I remember seeing this thread and meaning to write but I was so tired (even more so now but I will give it a go)
My first thought was about the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” in Rwanda following the genocide of the Tutsi.
I believe it’s something like this that needs to happen for Israelis and Palestinians. Something meaningful and deep and with its base in the populations as opposed to the political parties (although obviously those too). There is so much hatred that needs to be unpicked and wounds to heal.
Weeks ago I also went looking for solutions, for hope on the ground, I was hoping to find calls for a ceasefire from Israeli groups. I think grassroots organisations are the best way in the long run. +972 is a progressive magazine with activists and writers Israeli and Palestinian that I’ve found very inspiring.
A template for female led Co-operation I know of is
“The Northern Irish Women’s Coalition (NIWC), led by Monica McWilliams, a Catholic academic, and Pearl Sagar, a Protestant social worker, was one of few political parties of the time that did not fall behind sectarian divisions. Instead, their focus was to ensure women in Northern Ireland had agency over their own future and were “written into, rather than out of the peace process”.
Vivian Silver (tragically one of the victims of oct7) was a beautiful person involved in women wage peace. A British Israeli woman I met in London last week told me her female friends were organising to help Palestinians who had been beaten and treated horrifically post oct7… people are out there.
re the political resolution, the Palestinians have to be given a viable option, not a land partitioned up and divided by Israeli settlements. They have to be able to envisage a future where their children can live in dignity in the land of their ancestors. They have to be recognised as indigenous to the land, that they exist. Israel also has to be recognised as having the right to exist, of having the right to its security. I find early Jewish thinkers on Israel compelling- Hannah Arendt and Martin Buber who both believed in a binational state of Jews and Palestinians. I don’t think this is doable now but I think it would be amazing if Israel re-examined its past to find a way to a better future.
I don’t think USA / UK can be honest broker after what it’s supported for the last two months, it really is so crucial there is a body established (Qatar/ Jordan ) that is trusted by both parties and that will not be advocating for one over the other… even accepting there are always vested interests. And both sides need to want to find a common ground, a peaceful solution. Sometimes a really passionate and driven individual can make all the difference.
People credit Tony Blair for UK side of the peace process (and he was brilliant) but Mo Mowlam was the real power behind the negotiations and so beloved still in Ireland. We need a Mo.