"The time has come": peace conference in Tel Aviv attended by thousands

[israelilefty]

Things you probably won't see on the news: yesterday thousands from the Israeli left attended a peace conference in an arena in Tel Aviv, titled "The Time Has Come" (and at least another thousand on the live stream). Representatives of 3 Israeli political parties (Labour, Meretz, Hadash) spoke, including fiery words from current Members of Knesset including Labour's Naama Lazimi and Gilad Kariv, and from Ayman Odeh, chair of the Hadash party and de facto the leader of the Palestinian-Israeli factions in the Knesset. Public figures also spoke including a keynote speech from Yuval Noah Harari, and recorded messages from many Palestinian peace activists and organizations. There was also a moving segment of film showing how peace is possible, and how conflicts in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Rwanda had been resolved, and how Israel made peace with Egypt's Sadat.

The message was univocally: end the war, now. Hostage deal now. War is never inevitable. Both people have the rights to be here. There is enough space for everybody. A solution is possible. Fear on both sides is legitimate but we have to work now for a two state solution. Now.

Is this a sea change in Israeli politics? No. The next government will almost certainly be a pragmatic, non-Netanyahu right. Is it significant for the Israeli left? Yes. We saw strong, confident leaders from both politics and civil society. We saw a willingness to overcome political division within the left and not to pander to the centre but to stand up for values. We saw pragmatism and willingness to work and to lead and a firm statement that another way is possible.

And no, it isn't a majority, but just to give some context: according to the latest polls, the three parties represented here will get over twice as many seats as Smotrich and Ben Gvir's far right - so it isn't some kind of tiny minority either.

And I'm going to add to the "why is this significant": Because at the moment, the vast majority of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian discourse is working to ingrain the conception that the conflict is inevitable, and that there can be no peaceful solution. Whether this is Netanyahu's militarism who fights in Gaza with no endgame whatsoever, Smotrich's far-right Jewish nationalism, Hamas vowing to continue the struggle by all means, or pro-Palestinian groups calling for a ceasefire yet offering no pragmatic solutions for the day after and embracing unrealistic maximalist positions and actively denigrating anyone who seeks political compromise.

Let me say it loudly. Anyone who does not support a two-state solution IS CHOOSING TO PROLONG THE CONFLICT. Anyone who is not calling for regime change in both Israel and Gaza and supporting REALISTIC political alternatives (eg empowering the Israeli political parties mentioned above to become part of the coalition and finding a political solution in Gaza the end of the current war involving the Palestinian Authority) is CHOOSING TO PROLONG THE CONFLICT. Any solution leaving Hamas in control in Gaza is an inevitable guarantee of the next round of the war, as we have seen for the last 20 years. Ditto Netanyahu remaining in power - at least, the polls show that he will be voted out at the next possible election and many people are trying to make that happen as soon as possible.

So before people inevitably jump on the post above and dismiss it as airy-fairy peaceniks who have no realistic chance of changing anything: if you don't support it, find another solution. Finding the problems is easy. Finding the people to negotiate the solution is hard. We might all wish the situation was otherwise, and we all have fantasies about how things might have been different, and we all have endless criticisms of the "other side". But. There really is no alternative to a negotiated solution, and the most significant thing we can do to change the reality on the ground is to empower the people who are going to make that solution happen.

Thank you for sharing this glimmer of light.

Excellent post. As I keep pointing out to people: anyone who fails to see things from both sides is part of the problem. And I mean really acknowledge the pain on both sides.

And I say that as someone who has skin in the game.

Thank you for sharing such a well put together summary of the peace conference. So encouraging to read. This stood out for me
We saw strong, confident leaders from both politics and civil society. We saw a willingness to overcome political division within the left and not to pander to the centre but to stand up for values. We saw pragmatism and willingness to work and to lead and a firm statement that another way is possible.

I think strong leaders willing to work towards peace and not put their own interests first but the interests of peace and the ability to work with others for the greater good, however unpalatable and difficult that will be, is key. Without such leaders nothing will progress. Good to hear they are there.

Seeing things from both sides or acknowledging pain on both sides is a noble position. But it's not a prerequisite.

The ONLY thing that will make a peace process happen is both sides deciding that it is in their OWN interest for it to happen.

Yes, there are peace activists on both sides willing to hear the pain of the other and acknowledge their rights. And of course gradually changing the narrative is part of the process. At the moment, though, the majority are not willing to listen to that and with good reason. I think the left makes a mistake when we start from a position that expects people to ditch fear and express empathy for the other side. We need to start from self-interest. We need to convince people that however high the price of compromise will be, the price to their own side of not compromising is higher. And we need to find and empower political and civil society partners who are willing to pursue that self-interest and to make those compromises, and to promote their voices.

Thank you for sharing; I hope more people start to listen. A two state solution really is the only feasible way forward, I think, that would create an environment for peace rather than war.

Do you think the message is reaching the people who make the decisions yet?

Thanks for the thread OP.

I wanted to ask, there has been demos in Israel for a while now I believe against what the government is doing. do you know , I don’t know whether it’s been reported, whether more people are attending them?

I think you're right @israelilefty.

The space to see things from the other side can wait. This is eventually what happened in NI to some extent, and was something Mandela actively promoted in SA.

But taking the course that peace is in folks own self interest, despite the harms done, is the way to go.

It clearly isn't reaching the people who make the decisions yet because neither side seems to urgently want to make a ceasefire deal happen. The current situation of ongoing warfare benefits the positions of both Netanyahu and Hamas.

But at the same time I don't think the message is reaching the global protest movement either. Most current loud pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian voices are not adopting strategies that encourage the respective leaders to make those decisions.

Yes, they have slowly been growing in size. A broad majority of the Israeli public supports the ceasefire deal, the IDF itself supports the deal, and a majority want to see Netanyahu replaced - but neither of these things make a difference so long as the current government is in power and is not making a concerted effort to make the deal.

The protests are large but not as large as the anti-government protests last year. One reason for that is that people are simply exhausted after 10 months of war and a year and a half of protesting against the governement, and about how no amount of pressure seems to make any difference :(

Thanks for such a helpful post @israelilefty

Thank you for sharing.
I think I see a bit of civil disobedience in the ranks with Shin Bet ordering the release of dozens of illegally detained Palestinians including the Director of Al Shifa hospital. The reactions from the far right ministers for national security, and Defence, the head of the IDF, and Nethanyu all claimed they had no idea of the release and did not authorise it!

What do you think? Is this a quiet pacifist take over simply by refusal to be complicit in the rank and file?

Thank you for sharing @israelilefty

No, I don't think so. It's not disobedience for prisoners to be released - this is what is supposed to happen. I think it was a procedural decision based on risk factors, which has been politicised because of the symbolism attached to this particular figure (I really don't want to derail this thread, but one of the reasons this decision was so controversial among the Israeli public is to do with the footage of hostages at al-Shifa - some of whom have not yet been released or were apparently murdered at the hospital. It is very hard for the public to accept that the person in charge of the facility was released when the hostages have not been).

Hoping for peace.

This is a really important point. There are too many calls for empathy from both sides, but appeals to emotion will never succeed if you are asking someone to act against their perceived self-interest.

I do worry though OP that a Palestinian state is not viable. Do you have a sense of what it would look like, politically and culturally? Is there enough consensus among Palestinians?

Thank you for sharing @israelilefty

Not viable in what way? The two-state solution is the generally agreed framework for ending the conflict. Obviously it's not going to happen overnight but I can imagine there will be extremely robust international support for Palestinian state-building.

Thanks for your detailed, and well thought out insights @israelilefty

I truly believe that a two state solution, with a change of those in power on both ‘sides’, is in the best interests of all civilians. But I’m not sure that some people are ready, willing, or able, to see it yet. May peace come soon.

I suppose I mean in the sense that it’s been difficult to build stable political consensus to date.

@israelilefty I don't mean to be negative, but there has been five new settlements that have been legalised. From what I have read some that were even illegally built on private Palestinian land. I can't see how there can be a two state solution when all we see is more and more Palestinian land being stolen.
Ofcourse it is something I support, but I can't envision it happening with the way things are going.

There is no alternative to a two state solution. There is plenty of space between the river and the sea for everyone. You're right that additional settlements make it harder to implement a two-state solution - but settlements can also be removed. Where there is political will this is entirely possible: in 2005 21 settlements in Gaza Strip and 4 in the West Bank were unilaterally removed by Israel during Sharon's disengagement plan.

There are also political ways to reduce the number of settlers in the West Bank - like for example ending incentives that encourage people to move to settlements for economic reasons, and enforcing the law when illegal building is concerned.

A two state solution is not an easy or perfect option but the other options are worse - exactly what we're living right now. The only viable way forward is to support politicians on both sides who will be able to move closer to, rather than further away from, a two-state solution. Perhaps it will take years or even decades, but that doesn't absolve us from fighting for it. Mandela gave his famous speech at the Rivonia trial in 1964 but apartheid didn't end for another 30 years. Solutions to conflicts don't just drop from the sky, they take years of work. For me at least, the only option is to contribute to that work, in the hope that it will move the day when the conflict ends closer, not further.

The friendship and working relationship between Martin mcGuinness and Ian Paisley, which previously would have been a fantastical notion, is testament that peace is possible.