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In conversation with Standing Together, a Jewish-Arab grassroots movement in Israel
Seeking a Different Path
Since 7 October 2023, the day of the brutal Hamas massacre in Israeli kibbutzim, villages, and a music festival, and the kidnapping of over 200 hostages, and the ongoing brutal attacks by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip with many thousands of civilian casualties, we have witnessed an almost incomprehensible escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine. This violence is causing endless suffering, destruction, and pain. The consequences for the people and the region are not yet foreseeable.
Within Israel, the situation for the political and activist Left is desolate. The far-right government bans demonstrations and takes massive action against critics of the war. A large part of the Israeli Jewish population supports the “policy of strength” and further attacks on Gaza as well as the arming of the civilian population with weapons of war. There have also been attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel.
For the Israeli civil society group Standing Together, however, one thing is clear: the security of people in Israel cannot be achieved through war and violence. The grassroots movement of Jewish and Palestinian activists in Israel, which was founded in the offices of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Tel Aviv, has been campaigning for peace and social justice since 2016. In the days following 7 October, when left-wing activists are considered traitors and the Palestinian population in Israel is being subjected to a wave of repression, their work has become even more important.
We were thus delighted to welcome Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, co-chairs of Standing Together, to a panel discussion at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Berlin. Gil Shohat, head of our Israel Office, spoke to them about the current challenges of their peace work in times of war, the different realities for Jewish and Palestinian activists in Israel, the discrepancy between global left-wing debates on Israel and Palestine and the reality for progressive activists on the ground, as well as their demands for German and European politics to come closer to a just solution to the seemingly hopeless spiral of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.
Guests:
- Alon-Lee Green, co-director of Standing Together
- Rula Daood, co-director of Standing Together
- Chair: Gil Shohat, Head of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Israel Office