It is my pleasure to present to you the first issue of the quarterly

newsletter of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation.

The IHJR is dedicated to promoting tolerance and understanding in

divided societies by examining disputed historical legacies and dis-

pelling the myths that are created around those histories.

The core objective of IHJR projects is creating and disseminating shared narratives,

using various media, such as publications, internet, documentaries and photo exhibi-

tions. We initiate projects which engage scholars, civil society and educators, to pro-

vide the society they live in the necessary tools to obtain an accurate and multi-

perspective view of contested historical events. We also aim to support and inspire

others with our approach, in order to use history as a means for fostering peace-

building efforts. Currently the Institute is active Kenya, Armenia and Turkey, the for-

mer Yugoslavia and the Middle East.

Our hope is that the newsletter encourages you to engage with us in a sustained dia-

logue.

Catherine Cissé-van den Muijsenbergh

Words from our Executive Director

An afternoon with...Wim Blockmans

Inside this issue

Volume 1, Issue 1 October 2011 www.historyandreconciliation.org

Ana Dević participated in a meeting on the IHJR

Yugoslavia project held in The Hague, February 2010.

This was her first meeting, and a great opportunity to

ask some questions on how she experiences the pro-

ject and cooperation within the group. Page 8

Interview with... Ana Dević

News from the office in The Hague

IHJR is a young and dynamic organization with inter-

national staff, consultants and advisors. In our first

newsletter, we would like to introduce our consult-

ants, staff and the projects that we currently are

working on. Page 3

Publications

IHJR is delighted to present its newest publications:

Two Sides of the Coin, Zoom In: Palestinian Refugees

of 1948, Remembrances and Sacred Sites in the Holy

Land, on Israel and Palestine as well as Political Myths

in the Former Yugoslavia. Page 2

Page 1

PUBLICATIONS 2

NEWS FROM THE HAGUE

OFFICE 3

AN AFTERNOON

WITH… PROF. WIM

BLOCKMANS

4

IN DEPTH: HAIFA

PROJECT 6

INTERVIEW WITH… ANA

DEVIĆ 7

DID YOU KNOW THAT...?

8

EVENTS 10

COLOPHON 10

Professor Wim Blockmans, former Rector of the Neth-

erlands Institute for Advanced Study, is interviewed

by IHJR. He answers questions related to national

identity, integration of minorities, political myths and

historians. Page 4

www.historyandreconciliation.org Page 2

Publications

Zoom In: Palestinian Refugees of 1948, Remembrances.

Collective volume written by a group of Israeli and Palestinian scholars and published in both Arabic

and Hebrew. The book approaches the theme of 1948 Palestinian refugees through pictures and indi-

vidual student reactions to them. The authors underline not only the need for a better understanding

of shared historical events but also of exclusive perceptions of the ‘other’ in this conflict.

Order the Arabic/English edition hardback or paperback

Order the Hebrew/English edition hardback or paperback

Two Sides of the Coin: Independence and Nakba 1984, Two Narratives of the 1948 War and its

outcome.

Two Sides of Coin: Independence and Nakba 1948 is a unique joint enterprise between an Israeli and a

Palestinian historian, who take the reader on a journey to the events of the 1948 War, by offering

multi-perspective narratives. The publication is accompanied by 24 maps which provide a new and

powerful insight into 1948.

Order the Arabic /English edition hardback or paperback

Order the Hebrew/English edition hardback or paperback

Sacred Sites in the Holy Land: Historical and Religious Perspectives

The overall aim of this report is to encourage tolerance and understanding by familiarizing both sides with the narrative of the ‘other’, while also working towards a common narration of the histories and religious significance of holy places in an area and time of heated conflict in which some of these sites are major symbols of national strife. For the English edition, click here For the Hebrew edition, click here For the Arabic edition, click here

Political Myths in the Former Yugoslavia and Successor States: A Shared Narrative

Edited by Vjekoslav Perica and Darko Gavrilovic, with contributions by selected scholars from differ-

ent Balkan countries. The book attempts to dispel political myths that fueled the Balkan conflict and

provide an alternative approach of historical events, based on the method of shared narrative. Con-

flict management recommendations and analysis of the Hague War Tribunal’s impact are presented.

Order the hardback

Order the paperback

Page 3 www.historyandreconciliation.org

News from the office in The Hague

IHJR is a young and dynamic organization with an inter-

national staff, consultants and advisors.

Darko Arabadzic is Regional Consult-

ant for the former Yugoslavia. Before

joining the IHJR he worked at the

Croatian Mission to the European Un-

ion, and the Croatian Ministry of Euro-

pean Integration.

Marion Ely is Fundraising Officer. She

earned her J.D. from American Uni-

versity, Washington College of

Law and LL.M. in Public International

Law from Leiden University. She

worked for 10 years at the Hague

Conference on Private International

Law as Senior Legal Officer.

Joël Groeneveld is Office Manager.

Before joining the Institute, he served

as the secretary for the NGO Julley,

where he participated in several pro-

jects in Ladakh, North India and coor-

dinated the editing of a Refugee Guide

in Cape Town, South Africa.

Anna Kiebert is Associate Program

Officer. She studied history at Utrecht

University, received her master’s de-

gree and then obtained a second mas-

ters in the History of International Re-

lations at the London School of Eco-

nomics and Political Science.

Alba León is an intern; she has a BA in

International Relations from El Colegio

de México, and an LL.M. from the VU

University, Amsterdam. Her LL.M thesis

reflected upon institutional changes and

cooperation between Mexico and the

United States.

Julia McCall, is a recent graduate of His-

tory (BA) and Conflict Studies (MSc), and

has had the opportunity to work and live

in various Latin American countries

throughout her studies. She is currently

working for IHJR on the development of a

project in South America and the Balkans

Nico Plasier is Senior Advisor. He recently

ended a long and fulfilling career in sev-

eral capacities within the security field for

the government of the Netherlands and is

currently a free-lance consultant for crisis

management, integrity and security.

Marie-Louise Ryback serves as Senior

Advisor, and initially worked for the IHJR

at the Salzburg Global Seminar as the

IHJR Administrative Director, and later as

Director of Development for the IHJR’s

Hague Office.

Salima Wiggins is Grants and Business

Administrator. She previously worked at

Research Triangle Institute (RTI) Interna-

tional, a leading global research institute

providing research and technical services

to government, industry, and academia in

the U.S. and over 40 countries worldwide.

www.historyandreconciliation.org

Alba León

Nico Plasier

Marie-Louise Ryback

Salima Wiggins

Joël Groeneveld

Anna Kiebert

Julia McCall

Marion Ely

Darko Arabadzic

Page 4 www.historyandreconciliation.org

An afternoon with ... Professor Wim Blockmans

Professor Wim Blockmans, a member of the Advisory

Board of the IHJR, gave our former intern Laura Boer-

hout a grand tour of ‘his’ town, Ghent. Historically

known for its textile industry, Ghent is now a lively uni-

versity town and a large commercial port. The Profes-

sor Emeritus of Medieval History and former Rector of

the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the

Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) enthusiastically

described the mixed architecture of this charming me-

dieval city at the junction of the rivers Schelde and

Leie, while walking its cobbled streets and looking at its

many monuments and historical buildings.

After the enlightening tour, Professor Blockmans

shared his views on the debate concerning European

integration and the role a historian can play in achiev-

ing truth and reconciliation. Topics such as national

identity, European integration and current develop-

ments regarding the nation-state in Europe were talked

about extensively while enjoying the local cuisine with

a large plate of Waterzooi, a typical Belgian stew.

In speaking about national identity, Blockmans shared

his opinion that too much emphasis is currently placed

on the power and unity of states. The debate concern-

ing European integration does not take into account

the importance of longstanding processes of cultural,

religious and economic integration. In his view, long

before arbitrary political borders were drawn on the

European map, integration processes were already a

trend in European history.

For example, he talked about Syrian merchants who

visited the courts in the valley of the Rhône during the

7th century, stressing that they must have integrated to

some extent within the society they visited to ensure

that communication was clear enough and they would

be able to sell their wares profitably to the local popula-

tion. This is a prime example of integration.

From integration as a whole, Blockmans moved to the

topic of integration of minorities. He appealed to taking

into account the diversity that has historically existed in

the continent. European states are multi-national and

multilingual, and have been so for a long time. Hence it

is wrong to use the present-day political borders as a

defining starting point. “If you maintain this principle,

an adjustment of these borders to socio-cultural reali-

ties would never be possible.”

In light of this, Blockmans critized, for example, the

judgment of the International Court of Justice regard-

ing the existence of the state of Kosovo, because it

based its argument on the existing borders instead of

recognizing the historical ‘evolution’ of the concept of

state. Moreover, for him “the nation state is a transient

concept”. While for centuries states in Europe have

tried to create cultural, religious and linguistic unity,

this controlling mechanism seems impossible to uphold

when power is being transferred to the supranational

level. At the same time there is a coming of age of re-

gional movements all over Europe. The constitutional

court recently has confirmed some regional rights to

the Catalans in Spain, but prohibited them to call them-

selves a nation. This, according to Blockmans, is abso-

lute nonsense because the Court has ignored the im-

portance of the cultural characteristics these people

share.

Yet it is a reality that the nation-state is in place, so the

question then is how to deal with the waves of migra-

tion and the reaction they get. It is all about a habitua-

tion process that works both ways, Blockmans says.

What needs to be analyzed and incorporated into pol-

icy is how many newcomers a society absorb and to

what extent these newcomers are willing to integrate

taking into account the differences between them and

their receiving society.

www.historyandreconciliation.org

Page 5 www.historyandreconciliation.org

www.historyandreconciliation.org

What needs to be analyzed and incorporated into pol-

icy is how many newcomers a society absorb and to

what extent these newcomers are willing to integrate

taking into account the differences between them and

their receiving society. Again, Blockmans puts the dis-

cussion into perspective because who would be sur-

prised nowadays about learning of a German minister

with a Polish background?

However, Blockmans argues, a change in perspective

could ease the complex integration discussion. For ex-

ample, there should be acknowledgment that the

speed with which Turks from urban areas integrate in

Western European societies compared to Moroccans

from rural areas has more to do with their social back-

ground than with their ethnicity.

Sitting under the shadow of trees in the courtyard of a

Beguinage, a place of tranquility in the middle of the

city, Blockmans explains what role the historian can

fulfill. One of the tasks of a historian is to expose the

myths that influence, and mislead, people. This mass

delusion happens right in front of us. See for example in

what way former president Bush misled countries when

trying to gain support for entering Iraq. Historians have

a mission to unravel these myths and demystify them.

Another example of delusion can be found in Rwanda,

where the current government is creating a new myth

of unity, by covering its gruesome past and redefining

its history. Although it can be identified as process of

pacification, it has little to do with actual truth. How-

ever, as Blockmans stresses, achieving absolute truth is

basically impossible because our reality is simply too

complex to reconstruct. This makes reconciliation a

very difficult matter as well. We have seen one success-

ful example in the past, in South Africa, but as Block-

mans says “without the influence of charismatic leaders

such as Mandela and Tutu it would have looked very

different”.

Wim Blockmans As a member of the

advisory board of the

IHJR, Professor

Blockmans seeks to

provide guidance and

oversight in both the

selection an the im-

plementation of IHR

Projects.

Current Lecturer at Columbia University.

Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at Leiden

University.

Rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced

Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences

(NIAS) 2002-2010.

Graduated Cum Laude from Leiden University,

with a PhD in History.

Among his fields of interests are: Medieval His-

tory, the political, economic, social and cultural

aspects of Flanders, Holland and other territo-

ries in the Low Countries during the period be-

tween the 13th and the 16th Century.

Publications

Metropolen aan de Noordzee. Geschiedenis van

Nederland 1100-1560 (Amsterdam: 2010);

Emperor Charles V 1500-1558 (London, 2001)

A History of Power in Europe. Peoples, Markets,

States (Antwerp, Brussels, New York, Frankfurt

1997, 1998)

The Promised Lands. The Low Countries under

Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530 (with W. Prevenier)

(Philadelphia, 1999).

To know more about the work of the IHJR, please

visit www.historyand reconciliation.org

Page 6 www.historyandreconciliation.org

The city of Haifa has been called “the City of

Coexistence” by its Jewish residents, yet

most Palestinians think of it as a symbol of

the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). These

two seemingly irreconcilable viewpoints be-

came the starting point for an IHJR project on

Historical Memory of Haifa, which brings to-

gether Israeli and Palestinian scholars focus-

ing on the period around 1948 and how these

events affected the lives of both Jews and

Palestinian Arabs in Haifa. This project seeks

to deepen the understanding of the 1948 War

and explore the dynamics of historical mem-

ory through a case study, which could serve

as a model to other cities, other peoples and

other conflicts.

This work is a collaborative effort between the

IHJR and the Hamburger Institut für Sozialfor-

schung, developed under the joint leadership of

Professor Yfaat Weiss of the School of History

at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Pro-

fessor Mahmoud Yazbak of the Department of

Middle Eastern History at the University of

Haifa.

Throughout the work of the team, the IHJR

model of ‘shared narratives’ was applied to spe-

cific cases where there are conflicting historical

narratives and therefore different public per-

ceptions that are not always easy to reconcile.

Mixed team of Israeli and Palestinian scholars

have worked to establish a joint interdiscipli-

nary narrative, a truly groundbreaking moment

for cooperation.

Moreover, the uniqueness of this project resides

on the fact that the events of 1948 and its after-

math are analyzed through the lens of everyday

life. In this manner, the reader of the upcoming

publication Haifa, Before & After 1948: Narra-

tives of a Mixed City can distinguish the larger

changes to Haifa city between the lines. This

indirect treatment of the events of 1948 made it

easier to create a joint narrative by Jewish and

Palestinian scholars.

A joint memory project

Each chapter was co-written by a Palestinian

and a Jew, most of them Israelis. From the per-

spective of architecture and the urban fabric of

Haifa, the authors aim at transcending bounda-

ries and fostering a better understanding of the

history of the region. The diversity of view-

points was reflected in the diversity of topics

presented in the book, from Haifa’s architec-

ture, to its social and cultural life during the

Mandate period, but also the competition for

the oil and soap industries among Arabs and

Jews; a commemoration in the German Colony

Project in depth: Historical memory of Haifa

Group picture 2009

Page 7 www.historyandreconciliation.org

of Haifa; the history of Arab-Jewish inter-

communal relations and cohabitation; the

‘story of two houses’ which represents the nar-

rative of Palestinians in Haifa, and personal ac-

counts and remembrances of the cold winter in

195o.

These interconnected issues give us a general

understanding of what life was like for the citi-

zens of Haifa beyond the larger questions of

politics, but also how politics intersected the

lives of citizens, both Palestinian and Jews, in

more subtle ways than previously looked at.

The result is a set of shared narratives which re-

examine the ‘mixed’ city, from both perspec-

tives finding the common threads.

The Creation of Shared Narratives

Such a diverse and large project would not have

been possible without the goodwill and hard

work of the whole team. During several meet-

ings, which took place between 2008 and 2011

in Salzburg, Hamburg and Tel Aviv, the team

jointly conducted research. However, coopera-

tion between scholars from different back-

grounds proved challenging from the onset. In

spite of this, a major achievement of the project

was that several scholars sought rapproche-

ment, and became close enough to organize a

tour through the neighborhoods described in

the publication. Throughout the project friend-

ship and understanding were achieved within

the team, an important step towards reconcilia-

tion, and one that hopefully will be achieved by

applying the methodology of shared narratives

elsewhere, with other teams and in other mixed

cities around the world.

Dissemination of the shared narrative and en-

hancing public awareness

The next phase for this project is the dissemina-

tion of the shared narrative which will be done

through the publication Haifa, Before & After

1948: Narratives of a Mixed City .

The IHJR recognizes that sustainable reconcilia-

tion can only be achieved once people are will-

ing to acknowledge their history, learn from

past experience and, in so doing, look to the

future.

www.historyandreconciliation.org

Friends touring Haifa in 2010

The Historical Memory Project on Haifa 1948

is made possible through the generous sup-

port of

The Ford Foundation

The Arcadia Trust

The Sigrid Rausing Trust

The Hamburg Institute for Social Research

The project was initiated and developed un-

der the auspices of the Institute for Historical

Justice and Reconciliation .

How did you get involved in the IHJR-project?

In 2009, the group on political myths in the former

Yugoslavia was in need of some more international

experience, and through word-of-mouth they got

in touch with me. I was immediately excited to join

the project as my own academic work has to do

with nationalism, conflict and cultural policies for

societal progress after conflict.

What was your motivation to engage in the pro-

gram?

My personal motivation comes partly from my fas-

cination with the role of intellectual elites in the

making of violent nationalism. Starting from the

eighties, the noncritical position of intellectuals in

the former Yugoslavia supported ethno-nationalist

politicians in their aims, and even strengthened

exclusionary narratives on identities. I consider it an

important task for my generation of scholars to

deconstruct such myths and to investigate how

they became so useable and dominant in politics.

To me it is not enough to address these issues only

in an academic way. We have the responsibility to

reach out and try to engage the general public.

Can you explain how the group found common

ground and got along while creating a shared

narrative?

Everyone wrote their drafts independently, but we

sent a few versions to get comments from the oth-

ers even before the group meeting in February

2010. It was only during the meeting in The Hague

that we started

intervening

more radically

into each

other’s texts.

Compromising on the content was an unmistakable

part of working in an interdisciplinary team. I felt

that in the beginning social scientists like myself

were more focused on the process of how myths

become politically useable, while historians were

more interested in detailing and comparing the

myths. In the end I consider both academic aspects

equally important to create a shared narrative, but

the participants’ personal backgrounds were also

essential.

In what way did the mixed backgrounds help the

group?

We initially planned to translate and publish the

final text in English, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian,

but during the meeting in The Hague the text

evolved from a set of separate articles into an or-

ganic piece written and edited by everyone. The

group realized that the use of our different dialects

throughout the text was a very good reflection of

the shared narrative and our mixed backgrounds,

Interview with….Ana Dević

www.historyandreconciliation.org

“We have the responsibility to

reach out and try to engage

the general public”

Is a native of Novi Sad, Serbia

Studied at the University of Novi Sad, the In-

stitute of Social Studies in The Hague and the

University of California.

Works as a lecturer at the Dogus University,

Turkey.

Page 8

Ana Dević

so we decided to keep it like that and only publish

another version in English. Although the people in

the team have their own different responsibilities as

scholars in their countries, I experienced the coop-

eration as very successful and enlightening.

What was your personal input to the shared narra-

tive?

In my personal draft article I have discussed the im-

pact of the intel-

lectual elites in

Yugoslavia on

the mobilization

of the population for ethnonationalist conflict. I par-

ticularly focused on a theatre play on the death of

civilians during the Second World War, which was

performed in the mid eighties in the former Yugosla-

via. This play wasn’t very noteworthy itself, but the

subject of war casualties sparked a discussion and

became a contesting ground for the intellectual el-

ites from the different republics in Yugoslavia, in-

cluding politicians, artists, newspapers and universi-

ties. I feel that this was one of the turning points in

the rise of ethnonationalism in former Yugoslavia.

Nationalists in the different republics invented new

myths and reintroduced old ones on the significance

of these “patriotic deaths” to their national epic,

thereby reviving stories about conflict between the

nations of Yugoslavia.

How did you experience the role of the IHJR, par-

ticularly regarding dissemination?

Shared narratives on conflict have to be created by

people from the region, but I experienced that an

impartial institute like the IHJR is useful in facilitating

this process by bringing people together and creat-

ing a cooperative environment. Perhaps even more

important are the opportunities the IHJR provides for

marketing such research. After publication of the

shared narrative, the next challenge will be to pro-

mote public awareness and discussion of the shared

narrative. These are essential to counter future ma-

nipulation of historical myths and unresolved lega-

cies, and they demand the dedication of opinion

leaders such as diplomats, government workers,

filmmakers and media representatives to reach out

and expand cooperation. This is difficult for individ-

ual scholars to achieve, and I feel that the Institute

provides our group with relevant contacts and useful

ideas that will assist in making our academic project

more applicable for creating public engagement.

Page 9 www.historyandreconciliation.org

“I feel that the IHJR provides

our group with relevant con-

tacts and useful ideas ”

www.historyandreconciliation.org

2011 has been declared by the UN as the Year for people of African Descent?

There are almost 150 million Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean yet they

have very limited political power and lack cohesive organizations to represent their interests.

Over 90 percent of the descendants of slaves brought from Africa to the Americas during the

colonial era live below the poverty line, have access to only the most poorly paid jobs, and have

low levels of formal education. They also face intense discrimination based solely on the color of

their skin.

The year aims to strengthen international, national and regional cooperation to benefit the people of African de-

scent, and to recognize and promote their political, economic, social and cultural contributions from their diverse

heritage and culture.

The International Year for People of African Descent coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Durban Confer-

ence, which focuses on issues of structural discrimination against people of African descent contained in the Dur-

ban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA), such as health and access to education and justice.

Did you know that….

The Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation was

founded as a project of the Salzburg Global Seminar in 2004 by

Elazar Barkan, professor and co-director, Center for Human

Rights at Columbia University, and Timothy W. Ryback, deputy

secretary general of the Académie Diplomatique Internationale

in Paris. In October 2008, the IHJR was established as an inde-

pendent institute in The Netherlands. The Peace Palace in The

Hague was the location of the inaugural ceremony in May,

2009. Under Dutch law, the IHJR is a non-profit foundation

(stichting) eligible to receive charitable contributions.

Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation Laan van Meerdervoort 70, 2517 AN The Hague Tel +31 (0) 70 361 5530 Fax +31 (0) 70 361 7792 info@ihjr.org www. historyandreconciliation.org

www. historyandreconciliation.org

December

1-2— Just Performance Symposium at Brandeis University , Boston, MA.

The Peace Palace in The Hague

Page 10

Calendar

October

17-19 —Series of debates on Two Sides of the Coin and Zoom In in Brussels, Belgium 20-21 — IHJR participation in Global Roundtable in Budapest, Hungary

November

9 — Launch of Two Sides of the Coin at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusa-lem. 11-12 — IHJR research evaluation meeting on shared narratives Ani-Kars-Gyumri: Journey Towards Un-derstanding in Istanbul, Turkey 15 — Launch of IDP report on Kenya in Nairobi and Mumbasa.