We will probably remember 2023 as one of the most difficult years in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Besides the great humanitarian cost, the war posed new challenges for inter-communal relations building. Yet, after the outbreak of the war some of our groups, of the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA), chose to boost their activities, meeting more frequently or planning activities of mutual support in addition to their regular dialogue encounters.  IEA coordinators and staff worked around the clock to conduct joint and on occasion one-on-one conversations, helping participants talk through difficult feelings, while focusing on maintaining hope. To date, 25 groups have already met, some more than once, and IEA was even able to launch a new group on October 26. Five additional groups are now working to schedule their encounters.

Here, IEA’s methodology proved most valuable: not directly addressing political topics, but instead providing spiritual and existential topics people could use to translate their personal experiences to others. This made it possible for the vast majority of our groups to continue meeting and having sincere conversations, instead of stopping their activities or “exploding” into anger and chaos. It was also evident that most of the groups who had been meeting for a while had developed strong bonds that allowed them to discuss the situation with the “other” in the context of the relationship they had built with one another, instead of as strangers.               

It is especially meaningful to highlight the work of groups that include marginalized communities, focusing on women’s groups that include Bedouin women.The Women’s Interfaith Encounter group in the Arad area in the Negev, for example, was one of the groups that responded to the October 7^th events by increasing the frequency of their encounters. They supported each other emotionally, and after learning about the lack of basic necessities among the Bedouin women of the group, the Jewish women engaged in helping them access what they needed.

Towards the end of 2023, the Women’s Interfaith Encounter group in the Yeruham area, also in the Negev, which had been inactive since the coronavirus pandemic, renewed its activity and decided to meet regularly every four to six weeks. Together they put the needed mechanisms in place to overcome language and cultural barriers. For example, in the more traditional Bedouin culture, women cannot just go and join an encounter. At the same time, they are able to invite friends for dinner. Therefore, all the group’s encounters are labeled as dinners and include a meal as a part of their programming.     

Another example is the Women’s Interfaith Encounter group in the northern Jordan Valley, who began meeting in 2022. After the war started and the security situation deteriorated, the group decided to continue meeting online. They met on October 25^th to reassure each other and share their feelings. They talked about hope and how it helps them cope with the current crisis, and discussed their desire to continue working together despite these difficulties. They met again in January and are now planning their next encounter.

It is important to stress again that in all these encounters, as well as in the encounters of all IEA groups, we do not talk about the politics of the conflict or debate how to solve it. We do not believe we were appointed to provide the political formula, but we are very much responsible for building and sustaining bridges between our communities. We tackle the conflict by transcending it, and we focus on conversations that teach us to know each other deeper, appreciate each other’s culture, develop care for each other, and build relations that are based on good neighborhood. This approach results in outreach that goes beyond the “usual suspects” and engages people from all parts of the political spectrum in the active building of intercommunal bridges.  

We will continue to face the consequences of the war within our groups but we are positive that now, more than ever, our work is essential for building cross-community trust, which is the only possible way to envision a “day after” that will bring peace for all communities in the Holy Land. 

In a world that often demands quick reactions and shallow understanding, how often do we truly get the chance to step back and critically examine our reality? How often do we challenge the basic assumptions that shape our understanding of the world and the events that unfold around us? These questions aren’t exclusive to one aspect of life but have universal relevance.

I found myself grappling with these questions through my work in bridge-building amid the complex Palestinian-Israeli conflict, where dialogue facilitation played a pivotal role. I vividly recall my first encounter with a certified dialogue facilitator at a conference. They demonstrated the power of active listening by facilitating a conversation between two women from opposing sides of a political conflict. It was a revelation.

What struck me most was the facilitator’s ability to keep participants fully engaged in the conversation. Typically, our natural inclination, or at least mine, is to mentally argue with perspectives we don’t agree with while pretending to listen. It wasn’t until the facilitator compelled me to truly pay attention and be fully present that I discovered the layers of meaning hidden in the dialogue.

Genuine listening, even to viewpoints we don’t align with, can have a profound impact. It allows us to delve beneath the surface of words and ideas to understand the emotions and motivations behind them. By temporarily experiencing the world through someone else’s lens, we can undergo a transformation, altering our fundamental assumptions and creating space for new thoughts, feelings, and interpretations.

It’s crucial to note that understanding another perspective doesn’t equate to endorsing it. Rather, it broadens our perspective and enables a more comprehensive understanding of the world.

Two years ago, I joined Tech2Peace, attracted by its inspiring mission of building a brighter future in a troubled region. Our innovative programs cater to college-aged students, offering tech and entrepreneurship training alongside facilitated dialogue. This unique blend not only equips participants with valuable skills but also fosters genuine dialogue, deepening mutual understanding. Through this process, we cultivate a resilient community of leaders who embody a more hopeful Middle East.

When October 7th brought despair and uncertainty, we leaned into our strength at Tech2Peace. Instead of succumbing to hopelessness, we offered a platform for meaningful connection. In the midst of profound emotions, from rage to fear and anger to hopelessness, our alumni drew upon their dialogue skills. With the help of our professional staff, they navigated difficult conversations, truly heard one another, and addressed challenging situations constructively, without succumbing to fear.

Tech2Peace provides a unique opportunity to step back and critically assess our reality. It’s a place where we unravel narratives that have long guided us, making space for new possibilities to flourish.

We’re returning to our shared pursuit of tech and entrepreneurship, acquiring skills side by side, and building a better future. We engage in honest and open conversations as individuals, not as national representatives, knowing that we’ve been heard. We’re forging a path forward, modeling a new reality where we are not bound by our imagination. Together, we’re forging a path forward, modeling a new reality where our imagination knows no bounds. Within our Tech2Peace community, we’ve built a vision, and we’re determined to make it a reality.

For many years, peacebuilding within the Israeli-Palestinian context was often conducted along parallel lines. Civil society actors were heading in the same direction, working toward similar goals and objectives, but many never actually coming into contact with one another. Too many organizations operated in silos. They competed with one another for funding. And even the best efforts toward collaborative programming sometimes met administrative, interpersonal, and structural challenges. 

However, the peacebuilding field has seen some promising shifts over the last few decades. Many of these same organizations have been emerging from their silos, entering an era that embraces diversity and collaboration – the coalition era. There are incentives — financial, impact-oriented, access, and more — that have encouraged this shift. But, this new era embraces a core belief, as we often say at the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), that “the peacebuilding field can be more than just the sum of its parts, and diversity is one of its greatest strengths.”

What do I mean by this? ALLMEP is a network of Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilding organizations, made up of over 160 member organizations, with hundreds of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian staff, alumni, and beneficiaries. Each member is implementing its own programming, with its own theory of change and approach to the work.

For this group to be more than the sum of its parts and to embrace its internal diversity, this means creating unique opportunities for these organizations to gather, share knowledge and lessons learned, and build on one another’s successes. This means prioritizing collaboration, innovation, and a field-wide strategic vision for achieving full equality, peace, and rights for all Palestinians and Israelis.

Our members work across a wide spectrum of activities. In 2023, through a survey of ALLMEP membership, we identified twelve categories or foci of work across our community, ranging from sports to advocacy, religion/interfaith to technology, arts and culture, entrepreneurship, public health, environment, science, womens’ empowerment, youth, and all imaginable combinations between them. 

Among those 160+ member organizations, we also found that 44% were implementing cross-border (over the Green line) programs and 38% were implementing programs focused on shared society work between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel. 14% were focused on both, and 2.6% worked on Palestinian uninational programs. Many also used a hybrid model, first engaging with uninational populations and then working toward joint programming.

This diversity – diversity of programs, theories of change, beneficiary populations, and geographic scope – is one of the main reasons ALLMEP remains committed to a coalition model. ALLMEP’s Affinity Group programming, for example, uses some of these same subcategories to bring together representatives from organizations working on similar or related issues. There is no assumption that these organizations will replicate or share one another’s exact theories of change, but often they have information or practices to share, can learn from one another, can build new models together that address the dynamic realities on the ground, and can work together to shape public policy that affects their work.

Since the start of this brutal war on October 7th, ALLMEP has convened these Affinity Groups twelve different times, and held multiple uninational and fieldwide dialogues for our community. Despite understandable trauma and moments of tension, they revealed a deep commitment by peace activists to continue their work and to do so as a united field. 

In addition to these conversations, ALLMEP conducted a field-wide survey in January to assess how the ongoing war and the realities on the ground were affecting our members’ work, their staff, and the communities they serve. Despite horrific violence on the ground, only 5% are experiencing a suspension in programming and only 3.7% stated that they’re not in a place to strategize peacebuilding efforts with their counterparts on the other side. 

One survey respondent described, “In the first month, the events of Oct 7th and the resulting war influenced us strongly – we stopped all of our activities for 3 weeks, and it was very hard for the staff to function because of the closure of the checkpoints, police violence in East Jerusalem, rockets, and the closing of schools and kindergartens for our children. We kept in touch with our community – sending them a message of solidarity.”

To overcome these, and many other challenges, many of our members are demonstrating their adaptiveness and the resilience of their communities. As another respondent explained, “On October 9, 65 of our Israeli and Palestinian alumni joined a Zoom dialogue session. Over the next three months, 600 more would join one of 35 similar virtual or in-person programs … Our commitment to engaging with conflict and addressing difficult realities requires deep resilience. What keeps us going is a profound belief that violence will not pave the way to a sustainable solution.”

Around the world, many are looking toward and planning for the day after, strategizing for how the field will respond to the announcement of a ceasefire. Others can’t afford to wait that long, with members of their community having been killed, injured, taken hostage, displaced, facing famine and disease, and some of the worst violence this conflict has ever seen. At the same time, skeptics dismiss people-to-people encounters, peace activism, and the idea of Israelis and Palestinians working together toward justice, equality, and peace as a far-off fantasy. But in the ALLMEP community this is the reality. 

Even before October 7th, many of these civil society organizations were already working to address the root causes of violence in the region. Much of their programming remains centered around key issues for both populations: restorative justice, education, reconciliation, safety and security, economic access and opportunity, self-determination, civil and human rights, land, settlement expansion, generational trauma, ending occupation, and peace, for both Palestinians and Israelis. And, importantly, they’re doing it in conversation and collaboration with one another. 

This type of collaboration and connectivity could not be more important right now. As many people in both communities are retreating into dangerous echo chambers, being filled with calls for violence, hateful rhetoric, dehumanizing language, and bad policy solutions, the peacebuilding field stands as a third narrative. Every day, these bold, visionary peace activists are fighting for a better, shared future for Palestinians and Israelis.

I’ll say it again, because I believe it is worth repeating, “The peacebuilding field can be more than just the sum of its parts, and diversity is one of its greatest strengths.”