The best for Palestinians and Israelis is surely a prosperous, enduring peace. One would expect that such peace would be the aim for all who express a constructive interest in the region. Shockingly, it is clearly not the case.
There are those who do not wish to see peace between Israel and Palestinians since that would threaten their self-interests and privileged positions.
An obvious example of such self-interest is UNWRA, the UN refugee organization that uses a unique ad-hoc definition of refugee solely for Palestinians. UNRWA conspires with complicit national regimes to keep a growing number of ‘refugees’ in servitude nearly 75 years later. For unworthy political and ideological reasons, not noble humanitarian ones, UNRWA perpetuates and compounds a miserable situation. The more ‘refugees’ there are, the more work for UNRWA to do. Peace would mean an end of UNRWA. Perhaps this is why UNRWA’s schools notoriously use educational materials that incite violence against Israelis and Jews, prolonging the conflict and making peace unreachable.
Another notorious example of self-interest is the antisemitic BDS campaign. It claims to only defend the rights of Palestinians, but when they chant their anthem, “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” they are calling for the complete destruction of the Jewish State.
BDS uses Palestinians to further an extremist ideological cause. The simplistic BDS Marxist/extreme Islamist narrative, whereby a wicked imperialistic colonial power (‘Zionists’) systematically oppresses an innocent and vulnerable minority (‘Palestinians’), is trying to become mainstream. It does not seek peace between two parties – it wants total victory for only one via the elimination of the other.
This extremist cause, justice for Palestinians via the liquidation of Israel, is now becoming institutionalized. Last week, City University of New York (CUNY), an institution with 25 colleges in the city, invited Nerdeen Kiswani to give the opening speech at its graduation ceremony for law students. She had praised recent terror attacks in Israel, stating at an anti-Israel rally in 2021, “I hope that a pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime.” In her graduation speech, she said, to rapturous applause, “we had peace before Israel was created, so abolishing Israel is the key to peace.” According to Kiswani, Peace and Israel cannot coexist – you can only have one. This has almost become a truth held to be self-evident in public discourse.
Many who may have a genuine desire to tackle discrimination and oppression have jumped on, or been pushed into this narrative precisely because it is so simple, compelling, and emotionally engaging. No criticism can now be made of Palestinians or their leadership. Nothing is said about the Palestinian Authority (PA) being an authoritarian regime or about Fatah and Hamas being corrupt cabals. Nothing is said about terrorists killing civilians, or launching of thousands of rockets on civilians, or of LGTBQ rights being denied or hate, or the lack of freedom of the press, or incitements in schoolbooks. In the new-normal discourse, media, politicians, and academics ignore or even excuse such atrocities.
Grassroots organizations such as Belgium Friends of Israel (BFOI) are engaged in the endless task of trying to reclaim the center ground, which used to reflect a conception of peace requiring both Israel and Palestinians entering into dialogue. Almost incredibly, this is now considered to be the extreme position. An increasingly successful campaign to demonize Israel redefines a complex situation as a binary one of good versus evil. Israel is the devil, and one must never make peace with the devil.
The disparate enemies of Israel have succeeded in turning their malign narrative of ‘poor Palestinians, whose children are being murdered by Israel’ into a scandalous meme. This has the desired effect of confounding prospects of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. To counter this, supporters of Israel need a simple and compelling narrative that must be realistic, honest and truthful. It must furthermore appeal to emotions, reflecting an inspirational vision of what peace between Israel and Palestinians looks like.
We also need the requisite tools and sufficient resources to promote and amplify this narrative, since repeating more of the same seldom gives a different outcome. If Israel committed itself to such a change in communication, the Anti-Peace Movement might be pushed back to be considered as extremist again, which is where they belong.
Patricia Teitelbaum is president of Belgian Friends of Israel, a Brussels-based NGO that is pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian and pro-Peace. This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world.
This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Yifa Segal.