VIDEO. Israel-Palestine: is reconciliation possible?

“The response to the most heated conflicts possible cannot be violence. It’s the right”as was the case with “the Nuremberg tribunal” in post-Nazism Germany, which made it possible to apply international law, recalls Laurence Hansen-Løve, professor of philosophy. For her, “the role of philosophers should be to always advocate non-violence. Because what philosophers tell us is that violence attracts violence. They are endless gears.”

Regarding forgiveness, Laurence Hansen-Løve states that “a people does not forgive. Forgiveness is a moral and therefore individual act. It’s a subject that will be forgiving.” She takes the example of Germany: “There was a chancellor who knelt in front of the Warsaw Ghetto memorial and asked for forgiveness on behalf of the German people.” According to her, “the equivalent may happen tomorrow (both in Israel and Palestine). It’s already happened elsewhere, so it’s possible.”

But if History has shown that reconciliation is possible, it has always taken time. “In the case of Germany, it took a long time. In the case of South Africa, it took a long time. In the case of Rwanda, it is not completely over since now there are Rwandan militias who are sowing desolation in the Democratic Republic of Congo”, explains Laurence Hansen-Løve. And “things happened before reconciliation, massacres, among others”, recalls the philosopher about South Africa, in particular.