The Sakhnin/Misgav Land Dispute: Using 3‐D Negotiation Strategies to Analyze Conflict Resolution in Israel

Abstract

This article discusses a bitter land dispute in Israel between a Palestinian municipality and a Jewish municipality, analyzing the game‐changing moves made by local civil society organizations to shift their relationship from adversaries to allies for regional cooperation. The article explores the origins of the conflict between Sakhnin Municipality and the neighboring Misgav Regional Council. We explain their failed attempts to negotiate agreements to end a local dispute that can be described as a microcosm of the Israeli–Palestinian geopolitical conflict. Using Lax and Sebenius's 3‐D Negotiation Framework and William Ury's Third Side concept as lenses, we analyze the strategy and activities employed by civil society actors, who embody a Third Side role and succeed in breaking the stalemate, reaching agreements, and transforming relationships. Through conducting interviews and reviewing media articles, emails, protocols, letters, and other documents in Sakhnin's archives and on official governmental websites, we reconstruct the negotiation process and demonstrate how the Third Side was able to restore relationships, trust, and communication and develop creative options—away from the negotiating table. We suggest that this case can serve as a model to resolve other conflicts, particularly local disputes with power disparities that are intertwined with high politics.