Peace vs Justice

What comes first?

Resilience in the face of loss. A Palestinian boy sits on a chair as Israeli bulldozers demolish a school site in the village of Yatta, south of Hebron in 2018 (AFP)

At a dinner party the other day, one of the older ladies recalled a slogan from her time at university: No peace without justice. “I still believe that,” she said, looking fiercely around the table.

Her anger was directed not at us but at those faceless, nameless sorts who discriminate — against people of colour, against women, against Palestinians and so on. This woman, we all felt it so clearly, would march in protest against inequity and unfairness of any sort.

But her inoffensive offensive against the unfair raised a storm. Another guest demanded how it would be possible ever to have peace if violence were used to demand and force justice. He cited Northern Ireland as an example of having a peace process before justice.

Everyone nodded sagely and the older lady looked horror-struck. “I was certainly not advocating bombing…