ordinary citizens
...ttending the meetings were those people who could invoke the most change among others. As Susan Allen Nan writes, the conflict resolution and confidence building meetings have been seen as “elitist” because no one new is invited to participate. She says that the small size of the groups, especially the small groups in Abkhazia, have left them vulnerable to accusations that they are not in touch with the rest of society. While NGOs are having their problems holding meaningful meetings and progressing toward peace, the end to the Abkhaz-Georgia violence must start somewhere other than at the high ranks of officials and diplomats. As was discussed in lecture, increased contact between citizens of Abkhaz and Georgia will lead to increased trust. The increased trust will lead to more and more “grassroots groups” to form, and as these groups increase in size, so will their ability to persuade political leaders able to influence change. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a great example of how ordinary citizens can both promote and prolong violence. The Israelis accepted the Oslo Accords in 1993 due to the infitada, which was a Palestinian civilian uprising that started in late 1987 (Golan and Kamal). After the Israelis accepted the Accords, the peace process was underway, at least to a greater degree than it had been in the years before the acceptance. Just a few years later, Israel’s prime minister was assassinated and the architect of Oslo, Shimon Peres, was made prime minister. Then, the radical group Hamas launched four terrorist attacks and scared many Palestinian citizens of Israel to elect Benyamin Netanyahu, who promised to bring peace beyond what the Oslo Accords could bring. The peace process faltered during Netanyahu’s term. The sad irony here is that a group of civilians during the infitada motivated and started the peace process, and that another group, by committing more acts of violence, were able to halt the process and allow violence to continue. The personal values of the citizens involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict also come into play in promoting violence. When conflicts arise between individuals or families, they arise to involve more and more people. Within a conflict, personal values such as honor, shame, and dignity are “at stake” (Abu-Nimer). Abu-Nimer also writes, as is the case for Georgians and Abkhazians, that face-to-face negotiation “with the enemy” can be perceived as humiliating or weak. These core values are key to the prolonging of conflicts in the Middle East. In Northern Ireland, civilian peace efforts began with the beginning and the end of the Community Relations Commission. In 1976, the peace group called the Peace People, organized civilians to protest to end violence in Northern Ireland. This group suffered the fate of some of the Georgia-Abkhazia groups, in that it eventually lost its appeal and was reduced to bringing together small groups of Protestants and Catholics (McCartney, Accord #8). The common theme in all the case studies seems to be that there is a sector ...