The Palestinian—Israeli peace process and transnational issue networks: the complicated place of the Israeli NGO

Abstract

Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) resisting the security fence and other Israeli security measures are in `virtual isolation' in networks dedicated to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and especially to the criticism of Israeli governmental policies and the construction of the security fence. The research reported is a hyperlink and term analysis of select issue networks on the web assembled around the security fence and other conflict issues. It shows that attempts by left-leaning Israeli NGO network actors to frame the issue in their own critical terms are ignored by networked transnational actors working in the Palestinian-Israeli issue space, even though it may be that both kinds of organizations campaign against it. The Israeli organizations, it was found, are largely in an issue space of their own making, distinct from the human rights frame that dominates the transnational networks. In putting forward the notion of the separation fence, theirs is also a particular local `peace process' approach to issue settlement, different not only from that of the dominant trans-national issue networks on the web, but also from official Israeli as well as certain Western governmental positions. The article concludes by finding that, according to the web, the local peace process is not a trans-national issue network affair.