Moving Toward a Cross-Border Peace Movement in Israel/Palestine

Karuna Center for Peacebuilding   
November 24th, 2010

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by Ezra Weinberg, KCP program participant and Rabbi, Congregation Mishkan Ha’am

“The word ‘peace’ has become hollow. It has lost its meaning,” said one of the participants. “That may feel like the case,” said another, “but we cannot let the voice of despair and violence re-appropriate our language for the world we hope to build.”

This excerpt came from a recent gathering of Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilders meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. The gathering was billed as a “consultation” of bi-communal field experts. Over the course of three days, twenty participants—10 Israelis and 10 Palestinians, ranging from their late twenties to their early sixties—acted as a think-tank to envision the seemingly impossible–the reemergence of a cross-border peace movement in Israel/Palestine.

The founder of Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, Dr. Paula Green, organized this gathering with one goal in mind: to assess what kind of bi-communal programming would be useful for this region. In other words, what kinds of trainings or actions could bring Israelis and Palestinians together in joint cooperation under today’s reality? What could be helpful now, when the prospects for meaningful resolutions are not promising and the political will of the leaders is not inspiring?

As irrelevant as co-existence work may often seem to a cynical person, this was a battle-tested group of peace workers. Most, if not everyone, assembled had spent the better part of the past two decades invested in some type of bi-communal work. Friends Across Borders, Givat Haviva, Neve Shalom/Wahat AlSalam, Eden Association, Kids for Peace, Face to Face, Maharag and AlWATAN are just a sample of the organizations represented in the room.

There is a distressing statistic that less than 1% of Israelis and Palestinians ever meet face to face for the purpose of a cooperative activity. Perhaps it is not surprising. For both political and social reasons, most Israelis and Palestinians do not base their impression of the other through personal contact. Palestinians, for example, face extraordinary pressure to refuse participation, specifically bi-communal activity with Israelis, as part of a national anti-normalization boycott. Several Palestinians invited to this consultation had to decline for fear of losing their jobs or being labeled as traitors or collaborators.

For Israelis, there is little incentive to participate in bi-communal work. For reasons including the construction of the wall/separation barrier, the diminished physical threat from Palestinians in recent years has sedated the Israeli public to the point that they no longer see the conflict as an existential threat. The desire to meet or work in partnership with Palestinians has lost its sense of urgency and relevance, at least in the short term. The group all agreed, however, that this “bubble consciousness” contributes to a growing sense of apathy and fear that, in turn, greatly reduces interest in bi-communal activities.

Brainstorming sessions: risk and possibility
The group spent time examining what has worked in the peacebuilding field over the years, including the specific characteristics of why certain groups have lasted. A powerful example of effective, inspiring and sustainable bi-communal activity is the work of Bereaved Parents’ Circle, a joint support group of Palestinian and Israeli parents who have lost children from violence in the conflict.

But what makes a project like this effective and sustainable? One could say these parents are taking huge risks, but they are also meeting real human needs. Encouraging Israelis and Palestinians to cross boundaries, literally and figuratively, has to resonate on a deep enough level to motivate taking the risk—the type of risk that makes it so plainly obvious that we are all in this together. Is it precisely these types of encounters, which wake us up to our interdependence, that this consultation was geared to uncover.

One specific idea that emerged during our brainstorming sessions was the role of a new third party—not a third party as a moderator, but one with high stakes in the conflict. We convened a discussion around the simple question: “Can joint German-Palestinian-Israeli dialogue make a difference to our future?” The links between German history, the formation of Israeli society, and present-day Palestinian realities are well documented from the Israeli perspective in Avrum Burg’s book, The Holocaust is Over, We Must Rise From Its Ashes.

The question of the German voice in this conflict piqued genuine curiosity. If organized and facilitated appropriately, perhaps the German narrative, in the context of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, could enable parties to directly confront issues of shame and blame in an unprecedented manner. Who knows what the process would ultimately yield, but these were the kind of imaginative and risk-taking suggestions that emerged.

Other brainstorming sessions focused around different but interrelated topics, based on questions raised by the participants. Some of these included:

• What if we did all live in one state?
• What are the lessons to learn from the success of Hamas and the Settler movements?
• What is the role of Diaspora Jews and Palestinians in encouraging bi-communal work?
• How can we build a constructive struggle to end the occupation?
• What are the criteria for an effective peacebuilding program?

On some levels, most of these conversations were not new. But on another level, few could say they had been able to talk about these subjects with peacebuilding practitioners from both sides. The amount of expertise in the room was demonstrated less by what was actually spoken, but more by what was implicitly understood. The lack of defensiveness was noticeable, but even more striking was the sheer absence of blame. Resisting the urge to blame is a quality that cannot be understated in any context, but particularly in bi-communal work.

Next steps toward a reality of peace
With help from the facilitators, the group was guided along a certain trajectory. By the final day, the conversation had shifted to the practical. The challenge was clear. With support from Karuna Center, would members of this delegation be able to take ownership of a project to train more peacebuilders in this region? Could more people, on both sides, be mentored and supported to further this critical goal of meeting the other for the purposes of shared cooperation? Were there others out there even interested?

The answer was a unanimous, resounding, almost self-evident “yes.” But more questions remained. Could this kind of cross-border training be done given the political and social barriers? Not easily. Would there be money for it? It would have to be raised. Where would it happen? It would have to be researched. There were no simple answers and no template of success to work from. All Karuna Center could offer was its experience in other conflict regions and its limited resources to help push this into a reality. It was up to these twenty individuals to be “the ones we are waiting for.”

That was the story of the Middle East Consultation in Istanbul. The act of asking this group the question, “what kinds of programs would be useful in this region?” was actually the beginning of the answer. The kind of program constructed and run by people who’ve been working tirelessly for years to advance a cooperative, interdependent, bi-communal future—that is the kind of program we need.

Ezra Weinberg is a Rabbi living in New York City currently serving as the spiritual leader for Congregation Mishkan Ha’am (Sanctuary of the People) in Hastings on Hudson, NY. In 2003, under the guidance of Dr. Paula Green, he was the first student to get an MA in “Conflict Transformation” at the School for International Training. His research and volunteer work with rabbis and other religious leaders in Israel/Palestine inspired him to pursue the rabbinate in service of bridging faiths and building peace.

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2 Responses to “Moving Toward a Cross-Border Peace Movement in Israel/Palestine”

• Philipsnyder says:

  December 2, 2010 at 3:48 pm

  a great, courageous and so needed step! This is a long road indeed. Good work Karuns Center!

  Reply
• Philipsnyder says:

  December 2, 2010 at 3:49 pm

  make that Karuna Center

  Reply