TRANSPEACE · Transnational Community Mobilizations for Peace: French Jewish Mobilizations in Israel

Abstract: What motivates transnational community social movements to get involved in a violent community/ethnic conflict by choosing to practice non violent direct action (NVDA)? How do they manage to attain their objectives? What impact have these actions on the future of the movements that bring them about, the community to which they belong, and on the situation of the conflict? The purpose of this research project is to answer these questions by examining the case of transnational French Jewish peace movements that situate their non violent direct action in Israel. In the vast literature focusing on the international or transnational dimensions of community conflicts, little attention has been given so far to the role played by transnational peace movements. It seems that we still lack a comprehensive analysis of the involvement of transnational peace movement in community conflicts, especially in two directions: how are they affected by larger processes such as globalisation while contributing to shaping them? What are the local effects of their actions, both in areas affected by the conflict and in the country where they mobilize? This is especially true of peace movements which conjugate their political involvement for peace with a community orientation and membership, namely which appear to be connected to one “side” of the conflict. Not only does their action impact on the conflict, especially by acting directly in the territories where it takes place, these community peace movements also strive to change representations regarding it in the mobilizing country. This in turn modifies the content associated with a community mobilisation and affects belonging processes themselves, as the French case shows. A strong pro-peace sensibility can be observed in the Jewish community, however, in a public sphere characterized by the vilification of the “other” side, such political position is hardly audible in France and tends to materialize in concrete initiatives