| Summary/Abstract |
This paper presents a contractual approach to coping with difficult situations of intractable conflict where ordinary citizens are at the center of the struggle. The contractualist peacemaker challenge is to convert conflicting parties into a peacemaking community committed to resolving the conflict by peaceful means. Three main elements are necessary to transform conflicting groups into a peacemaking community: common interest: strong desire to resolve the conflict by peaceful means; rules: commitment to democratic principles of dialogue; and peacemaking institutions: an organizational device that operates and maintains peacemaking communities. A peacemaking institution that has the potential to create momentum for the establishment of a peacemaking community is a major public negotiating congress. An ideal congress invites delegations from all walks of life to negotiate solutions to the conflict. This vision is based on the multi-party talks of the 1990s that helped to create a major change in two difficult situations of intractable conflict: the ‘troubles' in Northern Ireland and the battle against the Apartheid system in South Africa. This paper explores possibilities to establish a major Israeli–Palestinian public negotiating congress.
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