As the one-year mark since the beginning of the war approached, peacebuilders discussed changes in the region and paths to peace.
The ongoing war in Gaza has fundamentally transformed the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, said a panel of Palestinian, Israeli, and American peacebuilding professionals. They also pointed out the importance of a proactive focus on peace.
The October 7 attacks and the Israeli invasion of Gaza have upended the long-running conflict, said Tehila Wenger, an Israeli peace activist and Deputy Director of the Geneva Initiative, a coalition of two Palestinian and Israeli peace organizations: “the status quo in Israel and Palestine has imploded, or in a sense, exploded.”
Wegner said that while Israeli society remained traumatized by October 7, opinions towards the war had shifted, with initial nearly unanimous support for the war changing with half of Israelis now in favor of a ceasefire/hostage deal. Even military elites, Wenger added, had labeled the Israeli government’s stated aim of “total victory” in Gaza as a “myth.”
Wenger also criticized the Israeli opposition for failing to put forward a proactive vision for an end to the conflict.
The war has been a disappointment for both Palestinian peace activists and militants, said Hamze Awawde, Regional Manager of the Palestinian Delegation at Hands of Peace, a Palestinian-Israeli peace education organization: “My camp thought that there was an international community that would make sure red lines weren’t crossed. We were disappointed. The Hamas camp, the resistance, expected their regional allies to intervene, and they were disappointed.”
Caroline Mays, Executive Director of New Story Leadership (NSL), a DC-based peacebuilding organization that brings together emerging Israeli and Palestinian leaders and influencers, highlighted the work of NSL alumni. A group of alumni issued a statement in favor of a ceasefire and hostage deal just weeks after October 7.
The alumni then worked together to craft the Phoenix Plan, a detailed roadmap for reconstruction in Gaza and Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation. Mays said that NSL had helped the Phoenix Plan authors lobby for their proposal in the U.S. Congress and that several elected officials, including Democratic Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, had expressed interest in organizing their peers into a “Phoenix Caucus” to support it.
This experience, Mays argued, demonstrates the effectiveness of centering Palestinian and Israeli voices in pro-peace lobbying efforts.
Avi Meyerstein, the president of Alliance for Middle East Peace, a coalition of Palestinian and Israeli groups, praised the work of AMEP’s Palestinian partners. He said that its partners in Palestine had engaged in effective crisis response and redoubled their efforts after October 7, despite many of them having lost loved ones in the Israeli invasion.
Meyerstein stressed that it is important for peace activists to move quickly to shift the debate around the future of Israel-Palestine. “There’s an opening, and someone’s ideas and actions are going to fill that. There’s a chance that it’s going to be good actors rather than bad actors,” he said.
Wenger said that “extremists” on either side want people to identify exclusively as pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian, rather than to support peace and dignity for both communities. She also called for messaging towards Israel that conditions diplomatic normalization between Israel and its Arab neighbors on progress in negotiations with the Palestinians.
There is an opportunity for Joe Biden to take steps to restrain the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Wenger added. She pointed to former President Barack Obama, who late in his second term, allowed the UN Security Council to declare Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory illegal. Wenger said that Biden had the advantage of being seen as a “steadfast friend of Israel.”
Awawde said that the Palestinian Authority, the government that exercises partial civil control over some areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had been sidelined. He acknowledged the body’s flaws but said it had acted in a “rational way” during the current conflict. The PA is controlled by Fatah, a secular party that has historically been Hamas’ rival ever since the latter took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 in the aftermath of Palestinian legislative elections that Hamas won.
When the audience was allowed to ask questions, an attendee who introduced herself as belonging to the progressive anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace challenged the panelists for, as she said, failing to address the power asymmetry between Israel and the Palestinians. She also expressed disappointment with the lack of discussion of an arms embargo on Israel.
The discussion on Israel, Palestine, and the war in Gaza took place on September 11 at George Mason University during PeaceCon 2024, a conference bringing together policymakers and professionals in the field of peacebuilding.
Pablo Molina Asensi
Pablo Molina Asensi is a Freelancer and Grants Manager for Peace News Network. He earned his M.A. in Global Communication from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in 2024, concentrating in Conflict and Conflict Resolution. He also graduated from The American University's School of International Service in 2022, with concentrations in Peace, Global Security, and Conflict Resolution in addition to Global Inequality and Development. Pablo is particularly interested in issues of human rights and refugee policy. He has carried out research into the situation of DRC refugees in Uganda and has written extensively about Western Sahara.
