Track Two Diplomacy And Jerusalem

‘Track Two Diplomacy and Jerusalem’ is the first in a series of three books which collectively present the work of the Jerusalem Old City Initiative, or JOCI, a major Canadian-led Track Two diplomatic effort, undertaken between 2003 and 2014. JOCI’s raison d’être was to find sustainable governance solutions for the Old City of Jerusalem, arguably the most sensitive and intractable of the final status issues dividing Palestinians and Israelis. ‘Track Two Diplomacy and Jerusalem’ includes a series of studies that place JOCI within its historical setting and explain the theoretical context of Track Two diplomacy. The book then proceeds to present the Initiative's culminating documents, which outline in detail its proposed Special Regime governance model. Until now, the proposals have remained unpublished and available only to a limited audience of key stakeholders. Presenting the information in an accessible format, this book will contribute positively to the wider conversation on Jerusalem, especially with respect to the longstanding conflict over control and governance of this holy city. It will therefore be of value to several audiences, from the policy-making community to the various traditions found in academia.

"A unique account of a complex and subtle negotiation about the most disputed city in the world. Its point of view is clear, but it is nonetheless a balanced presentation. In place of generalizations it tries to get at what really happened."--David Matz, University of Massachusetts, Boston "Anyone concerned with the horrible violence between Palestinians and Israelis will want to read this fascinating, behind-the-scenes account of the negotiations that preceded the violence, and why they failed. It was like a thriller that I could not put down, even though I knew the gory ending."--Joel S. Migdal, University of Washington Assessing one of the most serious issues of our day, Menachem Klein is the first to employ rigorous research to analyze all sides of official negotiations over Israeli-Palestinian territorial disputes. He focuses especially on the Camp David talks of 2000 and the Taba talks of 2001 and on discussions of the future of Jerusalem, offering a clear balance sheet of what went right, what went wrong, and what remains of the failed peace process. Klein, an advisor to the Israeli team during the Camp David talks and a member of several Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy groups, argues that the negotiations themselves created a negative dynamic and that the violent outcome was neither inevitable nor entirely determined by the personalities of their participants. He maintains that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators and leaders interacted destructively and that the American interaction with each side was detrimental; the prevailing strategy was one that set out lines that could not be crossed, instituting a style of bargaining that stymied negotiations. While all three parties shattered long-held preconceptions about how issues should be resolved, the talks ended in bloodshed. Moreover, neither side has ever drafted a single definitive document delineating what was understood and said at Camp David. Beginning with the opening of the official permanent status talks, which sparked strong initial hopes, Klein tracks diplomacy on all sides from 1994 onward. He synthesizes a profusion of unresolved issues, including Palestinian state borders, Israeli settlements, and the future of the Palestinian war refugees of 1948, and he disproves a number of claims made by the Israeli and Palestinian actors involved in the process. He also illuminates such questions as whether the talks commenced too early for one or both sides, whether the push for a final settlement was the caprice of three or four senior decision-makers disconnected from their constituencies, and whether the cycle of violence has turned back the clock. Based on Klein's personal experience in official and informal talks between the two sides, this absorbing book offers a rare perspective and level of detail on international negotiation. It will become a prerequisite for all future theoretical discussion of issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict. Menachem Klein, senior lecturer in political science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is the author or editor of four books, including Jerusalem: The Contested City and Doves in the Jerusalem Sky: The Peace Process and the City, 1977-1999. He served as an adviser to the Israeli team during the Camp David talks and is a member of several Israeli-Palestinian track-two diplomacy groups.

The Holy Places of Jerusalem's Old City are among the most contested sites in the world and the 'ground zero' of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tensions regarding control are rooted in misperceptions over the status of the sites, the role of external bodies such as religious organizations and civil society, and misunderstanding regarding the political roles of the many actors associated with the sites. In this volume, Marshall J. Breger and Leonard M. Hammer clarify a complex and fraught situation by providing insight into the laws and rules pertaining to Jerusalem's holy sites. Providing a compendium of important legal sources and broad-form policy analysis, they show how laws pertaining to Holy Places have been implemented and engaged. The book weaves aspects of history, politics, and religion that have played a role in creation and identification of the 'law.' It also offers solutions for solving some of the central challenges related to the creation, control, and use of Holy Places in Jerusalem.

Track-II talks in the Middle East—unofficial discussions among Israeli and Arab scholars, journalists, and former government and military officials—have been going on since soon after the 1967 Six Day War and have often paved the way for official negotiations. This book, a unique collaboration of Israeli and Palestinian authors, traces the history of these unofficial meetings, focusing on those that took place in the 1990s beginning just after the Gulf War. These talks were carried on without media coverage, and this book is the first sustained account of what took place. It is the inside story—the authors themselves participated in some of these discussions and interviewed participants in others.After describing the background of early Arab-Israeli discussions, the authors present six case studies of Track-II talks in the 1990s: the 1992-1993 discussions in Norway that led to the Oslo accords; Palestinian-Israeli talks held in the early 1990s under the auspices of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Israeli-Syrian meetings of 1992-1994; the 1994-1995 Stockholm talks convened by the Swedish government; talks held in 1995-1996 between Israeli settlers and representatives of the Palestinian Authority; and arms control and regional security discussions throughout the decade. Despite their different perspectives, the book's two Israeli and two Palestinian authors are able to reach shared conclusions about the effectiveness and consequences of Track-II talks. Track-II Diplomacy not only makes a valuable contribution to the historical record of Arab-Israeli diplomacy but also offers insights into the role of informal and non-official discussions in resolving conflicts.

“A brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question and settler colonialism . . . a vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane.” —Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict’s most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel’s settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel’s military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord’s two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures—from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza—Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel’s interests than the Palestinians’. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine. “Careful and captivating . . . This book asks that the Palestinian liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their interests are—and what they could become.” —Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents

As one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world, the State of Israel faces serious land policy challenges and has a national identity laced with enormous internal contradictions. In Land Law and Policy in Israel,Haim Sandberg contends that if you really want to know the identity of a state, learn its land law and land policies. Sandberg argues that Israel's identity can best be understood by deciphering the code that lies in the Hebrew secret of Israeli dry land law. According to Sandberg, by examining the complex facets of property law and land policy, one finds a unique prism for comprehending Israel's most pronounced identity problems. Land Law and Policy in Israel explores how Israel's modern land system tries to bridge the gaps between past heritage and present needs, nationalization and privatization, bureaucracy and innovation, Jewish majority and non-Jewish minority, legislative creativity and judicial activism. The regulation of property and the determination of land usage have been the consequences of explicit choices made in the context of competing and evolving concepts of national identity. Land Law and Policy in Israel will prove to be a must-read not only for anyone interested in Israel but also for anyone who wants to understand the importance of land law in a nation's life.

Using a case study approach, Kay explores Canada's response to key issues such as the recognition of the new state of Israel, the status of Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugee problem, arms sales to Israel, particularly the sale of F-86s in 1956, and the Suez war. He also provides a thorough account of domestic politics in Canada that influenced foreign policy and the effectiveness of pro-Israeli lobby groups in influencing policy decisions. Kay concludes that although Canada was a major middle power in terms of its policy towards Israel, the government tended to defer to the policy positions of greater powers, such as the United States and Britain, but maintained an independent mediatory role that was instrumental in quelling a prospective global conflagration, as witnessed during the Sinai-Suez crisis and its aftermath. The Diplomacy of Prudence brings new insights to the study of Canadian foreign policy during Canada's coming of age as an international force.

This edited volume explores Canada’s foreign policy relationship with the Palestinians and broader Middle East Peace Process (MEPP). Canada was intensively involved from 1992 to 2000 in peacebuilding as a mediator in the multilateral part of the MEPP, as chair of the Refugee Working Group, and sponsor of Track II negotiations. This all changed after a significant mid-2000s discursive and policy shift when Canada withdrew from the politics of Israel-Palestine peacebuilding and took a strong partisan stance in favour of Israel. Through 10 chapters by current and former government insiders and academics with extensive field experience, this unique edited volume offers insight into decades of evolution in Canadian policy toward the Palestinians, MEPP and the Middle East. It arrives at an important time when the international community is reconsidering how it views Israel’s entrenched occupation of the Palestinians, after three failed decades of United States-led efforts to find peace through a negotiated two-state model. Today, peace may never have appeared further away after the Trump Administration adopted policies directly contradictory to the MEPP. This proved a test to Canada’s own official policy toward Israel and Palestine, its longest running and most important region of engagement in the Middle East. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, guest edited by Jeremy Wildeman and Emma Swan.