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

Source: (2005) Hastings International and Comparative Law Review. 28(3): 369-386.

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.