.
Robert L. Thomas, dean of the WSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, introduced Kelman.
“It’s harder to think of a more appropriate place to speak about resolving peace than Detroit,” he said in reference to the city’s diverse population. “We’ve sponsored trips for Christians, Jews and Muslims to visit Israel together and learn from each others’ differences in hopes to help resolve this conflict.”
“Is it most effective to have reconciliation, the solution or the problem-solving occur first or last?” asked Frederic S. Pearson, professor of political science and director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. “Dr. Kelman has helped shed a lot of light on how social psychology applies to modern times, especially with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.
Kelman said that in his opinion, a resolution was not necessarily needed for an agreement to be reached between the two sides.
“We need to remove the attitude that the negation of another’s identity is required for the legitimization of our own. This is especially true for Palestine and Israel, where this belief is embedded,” he said.
The ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel concerns control of Jerusalem and other Israeli settlements, mutual recognition, borders, water rights, security, refugees and freedom of movement. Kelman believes that each country’s denial of the other as a group of people deserving of respect is the root of all of their problems.
“In denying their authenticity as a people, each country denies the others their civil rights and general respect,” Kelman said. “Both need an identity change so they can come to an agreement that admits the other’s truth into their own narrative.”
He explained that an assurance that the other party is not a threat to the core of their identity is essential for reconciliation.
“With ideological reluctance, I think U.S. influence is crucial to the Israeli-Palestinian solution,” Kelman said. “Although conflict resolution is normally preferred, conflict settlement is necessary for the deep-seeded hatred these countries have for each other.”
A question and answer session was held after the lecture, followed by the 8th Annual Peacemaker Awards held at NextEnergy to recognize Dr. Kelman and others for their efforts in promoting peace.
