On Reconciliation: What Israelis and Palestinians Can Learn from South Africa and Rwanda

All conflicts end. It’s in their nature. The only question is how much time and how many lives will be lost, and when the hard but necessary work of healing begins.Maya Savir, an Israeli professional in humanitarian and development work and peacebuilding, and a mother, spent years working in Rwanda and South Africa, countries that went through successful reconciliation processes many had thought impossible.In this book, she dares to ask whether what she observed and learned there can be applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Reconciliation is an artichoke. It’s not an onion, made up of layer upon layer you peel away until nothing is left.It has layers, yes, but at its center is a heart. This book peels away those characteristics that are not essential for reconciliation until all that is left is the heart.But before examining this heart, we take a close look at the outer layers in specific conflicts, because although they vary with context and may not all be necessary to bring abo