Can the Palestinian Question Be Resolved?

My primary research focuses on Palestine and Israel, one of the longest-running conflict zones in the Middle East. Jerusalem, the cradle of the three religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, is a place steeped in deep history and the sentiments of its people. While disputes over their respective holy sites sometimes lead to conflict, it is a city where coexistence is normally maintained, with followers of each religion peacefully practicing their daily religious rituals and not interfering with the faith of others.

However, when those with ideologies seeking to monopolize these sites appear, the holy land instantly transforms into a dangerous arena of confrontation. Historically, periods of intense armed conflict have been limited, such as during the early days of Islam in the 8th century and the Crusades from the 11th to the 13th centuries. And in modern times, the period after the establishment of Israel in 1948 has become one of the bloodiest. Part of the background to this is the transference of social and religious friction from Europe to the Middle East, including the history of persecution of Jewish people. Israel was founded as a living space for the Jewish people. The movement to restore the rights of the people who, in turn, were deprived of their homes and land is known as the Palestinian question.

Palestine and Israel, with their complex histories and competing claims, have often been treated as a special case. This is because the verification of history, the issue of accountability for the current government, the legitimacy of the state, and the vision for the future are all interconnected, presenting a complexity unparalleled elsewhere. For example, concerning historical revisionism, the history of Israel's founding, written based on official documents released since the late 1980s, led to intense questioning of whether the authors themselves affirmed Zionism (the ideology and movement aimed at establishing a Jewish state). Furthermore, during the "Arab Spring" that began in 2011, while democratization movements spread across Arab nations, Palestine lacked even a unified government to democratize, so the movement there developed as a call for the unification of its divided governments.

I believe that the challenge for academia is to understand this issue of Palestine and Israel, which is difficult to compare with other regions, and to present clues for its resolution. While the actual negotiations and resolution are left to the parties involved, presenting various possibilities is a specialty of researchers, who are required to have flexible thinking and new ideas. In the process of considering solutions to the refugee problem in Palestine, I have also focused on the various issues surrounding Arab immigrants and refugees as a point of reference. As a Japanese researcher, a third party who can take a neutral stance, I hope to deepen my considerations to contribute, even in a small way, to the resolution of the problem.