'Social Barriers to Peace: Socialisation Processes in the Radicalisation of the Palestinian Struggle'.

The article aims to address why violence is increasing today when many of the issues facing Palestinians have been experienced for generations. Contemporary analysis of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians tends to focus upon Islamic terrorism and Israeli state aggression. Representations and analysis are dominated by media images of terrorist/freedom fighters atrocities and military incursions. Explanations have concentrated upon 'tit-for-tat' killings and, in the case of Islamic terrorists/freedom fighters, their actions are seen as acts of desperation against a backdrop of materialist exclusion. These accounts often inform about current events but do not develop broad levels of understanding and explanation that are required if the reasons for the contemporary nature of radicalism within the conflict are to be established. The optimism generated following the Oslo Peace Accords has gradually been replaced by despair following the Palestinians and Israelis inability to reach agreement on the core issues including settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the rights of Palestinian refugees.