‘In the history of the World, only those peoples who form a state can come under our notice.’ Thus wrote the great German philosopher Friedrich Hegel long ago. He was marking an era where national identities increasingly became meaningful and fulfilling in so far as they became associated with a territory and with self-rule. Likewise forthe French nationalist Jules Michelet; He tells us that only when one ‘takes possession of their native land’ can they receive their ‘share ofhope’.
But what happens when two peoples see their possibility of national self-realisation in the same territory? What happens when one people receive ‘their share of hope’ at the expense of another and when the struggle of one people to ‘come under our notice’ means the effacement of another people? Nowhere are the difficulties that arise from such a situation more dramatically illustrated than in the land that is today the scene of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This panel aims to discuss those difficulties and the various solutions that are being proposed to resolve them.