On Saturday, September 10, Vision Center held a sociopolitical debate, on Zoom, entitled “The Role of Tribalism in Palestine: Necessity vs Rejection”.
This event came within a series of intellectual debates and seminars held by Vision Center for Political Development, aiming at raising the level of the awareness of and political debating on the Palestinian Issue.
The symposium was led by Dr. Ahmad Atawneh, Director of Vision Center, with the participation of representatives of two main Palestinian political trends: Dr. Daoud Al-Zeer who supports maintaining the status and the impact of the tribes, side by side with the role of modern laws; and Dr. Ammar al-Dweik who calls for replacing traditions and tribalism with modern civil laws and regulations.
The debaters discussed historical, social and political backgrounds of the issue of tribalism in Palestine and shed light on the association between tribalism, culture and Islamic Law as well as the Islamic culture. The talk also highlighted the extent to which the phenomenon of tribalism is associated with state development and prosperity as well as the prevailing ideology of the state of civility and law.
They also demonstrated the reflections of individual and group perspectives on identity, freedom, democracy, and refusal of dictatorship.
Other issues were brought to discussion; most prominently, the relationship between tribalism and social and civil security in light of the status quo of the authorities in charge.
Al-Zeer asserted that despite certain violations being witnessed, tribalism plays a key societal reforming role, especially in light of the fragility of the Palestinian Authority and its failure to take control of certain cases.
On the contrary, Al-Dueik opined that despite the reforming function of clans, tribalism has been accompanied by so many illegal practices, especially whenever tribal judicial laws supersede the official judicial system.
While mentioning so many examples, Dueik elaborated that tribalism could be used for the interests of some individuals and figures who do not care at all about civil security.
Among many critical issues that were raised by the audience who attended the symposium, were the relation between tribalism and law on one hand and the relation between tribalism and the Palestinian national situation, on the other hand.
