Masters of Peace Adham Hamed Speaking the Unspeakable Sounds of the Middle East Conflict Masters of Peace Masters of Peace is a book series edited by the University of Innsbruck’s UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies It has been founded to honour outstanding works of young academics in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies It is reserved for selected Mas­ ter theses of the Innsbruck school and published twice a year The Innsbruck school follows the principles of Transrational Peace Philosophy It defines peace as a p­ lural and regards all aspects of human nature relevant for the understanding of peace and conflict Its applied method is Elicitive Conflict Transformation, a pragmatic approach to conflict rooted in Humanistic Psychology that entrusts the responsi­ bility for finding alternative options of behaviour, communication and encounter to the conflict parties Facilitators provide a safe frame, tools and methods for this quest without imposing their own solutions on the parties Edited by: Wolfgang Dietrich UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies University of Innsbruck/Austria Editorial Board: Josefi na Echavarría Daniela Ingruber Franz Jenewein Norbert Koppensteiner Fabian Mayr Andreas Oberprantacher Johney Xavier Austria Editorial work of current volume: Norbert Koppensteiner, Austria 81(6&2&KDLUIRU Peace Studies 8QLYHUVLWlW,QQVEUXFN $XVWULD 8QLWHG1DWLRQV (GXFDWLRQDO6FLHQWL¿FDQG &XOWXUDO2UJDQL]DWLRQ 7ZLQQLQJ DQG8QLYHUVLW\ 1HWZRUNV Adham Hamed Speaking the Unspeakable Sounds of the Middle East Conflict Adham Hamed Innsbruck, Austria ISSN  2364-463X ISSN  2364-4648 (electronic) Masters of Peace ISBN 978-3-658-14208-7 (eBook) ISBN 978-3-658-14207-0 DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939919 Springer © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH For my beloved sisters Foreword I first met Adham Hamed in a class I taught in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria What struck me first about Adham was his engaged intellect His diverse background was also intriguing, combining an Austrian/Egyptian background, with one foot in Christian Europe, the other in the Islamic Middle East His interest in Israel-Palestine was yet another curiosity I noticed immediately that he felt the trauma of both Palestinians and Jews I was confronted with a compassionate intellect that could carry on the ever-difficult search for justice in our strifetorn world I write this foreword as a Jewish partisan who believes that justice for Palestinians is a command of Jewish history, one that we are failing to obey For a person of Adham’s background to wade into the Israel-Palestine conundrum shows courage It is, as well, a hope for a future that I will not experience, at least on the ground, in my lifetime Yet in interacting with Adham and reading his words, one feels that future arriving For this I am grateful The Middle East Conflict is full of stories of trauma, pain and violence, within the geographical context of Israel-Palestine and beyond This is where different truth systems meet and narratives clash Its complexity and multi-layered quality can be frustrating and in our analysis it can sometimes be easy to lose orientation in the midst of this complexity Adham Hamed has written a remarkable book that looks upon this conflict, not from a birds-eye perspective, but systemically from within this complexity This book offers a valuable orientation to anyone searching to understand this complexity, which has been fueled by many rounds of war, failed diplomacy, and time and again by the violent act of uprooting people–often by those who themselves have painful histories of collective trauma Many books have been written about this conflict, yet this one is unique as it is the first that applies Wolfgang Dietrich’s conflict transformation model of Elicitive Conflict Mapping to this context The reader will find a structured conflict analysis, in which the casual relationship between the episode of conflict and the so-called epicenter are explored layer by layer and level by level This work sets an example for innovative conflict research in the 21st century and gives us orientation without falling into the trap of simplifying complex realities Traveling to Israel-Palestine and Egypt in an attempt to see what conflict transformation between Jews, Palestinians and other Arabs might look like, Adham sees VIII Foreword musical expression, in its diversity, as a way of communicating truths where words and politics fail For Adham, music carries a potential for speaking unspeakable truths that exposes the non-territorial layers and narratives of the conflict Through music, a possible way forward is experienced This is true for Israel-Palestine It may be true for other parts of the world as well This nexus between the regional context of the Middle East and peace philosophy at a meta-level makes this book a unique contribution to the current state of the art in Peace and Conflict Studies Using case studies in Jerusalem and Cairo, he explores the rich and often disturbing texture of Israel-Palestine and the Middle East in general Adham hits his stride when thinking through and outside of the various academic models with which he begins his study, as he discusses the state of the art in Peace and Conflict Studies He argues convincingly that for the most part, these models lack the depth needed when trauma is widespread and suffering continues unabated Due to the use of this new and innovative model of analyzing conflict, this study is of high value for our understanding of this region in particular, and the field of Peace and Conflict Studies in general However, this study hardly hails from an academic ivory tower During Adham’s study, Israel invaded Gaza twice, Egypt experienced the Arab Spring then a reversion to dictatorship, and Syria imploded While he interrogates Jews and Palestinians about their hopes and fears, Adham is aware of the larger regional collapse Can music or any art-form deal effectively with this devolving political and military situation? In the end, Adham does not offer simple conclusions, but rather points towards the potential of sound as a means of conflict transformation and as a metaphor for a non-linear understanding of conflict He is careful not to romanticize music, but points towards its potentials for dialogue and resistance He suggests that understanding the qualities of harmony and dissonance might help identify new courses of action in violent conflicts The cyclical nature of conflict transformation is central to Adham’s argumentation This insight sometimes leaves the reader uncertain and shows how conflict transformation can be tiring, as it can be easily confused with a sense of standing still This book encourages the reader to resist the urge to give up, despite frustrations Adham wrestles with the voices he has been given and with the voices he encounters, and succeeds by also including critical self-reflection Hence, the most distinctive voice, the one searching at new levels, is Adham’s He has a story to tell from embodied experience as a resonating actor within the Middle East Conflict The choice, therefore, to also recognize himself as a resource of knowledge production, never self-centered but always self-critical, is valid Will Adham Hamed have the space, the safety and the courage to continue developing his own voice? Only time will tell What I know and the reader will soon encounter in these pages is that a voice important for our common future, is on its way May that voice be nurtured and amplified in the days ahead Cape Canaveral, Florida, September 2015 Marc H Ellis1 Professor Marc H Ellis is retired University Professor of Jewish Studies at Baylor University, Waco, Texas He is currently visiting professor of several international universities, including the University of Innsbruck, Austria Contents Introduction Author’s Perspective and Primary Research Interest State of the Art 11 The Transrational Model 4.1 The Five Families of Peace and Primary Themes 4.2 Levels of Conflict 4.3 Layers of Conflict 17 18 22 23 Elicitive Conflict Mapping 5.1 The three Principles of Elicitive Conflict Transformation and the Care of the Self 5.2 Mapping the Middle East Conflict 5.2.1 Conflict Transposition and Conflict Transformation 5.2.2 My Entry Point: Clashing Narratives and Strong Truths 5.2.3 The Many Truths around Israel and Palestine 5.2.4 My truths are weak 27 28 34 36 39 41 45 Research Ethics: I Have No Morals! 47 Music in Conflict Transformation 7.1 The Political Potential of Music 7.2 Performed and Recorded Music 7.3 Vernacular Music: The Potential of the Here and Now Further Research Interest 61 Case Studies 65 9.1 Where Strong Truths Crack: The Jerusalem Youth Chorus 65 9.1.1 Mental-Societal Disturbances: Ceci n’est pas une Guitare! 67 53 53 55 56 X Contents 9.1.2 Imagining and Experiencing Home on the SocialCommunal Layers 9.1.3 Sexual Energy: An Implicit Potential for Conflict Transformation 9.1.4 Another Level of Dialogue: Vernacular Moments and Spiritual Potential 9.1.5 Potentials, Limitations and Critique of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus 9.2 Songs Are The Soul’s Language: Eskenderella 9.2.1 Mental-Societal Potentials: Sounding the Charge for the Egyptian Uprising Revolution 9.2.2 When Vernacular Potential Unfolds: Spirituality in the midst of Revolutionary Dynamics 9.2.3 Hidden Messages: The Sexual Family-Layers 9.2.4 A Homogenous Group and Random Audiences: The Social-Communal Layers 9.2.5 Potentials, Limitations and Critique of Eskenderella 10 70 75 76 80 82 84 87 91 92 92 Conclusion 95 List of References 103 10 Conclusion The water point is reached only in order to be left behind [ ] A path is always between two points, but in-between has taken on all the consistency and enjoys an autonomy and direction of its own The life of the nomad is the intermezzo (Deleuze and Guattari, as quoted in Koppensteiner 2009b) A considerable amount of time has passed since I first formulated my research interest Time, which has shaped and transformed me as a researcher and elicitive peace worker I would therefore like to begin the conclusion of this book by situating myself one last time in the context of the Middle East Conflict I am sitting on a balcony in Cairo It is a hot August night and I am concluding this book to the sounds of military helicopters Half a year has passed since a car exploded in the midst of the traffic in front of me The political situation in Egypt appears to be remarkably stable compared to most neighboring countries, however, the revolutionary discourse continues as tens of thousands of people have been arrested for political reasons between summer 2013 and summer 2014 alone (Human Rights Watch, 2014) Only a few hundred meters away from me, the Palestinian delegation to the Gaza war ceasefire talks is negotiating about the political future in Israel and Palestine I assume they are the reason for the strong military presence in the hot summer air We have witness yet another round of war, after this book has been written over a seemingly ‘calm’ period in Palestine and Israel The numbers of casualties are disturbingly high and the frontlines are many This summer, Gaza is not the only hotspot in the Middle East The civil war in Syria is continues most violently and Iraq remains in turmoil Millions of people are fleeing from the Middle East Conflict as part of the largest global refugee movement since World War II (UNHCR 2014) Also, the beheadings of Western citizens and the non-modern understanding of states of the so-called Islamic State, function as a reminder that the Middle East is closely interconnected with Europe These realities create a necessity for understanding the dynamics of the Middle East Conflict through different lenses, like the one proposed in this book From the perspective of a merely territorial understanding of the Middle East Conflict, the logic of the modern nation state keeps leading itself ad absurdum when dealing with this challenge and usually reproduces cycles of violence The Middle East has been subject to tremendous transforma© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016 A Hamed, Speaking the Unspeakable, Masters of Peace, DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-14208-7_10 96 10 Conclusion tions and turmoil as the Arab Uprisings have been taking their many forms Yet, while global media keeps reporting about very specific hotspots, they are often only scratching on the episode of conflict by reporting about spectacular outbreaks of the intense energy that one can find on all layers of the Middle East Conflict Also, they are often failing to reach out to middle range and grassroots leaders You may be wondering how this story from Cairo is related to the topic of my inquiry Through applying a transrational lens to the Middle East Conflict, I have tried to go beyond such logic as it allows for the analysis of conflicts also in phases of alleged calmness, particularly when conflict transposition on a top leaders-level is supposing this Within the body of this work I have split my research interest into two sets of guiding questions I will now reiterate these in order to speak to my findings and finalize my conclusion I have primarily inquired as to: How can the metaphor of the Middle East as an open space full of resonating sound bodies be applied to the discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies? And further: How can the potential of speaking unspeakable truths be elicited in the context of the Middle East Conflict? After detailing my primary theoretical considerations, I was able to sufficiently address the first question through positioning my research within transrational peace epistemology, which according to the elicitive principle of resonance offered a suitable framework for such an endeavor In my theoretical analysis, I contested that security and justice are the dominant primary themes in the context of the Middle East Conflict and, consequently, I then chose to elaborate on my second research question since it had not been sufficiently answered within the theoretical part of this book With my earlier theoretical considerations as a contextualized foundation within this work, I was then able to base this question on the transrational model: I inquired about the different layers of conflict (sexual-family, social-emotional, mental-societal and spiritual-policitary) and asked where narratives about all four primary themes (harmony, justice, security and truth) can meet within and beyond the restrictions of formalized language Furthermore, as this book has been centered on music and its transformative potential, I then outlined three different forms of music (recorded, performed and vernacular) and asked how they have an impact on the conflicting episode by creating new qualities of resonances both on the intra- and interpersonal layers of the Middle East Conflict In order to be precise in my inquiry, I sought to know: What are their differences in quality for elicitive conflict transformation? And also, How can the use of sound function as a means to facilitate the expression of unspeakable truths to increase consciousness about individual and collective needs behind seemingly different narratives so that new courses of action can be discovered in the context of the Middle East Conflict? Through applying the transrational model as a theoretical lens, I have demonstrated how I have been an integral part of the object of research, the Middle East Conflict, and how there is ultimately no way to fully discuss these issues from the ‘outside’, according to the elicitive principles of resonance and correspondence I have also placed myself geographically in the Middle East as I have conducted re- 10 Conclusion 97 search about two music initiatives, the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and Eskenderella I believe the findings from my case studies are of concern for research about the Middle East Conflict, the Innsbruck School of Peace Studies and the field of Peace and Conflict Studies more broadly My primary research interest has been to inquire into how the metaphor of the Middle East is an open social space full of resonating sound bodies, which includes individuals and groups alike, can be applied to Peace and Conflict Studies In the first part of this study, I have outlined the potential of looking at this metaphor through a transrational lens Particularly, the elicitive principle of resonance has been helpful for elaborating on that concept In the second part, both case studies have demonstrated the extent to which music can create resonances amongst their audiences and also among the group of singers themselves Two situations in particular stand out for me and demonstrate this point On the one hand there was a situation of extreme dissonance amongst the singers of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, when some of the Palestinians were singing their own vernacular Palestinian heritage songs On the other hand, Eskenderella has shown how the divide between singers and audience can break away in vernacular moments of the revolution In these moments, when singers and audience alike are guided by the energy of the moment, they are speaking a truth that was not just weak but total This totality should not be understood in a modern sense, but rather as an expression of a deep resonance that penetrates all layers of persona, connecting the personal self to everything in the social space around It is precisely in such moments, in which there is the largest potential for fundamental, revolutionary change in the dynamics of a rigid conflict There is a potential to speak deep and eternal truths through music and to touch something within the persona, potentially beyond the mental-societal layers of conflict Personae, sound bodies are more than flesh and blood, or what I have defined with Norbert Koppensteiner (2009a) as the personal self In the tradition of the seven-chakra yoga philosophy and humanistic psychology, and through the lens of the transrational model, I have suggested that we are interconnected to the environment not only through the outside but also through our inner core In the exploration of these unspeakable layers of the persona, we can discover tremendous potential for conflict transformation, precisely because a strict distinction between different ethno-political groups is no longer possible from such a perspective While those identity categories, which are largely constructed on the mental-societal layers not seize to exist and remain meaningful, it is the discovery of the Other that is contained within the Self that have the potential to elicit new courses of action Interventions merely on the mental-societal layers often lead to backfire effects whenever the truth discourse that is underlying an episode is particularly strong, meaning that the notion of truth has shifted from a plurality of truths towards a singular truth The possibility of backfire effects has to be expected whenever an intervention is made on the layer on which a disturbance occurs already In this book, disturbances have been identified primarily on the mental-societal layers It requires a lot from peace facilitators to create and hold spaces in which to discover potentials beyond the layers, which are dominant in a conflict Certainly, 98 10 Conclusion there is also always an ethical dimension to the question of which spaces should be opened, which paths perused and which not Also the spiritual-policitary layers are not the only layers that can elicit constructive courses of action All other layers have to be taken into consideration as well and depending on the circumstances, their potentials may be accessed easily or not I have touched upon that question when discussing the potential of the sexual-family layers in the context of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus The example of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus shows how the socialcommunal layers carry a high potential for conflict transformation as shared group experiences open up spaces to discover the Other not as an alien being but as a real sexual, emotional, mental and spiritual persona The metaphor of the Middle East being an open space full of resonating sound bodies, therefore, is indeed applicable to the reality not only of this particular conflict but to the field of Peace and Conflict Studies more broadly As mentioned above, what has become evident in this book is the fact that a discourse on the mental-societal layers alone has a high tendency to lead to backfire effects, particularly when the truths related to these identity categories are rooted in wounds that go deep, to the realms of unspeakability This, however, does not mean that the mental-societal layers should be left out in efforts of conflict transformation Quite the contrary, any such attempt could easily be perceived as ignorant, perhaps even violent in the light of experienced conflict I have faced critiques merely because I have been researching multi-lateral music initiatives, in addition to those that focus on resistance against the Other This Other is constructed on the mentalsocietal layers and can be seen as a signifier and reminder of the importance to inquire into all layers of conflict It is not the task of the elicitive peace researcher to normatively describe the righteous path towards peace but only to inquire about possibilities, and in case of a facilitator, to create spaces, in which alternative courses of action can be discovered However, beyond courses of action that I, as an elicitive peace researcher who enters a conflict with a subjective set of values, might envision as being ideal, the choice of fighting a battle by whichever means, has to be respected as well For me, this does not imply agreement or that I would not express my ethical doubts or concerns in a situation that is difficult to accept for me, but rather to always see the personae who fight a battle and enquire into the needs that drive them in a conflict To “suspend judgment”, as John Paul Lederach (2005: 37) recommends to peace workers, has proven to be an important reminder in situations when my own ethics were not congruent with the ones of the people I have encountered during my research Such an attitude has been personally demanding and sometimes exhausting It has also been a primary research interest of mine, to inquire into possibilities of speaking unspeakable truths In my case studies I have raised questions as to how the use of sound can function as a means to facilitate individual and group expression in the context of the Middle East Conflict Furthermore, I believe that this book assists in building a helpful bridge between the works of Lederach and Lederach (2010) and Dietrich (2002) I have demonstrated how sounds can convey truths in a given situation and perhaps even function as vehicles of truths that are rooted beyond language on the transrational layers of the persona They can be ‘true’ in one moment but lose 10 Conclusion 99 their meaning in the next For example, both music initiatives have adapted songs over time The Jerusalem Youth Chorus introduced Arabic and Hebrew lyrics to the song Home, adapting a universalized pop song to their own contexts, while Eskenderella changed the entire second half of their resistance song Yuhka Ana through the experience of the Egyptian Uprising of which they had been an integral part I interpret these changes of lyrics as a change of perception of what is true and authentic by the artists who, as I have argued with Helmut Brenner (1992), Wolfgang Dietrich (2002) and Edward Said (1996), are always also political agents Therefore this study has exemplified, what transrational peace theory suggests: There is no one size fits all map to address the dynamics of conflicts The layers and the methods on which elicitive peace facilitation focuses will always depend on the respective context I have also distinguished between recorded, performed and vernacular music and inquired into their different potentials for elicitive conflict transformation The latter has turned out to be a mirror of reality as it is perceived in a given context, at a given moment, while in recorded and performed music there is a potential to become a universalized and meaningless shell of words over time For the art of elicitive conflict transformation, the contextual truths of the moment are always of concern Vernacular forms of self-expression, which are “homebred, homespun, homegrown, homemade” (Illich, 1980: 82), carry the highest potential for recognizing new courses of action As it is a vital concern for transrational peace philosophy to inquire about truths as the underlying issues of narratives we experience on the episode, it is necessary to inquire about possibilities that express truths of the moment Certainly, the moment is always conditioned by the past, present and future Hence, the historical context of a narrative cannot be denied However, it is the ongoing interpretation of reality that is expressed in vernacular music Arts in general and in the case of this book sounds in particular have the potential to penetrate deeply and to express truths that lay beyond the realities that are describable by words alone If experienced and lived vernacularly, sounds can carry honest and deep expression of truths Both music initiatives have changed their songs for that particular reason Using the Camp David Peace accords as an example, I have shown how peace talks in the Middle East Conflict have led to conflict transposition, rather than conflict transformation Rational analysis and mechanistic efforts of conflict resolution have failed spectacularly in this context My description of the status quo as I am writing this book, gives only a few of the many possible examples for that Therefore, in my case studies I have asked about spaces where discourses on the primary themes of security and justice can meet beyond the restrictions of formalized language, which can be found in traditional diplomatic settings and schools of conflict management Also I have been inquiring about the two other, allegedly marginalized primary themes of ECM - harmony and truth While security and justice are drawing on singular understandings of truth, as this study has exemplified, the primary themes of harmony and truth, usually draw on ontologies that call for a pluralistic understandings of truths It seems like there is a point, when this plurality shifts, either to a singular notion that taken to an extreme can lead to fascism, or to a condition of perceived anomie I have discussed the concept of anomie in reference to 100 10 Conclusion Dietrich’s example of amok and interpret the experience of some Israeli singers of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus of not being able to resonate to the sound of Palestinian heritage songs, as a hint towards this phenomenon I suggest that these shifts carry the highest potential for direct physical violence, even ethnic cleansing and genocide If the cognitive ability to realize those resonances to the Other is lost, and if identity categories become extremely strong and exclusive, it is the quest of transrational peace philosophy to think about possibilities “to provide the best possible safe space for parties to find courses of action to transform conflicts” (Echavarría Alvarez, 2014: 70) that allow for discovering the quality of resonances anew However, this shall not be understood as a normative statement, based on a value judgment that favors non-violent means over violence Ethical choices may lead to resistance against an oppressing force, be it the nation state, an external enemy or an ideology While there certainly have been moments in which the self was fading away in the process of the Egyptian Revolution, Eskenderella, as much as it is using the unifying power of music is also using language of Othering Here, I am not trying to romanticize spaces for dialogue I have learned to understand that the use of a Molotov cocktail or a machine gun might seem to be the more tangible option for somebody who has experienced the conflict and its destructive reality first hand I have encountered such positions plenty of times when explaining my research and I have learned to understand that use of violent attempts to transform the status quo of conflicts can be the seemingly more feasible option in certain situations Suspending judgment also implies inquiring about the needs of the persona behind the violent actions that appear on the episode of conflict This book has demonstrated how music carries an extraordinary potential in conflict transformation and also how this potential manifests in many forms The Jerusalem Youth Chorus and Eskenderella both give convincing examples of this There is nothing particularly romantic about music Quite to the contrary, at such moments of extreme violence and polarization, it can cut across people like a sword and cause wounds that not just heal within a generation or two In only a few years, the Israeli singers of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus will be drafted to serve their country Perhaps on the battlefield they will face their fellow Palestinian singers Maybe some of the Palestinian musicians will fight a battle for justice and pick up weapons to fight for Palestine to the sounds of Yuhka Ana and experience hamas, as May Haddad has described her experience of lived resistance in the streets of Cairo as a member of Eskenderella Will the experience of being part of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus make a difference for their deeds? Perhaps The answer to this question would go beyond the scope of this book and would have to be subject to further research Speculations about the future of the protagonists of this study, the members of the Jerusalem Youth Chorus and the Egyptian band Eskenderella have not been the interest here My focus has been on the present rather than on the future The ‘here and now’ unfolds itself in every moment anew, yet differently Vernacular music is an expression of these moments On a more personal level, this research has demonstrated that the question of who I am in a given moment is one of the most important considerations for an elicitive peace and conflict researcher–it can never be definitively answered as peace 10 Conclusion 101 and conflict research always means personal transformation in interaction with the globe Home, I have found, is a concept extremely close to peace This became particularly apparent to me when inquiring about the concept of the vernacular While my research has been a nomadic search for the meaning of home, I have realized that home can be found almost anywhere if it is with the ‘right’ people, in the ‘right’ moment From a transrational perspective, I would suggest, home can only be found through a relational awareness of the self Such awareness might be reached through practicing music, as a concrete form of the ‘care of the self’ This is key for any kind of peace facilitation that works with elicitive conflict transformation The explicit focus on music in the context of a violent conflict has also evoked a confrontation with myself I am not a musician but music has been connected to some rather intense and challenging conflicts in my own biography My youth was not an easy phase of my life It was at that time when I first lost faith in the grand narrative of a stable home What had been formerly a constant harbor, fundamentally changed when my mother decided to get married and we moved to my stepfather’s place when I was fourteen years old He is a musician and I heard him rehearse on the piano every day at our new apartment that I never fully experienced as my home The supposedly harmonious sounds of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach sounded dissonant to me It might be the longing for home and confusion about the real meaning of harmony that has led me into Peace and Conflict Studies For my preliminary considerations, Norbert Koppensteiner’s interpretation of Gianni Vattimo’s concept of weak thinking has been central to my argument The process of my empirical research has made me add to this interpretation While indeed every truth is weak, resonances on those transrational layers of conflict carry the potential for an experienced totality that is not weak, but indeed transcends modern understandings of space and time With such a finding that can only be based on personal experience, never on rational argumentation, however, we have reached the edge of modern research methodology Transrational peaces, while building on the solid ground of moral and (post-)modern thinking require shifting the attention of the searching subject inwards once more and opening up for resonances also on those levels that transcend rational thinking (Dietrich, 2012: 265ff.; 2015) Resonances, which occur beyond the rational layers of conflict, are what I refer to as ‘deep resonances’ In any given conflict, we can only speculate about the potential of deep resonances The modern ‘conflict expert’ will shy away from activating these resonances as such a step implies the need to let go of security and control The trained elicitive peace facilitator, who is aware of these transformative potentials, uses them wisely and can harness the potential of this approach It requires all faculties of a peace worker to facilitate groups, who work with methods that create such resonances, as their potential can manifest itself in constructive and in destructive ways alike Deep resonances penetrate the outer layers of conflict and create sounds on the spiritual and potentially even on the global layers Deep resonances are transrational There is no way to be outside the Middle East Conflict Understanding conflicts in their depths and through their relational character and analyzing them through a transrational lens brings me to my concluding thoughts: We all are indeed resonating 102 10 Conclusion sound bodies within this conflict and more so, the Middle East Conflicts is finding its correspondence within each of us I am, you are, we are embodying the Middle East Conflict I opened this conclusion by referring to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari Their words resonate when looking ‘back’ at the non-linear path I have taken in this research Within and beyond this book I have found that the promises of positive peace carry a high potential of violence With Dietrich I have set forth a notion of Many Peaces, which per definition are contextual and momentary Peace will not ‘break out’ in the Middle East but, as both case studies have shown, there is a potential to transcend the limitations of our becoming by embracing the insecurities of the moment Such an embracement can happen in vernacular moments that speak truth about cultural contexts and simultaneously a ‘care of the self’ The search for peace in the Middle East for me has been a nomadic one and it has implied an exposure to unspeakable violence A curious inquiry into possible ways of expressing those unspeakabilities remains the ongoing challenge for transrational peace philosophy List of References Ackerly, Brooke and Jacqui True (2010): Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science, London, Palgrave Macmillan Amin, Galal (2005): Whatever Else Happened to the Egyptians?, Cairo, The American University in Cairo Press Anderson, Benedict (1991): Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London, Verso Books Anonymous Personal Communication Palestine, November, 2013 Atkinson, Rick (2014): D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, 1944, New York, Henry Holt and Company Bell-Fialkoff, Andrew (1993): “Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing”, Foreign Affairs, Vol 72/3, 110-121 Bohm, David (1996): On Creativity, New York, Routledge Botes, Johannes and Christopher Mitchell (1995): “Constraints on Third Party Flexibility in International Negotiation and Mediation”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol 542, 168-184 Boulding, Kenneth E (1977): “Twelve Friendly Quarrels with Johan Galtung”, Journal of Peace Research, Vol 14/1, 75-86 –– (1978): “Future Directions in Conflict and Peace Studies”, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol 22/2, 342-354 Brenner, Helmut (1992): Musik als Waffe? 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How can the potential of speaking unspeakable truths be elicited in the context of the Middle East Conflict? I will revisit these two primary... in the midst of the Alps, is my mother’s hometown and also the place where I grew up Here, people I encountered were often not too informed about the Middle East Conflict and if they were, the. .. happening in the Middle East Phrased differently: The reality of academia and the reality of armed conflicts correspond They cannot be seen as separate entities but rather as two sides of the same