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Gabbay, Zvi. Justifying Restorative Justice: A Theoretical Justification for the Use of Restorative Justice Practices.

abstract pending

Irani, George E. Islamic Mediation Techniques for Midde East Conflicts

Irani describes the problems of using western forms of conflict resolution in the Middle East. He describes the rituals of suhl and musalaha. In doing so, he stresses the need for cultural understanding in peacemaking processes.

Yanay, Uri. Restoring justice. Could it work in the Middle East? (abstract)

In recent years, many countries developed alternative means to deal with criminal justice related issues. Canada, New Zealand and Australia were first to do so. It was probably the tradition, legacy and formal respect for their indigenous ‘first nations’ population that helped acknowledge and introduce such alternatives. Palestinian Arabs are Israel’s indigenous population. However, the political stalemate in Israel hampers efforts made to restore relations and solve conflicts using RJ philosophy and process. Peacemaking is widely used among Israeli Arabs themselves, and so it is also used among some Jewish communities, but it is unlikely that any comprehensive, state based, formal alternative conflict resolution initiative would be adopted as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict exists. The paper lists political, social and cultural constraints and barriers that thwart such initiative. It also highlights the potential benefits and opportunities in restoring community relationships within a complicated, painful political conflict. The overall feeling that everyone is victimised in this conflict may open a door to restoring relations. The paper is based on observations made in the Middle East where different communities, audients and interests are involved. Author's abstract.

Grably, Saray. Restorative Justice: Victim Offender Mediation and Circles in the Youth Probation Service Southern and Jerusalem Districts of Israel.

In Israel, the youth probation system has had the mandate since 1971 to implement corrective interventions for lawbreaking youth from age of 12 – 18. In 1992, the process of mediation in the forms of V.O.R.P., Circles and R.J. was introduced on a trial basis as a part of the rehabilitative process. After 2000, mediation was acknowledged officially as an acceptable form of intervention by the department of youth probation. Specialized units were established in three youth probation centers to provide mediation services on a nationwide level. Four sources refer to these units: 1) the Police 2) the Assigned Probation Officers 3) the Public Defender 4) the Juvenile Court System which operates without a jury system. In the dialogue I will present the eight-step-process that was developed in Israel in order to integrate relevant aspects of V.O.R.P., Circles & RJ for the purpose of adapting these forms of interventions into the Israeli corrective and social system. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Restorative Justice, Simon Fraser University. http://www.sfu.ca/crj/

Claassen, Ron. First Restorative Justice Conference, Tel Aviv, Israel, May 1-2, 2002

In early May 2002 Ron Claassen, Director of the Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies at Fresno Pacific University (Fresno, California), was a guest speaker at the First Restorative Justice Conference held in Tel Aviv, Israel. Martin Wright of England was the other guest speaker. In this article Claassen reports on the conference and his participation in it. Prior to the conference Claassen and Wright led workshops on the theory and practice of restorative justice, with a focus on the significance of restorative justice to the Israeli criminal justice system. The conference itself extended the same emphases on restorative justice theory and practice in relation to Israeli criminal justice. Participants included prosecutors, police, judges, attorneys, and law school and social work faculty and students.

Institute of World Affairs. Community-building in post-war Lebanon: A project to enhance ethnic tolerance and civic identity

The Institute of World Affairs is engaged in a multi-year project to assist in the reconciliation and return of displaced villagers to their homes in a region east of Beirut, Lebanon.

Lebanon: Using Communtiy Dialogue to Foster

Twenty years of civil war, often along religious and ethnic lines, left Lebanon with a legacy of displaced communities where fear, anger, and mistrust hinder return and reconciliation.

Using Family Group Conferencing in Child Protection Cases in Israel.

Simone Spak is director of Family Group Conferencing in Child Protection, a program of Ashalim (the Association for Planning & Development of Services for Children and Youth at Risk & their Families) in Israel. In this article, she describes a pilot project to use Family Group Conferencing in child protection cases.

Spak, Simone. Pilot Project for F.G.C. for Child Protection in Israel

In April 2001 the Service for Children and Youth in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Israel together with Ashalim, (The Association for Planning & Development of Services for Children and Youth at Risk & their Families) decided to launch an extensive pilot project of F.G.C. for child protection. Two previous attempts at implementing F.G.C. for child protection met with difficulties and failed. The current project invested in creating interest and trust in the F.G.C. approach as a suitable alternative method of dealing with child abuse and neglect. Eighteen municipalities all over the country were chosen to participate: cities and rural settlements in the center and the south of the country, small Arab towns in the north, and Bedouin settlements in the Negev desert. The unique aspect of this presentation lies in the application of F.G.C. in such a diversity of cultures and communities. This presentation focuses on the value of F.G.C. as a universal approach applicable in a wide range of family and cultural contexts. See http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pc_fgdm_programs_israel

Umbreit, Mark S. and Ritter, Rina. Arab Offenders Meet Jewish Victim: Restorative Family Dialogue in Israel.

A case example of restorative family dialogue involving young Arab offenders who committed an armed robbery against a Jewish victim in Israel who experienced the crime as an act of terrorism was found to be highly effective in resolving the conflict and building stronger relations between the two communities. While on a microbasis this bodes well for future relations in the region, numerous obstacles exist to widespread use of restorative justice dialogue in Israel and the occupied territories. (author’s abstract)

Umbreit, Mark S and Ritter, Rina. Palestinian Offenders Meet Israeli Victim: Restorative Family Dialogue in Israel.

This article is a brief introduction to restorative justice, followed by a case study. The case study involves two young male Palestinian offenders, who were charged with attempted robbery and conspiracy to committing a felony, and their victim, who was a young Israeli woman.

Goldstein, Anat. Restorative Practices in Israel: The State of the Field.

Today penal systems and criminal codes are to a great extent a means of addressing the offense between the sovereign power and the offender. Criminal law of the modern-day state of Israel, like most modern systems, is based on retributive concepts of justice and reflects the norms of Jewish criminal laws in only very small measure.6 Yet alongside the country’s retributive criminal legal system, traditional population groups have long practiced restorative justice. Over the past 15 years restorative practices have also been introduced in the work of various Israeli government services. Traditional restorative practices can be found in each of the three primary yet diverse traditional populations in the state of Israel: a) Muslim and Christian Arab, Bedouin and Druze minorities, which comprise approximately 20 percent of the Israeli population, b) Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who comprise close to 8 percent of the population, and c) Jews who immigrated from Ethiopia, who comprise less than 1 percent of the population. In this presentation I will describe the traditional practices that are in use and will expand on the newly developed restorative practices in Israel. (excerpt)

Jabbour, Elias J. Echoes of Peace From a House of Hope

The Middle East has been and continues to be a region of intense, bitter, and violent conflict. Amid the conflict are certain movements or currents for peace and peacemaking. One of them is the House of Hope International Peace Center in Shefa-Amer, an Arab town in Galilee in Israel. At the time of writing this book, the town had a population of about 30,000 people made up of three different communities: Christians; Muslims; and Druze. The director of the House of Hope is Elias Jabbour, a Palestinian, Christian, Israel-Arab citizen with a vision for peace and peacemaking in a region of tension and conflict. The House of Hope was established in 1978. In this book Jabbour discusses the issues in the region, as well as the origins and aims of the House of Hope; voices of peace in the area and traditional Arab methods of conflict resolution and peacemaking; efforts to promote peace between Arabs and Jews; and challenges to peace. In addition to explanation and analysis of the situation and approaches to resolving conflicts, the book contains many resources. These include illustrative stories and experiences relating to actual conflicts and efforts to seek peace and reconciliation, letters and accounts from visitors to the House of Hope, and speeches given by Jabbour in various settings.

Cook, Thomas C. Jr. A Personal Call to Peace: An Interview with Elias Jabbour.

This small book consists of transcribed interviews in 1992, 1993, and 2000 with Elias Jabbour, founder and director of the House of Hope International Peace Center in Shefar’am, Israel. Elias Jabbour is an Arab Christian, and the House of Hope is an Arab-initiated international peace center. In the interview, Jabbour talks about the mission of the House of Hope with respect to conflict resolution and peacemaking, the realities of conflict in the Middle East, and interfaith relations and dialogue.

Gohar, Ali and Yousufzai, Hassan. Towards Understanding Pukhtoon Jirga.

The Pukhtoon peoples – that is, those who share certain ethnic roots and the Pukhtoon language – live in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of their longest standing cultural traditions or institutions is the jirga. It is a public assembly – involving political, legal, and social elements – for the settling of public and private issues and conflicts. In this booklet, Hassan Yousufzai and Ali Gohar introduce and explain the jirga for those not familiar with it. They began this project based in part on their experiences as Pakistani Muslims who arrived at Eastern Mennonite University to study conflict transformation – only a few days before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against targets in the United States. They ask how, in the era of globalization, contemporary people should treat ancient, indigenous institutions like the jirga. Should modern institutions simply overwhelm and push aside older institutions? Or, is there a way whereby modern, more codified systems can benefit from and work together with traditional systems? To explore all of this, they interviewed a wide range of individuals and groups with knowledge of and experience with the Pukhtoon jirga. Thus Yousufzai and Gohar document and present the dynamics of the jirga, discuss it as a peace-building body, characterize it as a grass-roots organization, and speculate on the future of the jirga.

King-Irani, Laurie. To Reconcile, or to be Reconciled?: Agency, Accountability, and Law in Middle Eastern Conflicts.

As have other countries and regions around the world, the Middle East has experienced much conflict, injustice, and violence within and between countries of the region over decades. In this paper, Laurie King-Irani asks whether international human rights ideas and laws apply to the region. Should, for example, Middle Eastern countries seek reconciliation and transformation of conflict among their people by dealing with past injustices and human rights violations through one or another of the various mechanisms used in other countries? Or, as King-Irani reports the perspective of a U.S. government official in the late 1990s, should people in Middle Eastern countries reconcile themselves to the realities of life in troubled, autocratic regimes? In this context, and with a focus on addressing injustices in Lebanon and between Israel and Palestine, she uses anthropology to examine moral, legal, and cultural issues relating to impunity, accountability, stereotypes, tribal identities, and politics.

Gohar, Ali. Traditional and Modern Approaches to Peacebuilding: Afghan Refugees in Pakistan.

Conflict tends to develop between two individuals as a result of the misuse of language. Resolution comes from the same source – local language and custom. An outsider, having no knowledge of traditional, customary law, cannot effectively solve community problems. Traditional approaches to conflict resolution are able to deal with conflict before it spreads. If modern, non-traditional knowledge is included within the traditional framework, with respect for traditional norms and values, training the community worker is effective. Approaches must be bottom-up with strong networks at the community level to guarantee the success of every project. (excerpt).

Ben-Baruch, Suzy. Restorative Justice for Young Offenders.

Israel chose to first apply this new approach to the justice system for young first-time offenders. Offering these youngsters a way back to a noncriminal lifestyle without carrying the label and stigma of a criminal record is very much in line with current Israel Police policy. The authorities furthermore calculated that the new approach stood a good chance of reducing the worrying and growing number of young offenders. The central institution of the new process is a Family Group Conference (FGC). The concept was first borrowed during the 1980s by New Zealand jurists, from that country’s indigenous Maoris who have employed it for centuries. Various formats of FGC have been effectively employed in other countries: England, Sweden, Canada, USA, South Africa and Australia. (excerpt)

Gal-on-Lechno, Keren. Family Group Conferences in Youth Justice in Israel.

Israel has been experimenting with Family Group Conferences (FGC) in Youth Justice for a number of years as an alternative for young offenders who have been blamed for breaking the criminal law. The initiators of the program in Israel are the Ministry of Public Security in cooperation with the Israel Police, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Joint-Ashalim organization. When project planning began in 1998-9, a key requirement was to adapt the idea from its implementation overseas (based on the New Zealand model) to Israeli conditions and needs — our particular population mix, the structure of our law enforcement system and our care and rehabilitation systems. This task was entrusted to a steering committee comprising representatives of the Ministry of Public Security, the Israel Police (IP), the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Joint-Ashalim, and the Keshet Association. By late 2000 fieldwork began, at first in only a handful of police stations; by 2002 it had been expanded to the present number of twelve. (excerpt)

Irani, George E and Nathan C. Funk.. "Rituals of reconciliation: Arab-Islamic perspectives."

Many in the Middle East view conflict resolution as a Western program, and therefore as an outside, imposed practice with little regard for the indigenous (i.e., Middle Eastern) context. Irani and Funk contend that Western policymakers, in efforts to build peace in the Middle East, should engage in dialogue and peace strategies that take into account indigenous rituals and processes of reconciliation. Hence, in this paper they deal with a number of key topics: the limitations of the applicability of Western approaches to conflict resolution in non-Western contexts; traditional Arab-Islamic approaches to conflict resolution; and, in particular, Middle Eastern rituals of settlement and reconciliation. Furthermore, they draw out implications for policymakers and practitioners in promoting peace efforts.