the israeli-arab conflict psychological perspective ירון זיו

8/8/2019 The Israeli-Arab Conflict Psychological Perspective

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12/10/2010 DR YARON ZIV

The Israeli-Arab ConflictPsychological Perspective

Dr. Yaron Ziv, MSW, Ph.D Organizational

Consultant, Couple &Family Therapist,

Maof center for Human Development.

www.yaronziv.com


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Background on the present conflict

A conflict that goes over a century

It developed over a territory claimed as ahomeland by two national movements:

Palestinian National Movement and the

Zionism (the Jewish national movement

Both sides clash recurrently over the right to

self-determination, statehood and justice


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Psychological Obstacles

Three major psychological obstacles can be

identified: Fear

Delegitimization

Collective self - perception as victim


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Fear

Fearis a primary aversive emotion arises insituations of threat and danger to the organismand or his/her environment and enables people

to respond to them adaptively:

A) It mobilizes a constant readiness to face

potential danger in an unanticipated threat


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Fear

B) It directs attention and sensitizes to cues

that signal danger and to information that

implies threat

C) It increases affiliation, solidarity andcohesiveness among society members


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Fear

D) It mobilizes society members to act on

behalf of the society, to cope with the threat

and to act against the enemy

(Folkman& Lazaus 1984)


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Fear

The other side of the coin: Fear can lead to a collective freezing of beliefs,adherence to certain beliefs about the causes of

threat, about the conflict and the ways to copewith it.


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Fear

Maslow (1963): All those psychological and

social factors that increase fear cut the impulseto know

The collective fear orientation tends to limit

perspective


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Fear

Fear increases over sensitization and mistrust

Fear causes deligitimization of the adversary

and prevents rational and creative solutions to

the conflict situation


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Fear

Fear leads people to increase ethnocentrismand intolerance towards out-groups

A fearful society tends to choose fighting inresponse to threatening conditions

Fixation on a primal survival mode


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Delegitimization

Delegitimization is defined as thecategorization of a group or groups into

extremely negative social categories that

exclude it or them from the sphere of human

groups that act within the limits of acceptablenorms &values

(Bar-Tal, 1989)


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Delegitimization

The use of labels as terrorists, murderers

colonialists or fascists categorizes the capacityand the intention of the other group to harm

the opponent

The lack of trust is reflected in the following

beliefs: The Palestinian will never honor anyagreement


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Delegitimization

The Palestinian dont really want to recognize

the right of Israel to coexist The real desire of the Arabs is to clean the

middle east from Jews and to leave it as a pure

Islamic region

Therefore peace process could not be achieved


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Collective self-concept as victim

Both sides have strong feelings of victim hood

The other side is responsible for the loss ofinnocent people (women &children)

The self concept as a victim gives rise to

feelings of anger and wishes for vengeance

Being perceived as a victim allows oneself to be

right .


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Psychological Diagnosis

Both sides are still fixated in the infantile

Phase which is led by impulses and emotionsrather than rational thinking.

Both sides act out of a PTSD syndrome.

The Israelis have the Post Holocaust Syndrome

The Palestinians have The Post Fantasy

Syndrome


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Both sides have inside deep lack of trust

Both sides continue to live with a great

dissonance between understanding and feeling

Both sides are immature emotionally


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Both sides are afraid to take risks and to let go

of the survival mode

Both sides are driven from religious forces

which do enhance the emotional factor. (the

Jerusalem Question)


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Both sides have a dramatic componentembedded in their culture that does enhance

crisis and prevents from a rational logical way

of dealing with conflict


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Psychological factors for de-escalation

Legitimization

Equalization

Differentiation

Personalization

Reduction of negative effect Induction of hope and acceptance


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Psychological factors for de- escalation

Legitimization

allows viewing the opponent as belonging toan acceptable category of group behaving

within the boundaries of international norms.

Recognition of the legitimate existence of the

other group with its differences.


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Psychological factors for de- escalation

Acceptance of the elected leaders of the rivalgroup as legitimate partners in the peace

process, as such it provides the basis of trust

which is an essential condition for conflict

resolution process


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Equalization

Relate to your rival group as an equal partnerwithout superiority and then treat them

accordingly.

Allows meaningful relations between past

adversaries.


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Psychological Factors of de-escalation

Differentiation

It enables a new perspective of the rival,

previously regarded as a uniformly hostile

entity


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Psychological Factors of de-escalation

The new perception implies that the rival

group includes various sub-groups that differin their views and ideologies

It provides more human view to the opponent

group and does more justice to its complex

structure


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Personalization

Allows people to view the rival group as madeup of individuals with ordinary human

characteristics , concerns, needs and goals.

It allows seeing members of the rival group as

human beings who are also victims

of the conflict and likewise have just claims

and moral justifications for their demands


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Reduction of negative affect

It includes the cognitive elements of visualizing

and expecting as well as of feeling good aboutexpected events

The development of hope involves higher

mental processes of vision, imagination, goal

setting, planning and considering alternatives


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Reduction of negative affect

Openness

Creativity

Flexibility


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Psychological prognosis

Acknowledging understanding, admitting

and owning that the conflict has two partnerthat are equally involved

Taking Responsibility owning the problem and

have an agreement to turn the frustration into

a solution


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Seeking solutions- executing actions to improve

the situation Maturity - realizing the difference between

reality and fantasy and having the willingness

to act accordingly


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Frustration leads into motivation and

willingness to change The million dollar question: Is the frustration

enough to say and act like enough is enough

Lets hope that we come to the time which is

mature enough to say enough is enough


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Thank You

Thank you very much for attending

Dr Yaron Ziv

www.yaronziv.com

the israeli-arab conflict psychological perspective ירון זיו

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