This paper investigates the intersection of conflict management/conflict transformation through the nexus of thick/thin recognition. Conflict management seeks a conflict's formal termination without addressing its deep-rooted causes. Such processes may, at best, contain thin recognition of the other, meaning seeing the other part in conflict as a legitimate negotiation partner. In this paper we argue, firstly, that a process of conflict management and thin recognition may unintentionally spur the emergence of contentious issues that had not been part of the public debate until then. Thus, attempts to settle conflicts could be related to a conflict transformation process, which deals with past injustices and contains the opportunity for thick recognition of the other side, that is recognition of the other side’s fundamental identity traits. However, we argue that such a process of familiarizing with a former enemy may cause existential fears known as ontological insecurity which might result in heavy backlashes resulting in yet more conservative and backward-looking policies. In order to illustrate this theoretical argument, we use the case of Israeli formal recognition of the PLO, standing at the center of the Oslo peace process, as a key contributor to the penetration of the Historians' Debate about the 1948 war, into the Israeli public sphere during the mid-1990s. However, this debate on 1948 led to the undermining of the foundations of Israeli-Jewish collective identity, and as a result it was silenced, resulting in heavy back-lashes which relapsed into more closures and backward-looking peace politics. Co-author: Yoav Kapchuk
