The Twenty-First Century ‘No War, No Peace’: From the Second Intifada to the Stalemate of the Protracted Peace Process

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines the period from the Second Intifada (2001) to nowadays, following the failure of the implementation of the Oslo Accords. It suggests that a politics of ‘no war, no peace’ has been established and normalized, while cultural violence has deepened despite the efforts of the longest peace process in contemporary history. It examines the effects at the observable level of the stalemate of the protracted peace process and the institutionalization of dehumanization as a radical political agenda. One of the main effects of the now stalled peace process, it explores how peace has been subcontracted by the very actors of the dying peace process that act as donors and sponsors of an increasing number of civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have been involved in the peacebuilding process by bridging reconciliation in the societal level. The argument developed is that the dual and simultaneous processes of dehumanization and peace-less reconciliation that work in parallel in this conflict suggests that in the almost absence of the peace process there have emerged and intensified several activities that seek to counteract the already verified tendency of dehumanization in the societal level, pointing to alternative routes and their potential for peacemaking.