Earlier this month, thousands of peace organizations and activists gathered in Tel Aviv to demand a hostage deal and put an end to Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
“The Time Has Come” event brought together all corners of Israel’s beleaguered left-wing, ranging from older established groups such as Peace Now to newer ones like Standing Together. Most attendees represented the center-left, left, and far-left political parties, while right-wing groups were overall absent.
Maya Sariv, a human rights and peace activist, told The Media Line: “At this event, we see mostly left-wing groups, some of whom are active against the occupation, and inter-dialogue groups, though no right-wing groups per se. There are maybe some individuals who identify with the right-wing, which also see that the current situation is leading nowhere and is no longer acceptable as it is.”
The Israeli peace camp emerged after the 1967 so-called “Six Day War,” which determined Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Many peace activists and peace-building organizations have long and strongly criticized this situation; they believe that the occupation has led to more conflict than peace in the state of Israel.
After the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, several attempts at dialogue and reconciliation between the Palestinians and Israelis occurred. However, after former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, the peace movement suffered a major decline.
“The Israeli peace camp has been quiet for too long. It started to gain momentum during the Oslo Accords, but since Rabin’s death, it has been too apologetic. This is over. In the past, many Israelis thought that the conflict could be ignored, but after October 7, it was impossible to do so. We have to find a solution,” Sariv added.
Raluca Ganea statement
“Since Prime Minister Rabin’s murder, we went into a state of shock, and the same shock happened after October 7. But, we won’t be silenced anymore. We won’t let shock and fear stop us from doing something,” Raluca Ganea, co-founder and executive director of the Israeli-Palestinian campaigning community Zazim, told The Media Line.
After nine months of war, the enduring left-wing bloc convened in Tel Aviv to reaffirm their collective belief that only a negotiated political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can ensure equality for both people.
“This war has been failing from the beginning. Our government keeps saying that a war may bring more stability to us, but actually, it has just left death and destruction behind. Nine months have passed, and you have thousands dead in Gaza in an unbearable situation to live in, and thousands of Israelis are internally displaced due to the conflict in the country’s south and north. We need peace to overcome this disaster, and we need both sides to be equally involved in it,” Alon Lee, co-director of Israeli-Palestinian grassroots organization Standing Together, told The Media Line.
A central argument raised among the left-wing parties is that Gazans have been cut off from everything for so many years, and it seems difficult to discuss peace when both sides don’t even know each other.
“If we look at opinion polls after October 7, the majority of Gazans are for a two-state solution. We have a partner on the other side, and we should overcome the fear of not having an interlocutor,” Sariv asserted.
“I don’t think we could speak immediately to Gazans about reconciliation and peace after all they have been through in the past months. I want them to know that we care for them, and we will, in the long run, try to build bridges,” Ganea added.
Ghadir Hani, a Palestinian-Israeli peace activist, explained that her being both Palestinian and Israeli may help improve dialogue between the sides, especially with Gazans. She claimed that it is impossible to sign peace or business agreements with Saudi Arabia without first talking about fixing the current situation.
According to Hani, Israel needs to find solutions to dealing with issues between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank before talking about peace with Saudi Arabia. “If this conflict ends, all the problems within the region will cease to exist,” she said.
Peace-builders are trying to lead Israelis and Palestinians toward a path that offers regional ties and cooperation.
“Peace-builders, both Israeli and Palestinian, have to do outreach in the region to let the Arab countries better understand what is going on internally. Morocco and the UAE will play an important role in assisting this process and helping to build peace in the upcoming years.” Einat Levi, a strategist consultant who focuses on building partnerships in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, told TML.
“Treaties are the only way to end all of this. We have to cooperate as peace actors to stop extremists in the world, such as Iran and its proxies, from exacerbating this conflict, which has already impacted trust between us,” concluded Dr. Yael Braudo-Bahat, co-director of the Israeli-Palestinian grassroots group, Women Wage Peace.