Standing on isthmus: Islamic narratives on peace and war in Palestine

This work is an attempt to explore the role of religion, particularly Islam, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a factor both motivating the conflict and as a potential resource for its resolution. It examines whether religious beliefs, commitments, traditions shape or influence concrete social action such as motivating conflictual or peaceful behavior, and if so, to what extent, and aims to understand the dynamics of conflict and cooperation. Additionally, it examines the internal dialog that is going on vehemently among the Islamic scholars for the "correct" interpretations of Islam. The thesis also calls into question the understanding of peace simply as the "absence of war", and seeks to understand what peace means for those who are involved in this particular conflict. It suggests addressing a new series of topics, including religious and pragmatic motivations of behavior, struggle between intercommunal moral values, multifaith dialog, and pluralism as conflict resolution strategies; socio-political impact of leadership, legitimation and the role of interpretation of sacred texts during conflict, among others.