Israeli peace activism: Same slogans for a different reality

As a fundamental human desire and right, peace traverses time and context. However, if it is to be realized it must be adjusted to political and social realities.

 

In a period degraded by extremes of violence and dehumanization, the sight of 10,000 Israeli protestors taking to the streets of Tel Aviv last Saturday to protest against their own government’s actions in Gaza appeared as a welcome chink of light illuminating unremittingly bleak skies. Despite being smaller in scale, the demonstration recalled the early 1990s, when large numbers of Israelis demonstrated in favor of peace, and the possibility of a lasting peace seemed so much closer.

Israelis take part in a protest calling for peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinian, Tel Aviv, on August 16, 2014. Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday for a pro-peace rally under the slogan: 'Changing Direction: Toward Peace, Away From War.' (photo: Activestills)

Watching images of the protests in Tel Aviv took me back to the First Intifada, a time when peace appeared as more than a fleeting abstraction or an illusionary delusion; a period when Women in Black attended silent vigils and commemorated Palestinian deaths across Israel; when B’Tselem first emerged to document the full range and scale of the Israeli state’s human rights abuses; when organizations as diverse and significant as Peace Now and Dai L’Kibush (End the Occupation) established the basis of a constituency for peace.

These groups brought Israelis and Palestinians together and proactively engaged in a whole range of solidarity actions. I personally worked alongside Israelis in establishing solidarity groups and organizing demonstrations, sit-ins, workshops, seminars and lectures. These actions were not confined to the occupied territories: They were deliberately aimed at the Israeli public, and were predicated upon a sincere belief that there was a body of public opinion that would be receptive and sympathetic to Palestinian concerns.

While our struggle against the occupation united Palestinians and Israelis it could not conceal deeper tensions, divisions and divergences. Insofar as ‘peace’ was invoked as a unifying abstraction, it was not examined in close perspective, or understood in terms of the demands that it imposed on its adherents. That this should be the case was hardly surprising – we were so busy working towards the goal that we did not concern ourselves with the exact details and clarifications.

In retrospect, while the struggle against the occupation united Palestinian and Israeli activists around a common goal, it could not conceal deeper questions; questions that required an honest and more substantive engagement than the slogans of ‘end the occupation’ and ‘two states for two people’ could ever provide. While we could agree on the broad sentiment, the details proved somewhat more difficult. Issues such as the right of return, the status of Jerusalem, the full removal of settlements, and the political significance of the 1967 borders remained fundamentally unaddressed, let alone resolved.

Israelis take part in a protest calling for peace negotiations between Israel and Palestinian, Tel Aviv, on August 16, 2014. Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday for a pro-peace rally under the slogan: 'Changing Direction: Toward Peace, Away From War.' (photo: Activestills)