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Humanitarian tragedy in Gaza: In search of justice and peace settlement
Israel’s main objective is to win the asymmetric war at all costs and with little care.
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Returned: Palestinians who were working in Israel are transported on a horse-drawn cart, amid fuel shortages, from the Rafah border into the southern Gaza Strip after being sent back by Israel, on Nov. 3, 2023. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
I
would never have thought during my years as a student of International Relations (IR), back in the 1980s and 1990s that my life journey would take me to Reykjavik and Oslo. The two cities have a special citation in many IR text books.
The summit at the Hofdi House in Reykjavik in 1986 between then United States president Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the height of the Cold War led to the ending of the Cold War. The summit was not only historical but also able to generate a sense of hope worldwide for peace and a better world.
Similarly, Oslo is another city, which is also known among students of conflict resolution and peace studies for its contribution to peace making and in stimulating hope for peace in the Middle East.
The Oslo Accords signed in Washington, DC in 1993 and in Taba, Egypt in 1995 were the results of a series of behind-the-scenes negotiations in Oslo, involving parties to the Palestine and Israel conflict.
At present, a new Cold War is in the offing, prompted by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the new cycle of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas in the occupied territories that has regional and global ramifications, which raises the question whether there is still hope for peace and a negotiated settlement.
Perhaps one of the lessons learned from the Reykjavik and Oslo process is that there is no quick fix to a deep-seated conflict embroiled in mutual distrust.
Although in most cases every conflict-resolution process is unique, there are at least some similar factors conducive for a resolution, such as momentum for peace initiatives, the conflicting parties' readiness to negotiate peace and the role of a third party that is acceptable to all. In the meantime, the circumstances, especially surrounding Israel’s military campaign in Gaza make it difficult to initiate a conflict-resolution process.
