The Peace Ritual and Israeli Images of Social Order

Abstract

In this article, a series of events associated with President Sadat's pilgrimage to Jerusalem in November 1977 have been organized in accordance with anthropological theory on the ritual process. This perspective suggests that conflict and conflict resolution are processes of dialectical interaction between power relationships and symbolic actions. President Sadat's visit to Jerusalem stands as a unique symbolic initiative in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In this instance, a powerful symbolic alternative to continued warfare was raised before the Israeli public. The failure of the peace ritual to translate immediately into an amiable structure of relationships between Israel and Egypt provoked many Israelis to reexamine their perceptions of social order in the Middle East. This process, expressed in the struggles of the peace movements, was a central feature of the Israeli political culture in the months following the peace ritual. Through these activities, a shift occurred in the constellation of Israeli opinions regarding Israeli-Egyptian relations, thus helping to foster compromise and agreement on a new framework of relations between Israel and Egypt at the Camp David summit of September 1978.