Israeli policies that rewarded abstinence from terrorism have been more successful in deterring violence than policies that punished terrorists, according to a new study published by the American Sociological Review.
The study examined the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between 1987 and 2004, and found “that repressive actions are either unrelated to terror or related to subsequent increases in terror, and conciliatory actions are generally related to decreases in terror.”
Conciliatory tactics that rewarded abstinence from terrorism included providing social services to potential terrorist constituencies, encouraging peace talks, withdrawing troops, releasing prisoners and promoting cultural freedoms, according to the report. Tactics labeled as “repressive” included the passage of anti-terrorism laws, the extension of prison sentences, assassination and deportation.
The study uses data from the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Response to Terrorism's Global Terrorism Database and from the Government Actions in a Terrorist Environment-Israel dataset, which was developed by the study's authors.
Read the study HERE.