Published: 25 November 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
In his new book, JEREMIE BRACKA argues an unofficial Truth and Empathy Commission could begin a process of transitional justice and conflict resolution for Israelis and Palestinians.
At the height of apartheid, a wide-eyed law student wrote a thesis on the role of truth-telling in post-conflict South Africa. He was dismissed by his professor as a "flowery nit-wit lubricating the implausible".
Five years on, Paul Van Zyl became the Executive Secretary of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), an institution, which despite its shortcomings, heralded in the rainbow nation. The TRC re-wrote history, gave victims a platform, and narrowed the range of permissible lies about institutional violence and gross abuses.
No doubt, such a venture remains utopian for Israel/Palestine. Recent political tidings do not bode well for peacemakers. It might seem crazy to contemplate an Israeli-Palestinian truth commission, when at present there is no end to the bloodshed.
Even in the most optimistic future scenarios, it is very hard to imagine that an Israeli or Palestinian government would sponsor, finance, and/or promote an investigation into its own excesses. But an Israeli–Palestinian Truth and Empathy Commission (IPTEC) spearheaded by civil society, could break taboos, propose counter-narratives, and carve out an "island of sanity" for peacebuilding.
My new book, Transitional Justice for Israel/Palestine: Truth-Telling and Empathy in Ongoing Conflict applies the dynamic field of transitional justice to conflict resolution in Israel/Palestine.
As the Northern Ireland, South African, and Latin American cases demonstrate, building civic bridges across the past is not the luxury of idealistic dreamers, but rather a task of political necessity.
Around the globe, diverse societies from South Africa to Colombia have pursued truth-telling, restorative justice, and reconciliation to end conflict. Yet the language of transitional justice, has been all but absent in Israel/Palestine. Until today, the post-Oslo diplomacy frames peacebuilding in practical and territorial terms alone. What’s more, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has overshadowed the region’s engagement with human rights abuses. Rather than avoiding questions of collective justice, memory and narratives, this book squarely addresses how transitional justice could contribute to conflict transformation and accountability.
