One NGO, Shrinking the Conflict, aims to parse out the mosaic of issues comprising the conflict and reduce their scope one step at a time, with an innovative and democratic method. It crowdsources to identify smaller, manageable issues, finds consensus on solutions, and then lobbies decision-makers.
The current international perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict is that it is an intractable struggle that will ever be an item on global agendas. There have been multiple peace plans, as many wars and operations, and until the Abraham Accords, there had been a general resignation to the status quo. Israelis that grew up during the 1990s peace process still remember the bitter aftertaste of the Second Intifada.
“We grew up in a generation that doesn’t really believe that over time we’ll come to a solution – not a divorce, not a two-state solution, no solution,” Danel Ben-Namer, CEO of Shrinking the Conflict, told the Magazine.
Yet a permanent status quo isn’t any more appealing than controversial leaps of faith. After a series of meetings, STC’s founders eventually decided on a way to make progress.
“The organization’s founders understood that the solution to the conflict won’t be soon, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to do about it,” said Ben-Namer. “Stop speaking about big and far-off solutions to the conflict, maybe there are practical steps we can find that we can already agree on today and do tomorrow morning.”
“STC has held over 100 parlor meetings spanning Metulla to the Negev, and time and again left- and right-wingers find themselves discussing the conflict for a whole evening without a sense of despair,” partnerships director Netanel Menora wrote to the Magazine. “That’s novel. STC’s key is simply empowering Israelis with a way to promote actionable items that lead to tangible differences on the ground.”
Ben-Namer, Menora and director of community outreach Yair Smolyanov explained the STC process for finding and implementing their “practical steps.”
“The two principles of the foundation are practicality… and consensus, things that we can agree on together that cross ideology and politics,” noted Ben-Namer. “There are a lot of steps that left- and right-wingers can agree on.”
THE ORGANIZATION first identifies issues to focus on through suggestions from its supporters. Problems suggested in the past have included congestion at the Allenby Crossing and an inefficient Palestinian workers permit system, both of which damage relations between Israelis and Palestinians. In the beginning, deciding on problems to solve was done through small forums in private homes, later through social media, before creating a specialized online platform. The group works with its supporter base about every six months to begin tackling a new problem.
Once an issue has been identified, the group researches the problem. Often, they will find existing ideas that lay hidden within larger plans. An example the STC team gave was how the Trump peace plan included details for economic prosperity, but were lost among more controversial elements.
“We’re not a think tank,” Ben-Namer clarified. “We take preexisting proposals and make them accessible to the public so they can take informed action.”
Once the solutions are gathered, they are analyzed for feasibility and utility. “We don’t want steps that are expensive and with little impact,” said Ben-Namer.
The problem and proposed solutions are presented in an easily digestible format to supporters, who then discuss and vote for the best option. The backing of civilian supporters provides legitimacy to the items that other blind proposals to politicians do not enjoy.
“Our supporters join in on subjects and vote on steps for policy platforms they want to move forward, and we take that public support and amplify it,” Ben-Namer explained.
After the solution has been chosen, STC creates a short proposal for politicians and other stakeholders, then contacts them, finally meeting with the politicians in person.
“One outcome of this continued engagement is the planned launch of a Knesset lobby for STC and Regional Cooperation whose co-signatory MKs range across the political spectrum,” wrote Menora.
“We don’t come with a book,” Smolyanov explained regarding the lobbying meetings. “We come with three to four pages of items relevant just to them. If their interest is economics, we don’t need to bother them about electricity-related items. For this there’s someone else.”
According to STC, the group goes three times a week to the Knesset to meet with politicians from across the political spectrum.
They’ve made several policy proposals so far, addressing Allenby Crossing congestion, electricity issues in Palestinian territories, bringing Palestinians into hi-tech, an inefficient work permit system, delays with imports and exports, and improving Palestinian telecommunications.
STC takes credit for developing parts of Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party’s platform, and according to Menora “for broadening the ripple effect that resulted” in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett using the term “shrinking the conflict” prior to his inauguration.
TO SOME, the process of voting on policies and presenting them to politicians may seem redundant in a functioning democracy, but STC members see it as a necessary and missing component to the democratic process.
“Ideally, the government would take care of everything, but because it doesn’t work that way, it’s important that civil society organizations spotlight specific issues and suggest efficient, high-yield fixes,” Ben-Namer noted. “You see this more and more as civil society organizations take matters into their own hands and say ‘I know what needs to happen, and I can provide the know-how’ and then they explain to the public how to do it.”
According to STC, there is an element of communication missing between politicians and the public. The team related that when they come to decision-makers with proposals, the politicians often weren’t even aware of the problem, or didn’t know there was support behind such a solution. STC holds that someone is needed in the middle of the equation to ensure both the politicians and public are fully informed of issues.
Another problem the STC team pointed out is that politicians often think in terms of political and ideological bases, rather than support for individual policies. Increased communication can alter this.
“STC is ready to act as a bridge between the public and politicians to push forward commonly agreed-upon policies,” Menora said. “While reaching out and meeting with several Palestinian figures and civil society organizations to better understand Palestinian interests and needs, [we] make clear that the initiative is an Israeli organization, which provides the Israeli public the opportunity to better impact their own destiny.”
While the Palestinian grassroots ecosystem isn’t as developed as Israel’s, STC hopes a parallel movement by younger Palestinians takes shape, but according to Menora that would be a bonus rather than a prerequisite.
Founded in 2019, Shrinking the Conflict is a fledgling NGO. It received NIS 140,000 in seed money from an anonymous donor, with the rest of its funding coming from its supporters, who donate in order to use their digital voting platform. To date, they only have around 450 supporters behind their work.
Starting with such a small base to back their policies, time will tell how much impact their innovative method will have on Israeli society and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Like the other problems it faces, it will take them one step at a time.
To find and join STC, visit: www.tzimzum.org.il/eng