Hoffnung oder Frieden? Spielräume der Mobilisierung transnationaler Friedensnetzwerke seit dem letzten Gaza-Krieg

After the last Gaza war in 2009, an unusual meeting of Israeli ex-soldiers initiated a heated debate in the public domain. The soldiers confessed some uncomfortable insights about apparently pointless violence, but an internal investigation could not prove their allegations. At first glance, it seemed the military contradicted itself. This paper aims to show that such confusing events are not an isolated case, but the result of a strategy of mobilization of global acting activism networks which include NGOs, international donors and individual personalities. Based on fieldwork with Israeli activists and critically inspired by debates on ethnography and globalization, I follow complex configurations of actors that indicate zones of political friction. Activists operate in key areas of state sovereignty, rather than to stand opposed to it. There are two implications of the emerging power of these networks: on the one hand, the conflict on the ground seems to be transformed into a meta-conflict consisting only of signs and counter-sign; on the other it is here emblematic how classical political units, such as the state conceptualized as a unitary actor, seems at first glance to be dissolved, but also reproduced in an iconic way. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]