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Perceptions: How the Israelis and Arabs See Each Other
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19923 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1992 |
6,047 Words |
| Author
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Don Peretz
Don Peretz is professor of political science at the State
University of New York at Binghamton and visiting fellow at
the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C. His
most recent books is Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising
(Westview Press, 1990). |
The Madrid Middle East peace conference during October and November 1991brought to public view many of the perceptions that Israelis and Arabs have of each other. These distorted mirror images were underscored in participants' speeches, especially those of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk ash Shara', who exchanged accusations of aggression, of brutally persecuting racial or ethnic minorities, of falsifying history, of terrorism of seeking to expunge the other's identity, of betraying he cause of peace, of untrustworthiness, greed, and more. While these might have been mere rhetorical flourishes, not unexpected in initial public confrontation between longtime enemies and similar to the exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war, the mutually hostile perceptions are unfortunately deeply imbedded in both Arab and Israeli Jewish consciousness.
The political rhetoric exchanged in Madrid derives from everyday perceptions that each party has had of the other for many a decade. This is not to imply that images have not been altered over the years as a result of changing political realities or that there are no Arabs or Jews who reject their society's stereotypes of the other. Changes have occurred, usually among small groups of intellectuals or academicians who have devoted their careers to better understanding their neighbors. However, despite attempts by a few to rectify historical distortions or untruth, to humanize rather than demonize their antagonists, negative stereotypes continue to darken perceptions. This is evident in opinion surveys covering intercommunal contacts, in much of the literature that each reads about the other, in press reports, and even in children's textbooks. Arabs and Jews each have aphorisms about the other that have infiltrated daily speech patterns to reinforce mutual hostility, distrust, and contempt.
These mutually hostile perceptions are so pervasive that they pollute political discourse and are among the principal obstacles to settlement of the many disputes between Arabs and Jews over territory, borders, equitable distribution of scarce water resources, mutual historical rights, and political identity.
The Early Days
The perceptions, or misperceptions, go back to the earliest days of contact between Jews and Arabs in Palestine; much of that early imagery colors today's political discourse. One of the earliest Zionist leaders, Ahad Ha'am (One of the People), wrote in 1891 following a visit to
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