Routledge People-to-People Diplomacy in Israel and Palestine: The Minds of Peace Experiment

The Minds of Peace Experiment is a small-scale Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating congress. The exercise invites Israeli and Palestinian delegations to publicly negotiate solutions to their struggle over a limited period of sessions. The initiative is designed to demonstrate the peacemaking power of a major public negotiating congress, to evaluate its potential outcomes, and to get support for its establishment. Scholars from different disciplines describe and analyze the enterprise. They provide valuable lessons for improving and elaborating the initiative which has been conducted in major universities around the U.S., Canada and in Israel-Palestine. The intention is to add a fresh perspective to the efforts to build a revolutionary peacemaking process in the Israeli-Palestinian case. The Minds of Peace Experiment is a fascinating laboratory for people-to-people diplomacy and negotiation. The exercise succeeded to demonstrate how people, from all walks of life and the entire political spectrum, can reach peace agreements while their leaders face major problems in their relationship. The book intends to provoke critical and fruitful discussion among those who are interested in negotiation, diplomacy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This book was published as a special issue of Israel Affairs. About the Author Sapir Handelman is an associate at the Psychology Department of Harvard University and the first scholar to receive the Lentz Fellowship in Peace and Conflict Resolution Research three times. Sapir is the co-laureate of the 2010 Peter Becker Award for Peace and Conflict Research. Sapir has led the Minds of Peace Experiment – a small-scale Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating congress – in major universities around the U.S., Canada, and in the Middle East.