The future never manifests itself at the center first. The future manifests itself at the margins first. Otto Scharmer.
Do the strike and the demonstration on August 17 in Israel give a sign of hope for transformation in the consciousness of Israeli society, or does it once again show that Israeli society is egocentric, ethnocentric, incapable of empathy except for “its own,” a sick society, a society that is … monstrous?
More than one conversation these days implied or explicitly raised this question. I am the partner of an Israeli, the mother of two daughters with a Hebrew surname, the representative of the Italian group of Friends of Combatants for Peace, and the creator of the ‘Stories that Reconnect’ method, which aims to promote cultures of peace in times of polycrisis and to awaken stories of connection, compassion, and courage. From my ‘positionality’, how do I explore this question?
A general strike was called and protests were organized in various cities, demanding an immediate end to the war, the release of the hostages, and the suspension of the new military operation in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people participated, perhaps as many as a million. Netanyahu and his ministers branded the protest as an act that strengthens Hamas.
The focus was on the Israeli hostages, and in fact the event was promoted by the “Forum of Hostage Families.” Hearing speeches focused on 50 (Israeli) hostages without the slightest mention of the thousands (the figures vary depending on the source, from 60,000 to hundreds of thousands) of people who have died in Gaza (Palestinians) triggers a kind of annoying resentment, if not a roar of fierce indignation. There is a strong temptation, therefore, to see August 17 not as a sign of hope, but rather as a sign of a society that is blind and deaf to the pain of others, especially of those it has tormented.
Yet hundreds of thousands of people are calling for an end to the war. And above all, if we choose to look at the margins where possibilities emerge, there are groups and movements among them that are calling not only for an end to the war for the hostages, but because they are co-resisting together with Palestinians. They are usually called Palestinians of ’48, formally with Israeli citizenship, but “second-class” citizens. These movements have no qualms about calling this war “genocide,” denouncing death by starvation in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, calling for an end to the occupation, and embodying a future of justice, security, and freedom for all people from the river to the sea.
They navigated the trauma of October 7 together. Some members of Combatants for Peace (CfP) recounted how delicate it was to resume their meetings, Palestinians and Israelis together. They first held online meetings in separate groups, then each group welcomed one person from the other group as an observer only, and only then were they able to resume their activities together. An Israeli member of CfP recounted how October 7 had the potential to trigger mistrust and hatred in him again, and how the trigger was defused by the empathetic messages of the Palestinian CfP members. Another Israeli member of CfP recounted that immediately after the October 7 attack, when no one knew what would happen next and his children were terrified by the news, he showed them the messages from his Palestinian friends.
Over the past two years, the joint movements of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, Combatants for Peace (CfP) and Standing Together (to name just the ones I follow most closely), have co-resisted and protested against the horror of violence.
Here are just a few of their initiatives:
Jerusalem, May 25, 2025 – A dozen Standing Together activists mobilized to protect Palestinians against far-right gangs who had arrived to incite violence in Jerusalem’s Old City on “Jerusalem Day.”
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, August 3, 2025 – Hundreds of activists, including CfP, protested, demanding justice for Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian educator and activist, who was killed by settler Yinon Levi on July 28 in his village of Umm Alkhair, in Masafer Yatta.
Beit Jala, August 15, 2025 – “Journalists are the eyes and ears of the world. In Gaza, those eyes are deliberately closed: more than 200 reporters have been killed since October 7, 2023.” Israeli and Palestinian CfP members organized a nonviolent demonstration against the recent killing of six journalists in Gaza and demanded that Israel be held accountable.
Beit Jala, August 7, 2025 – Weekly nonviolent demonstration to denounce the hunger in Gaza caused by Israeli policies. The Israeli army closed off the area and threatened to intervene with force.
Sakhnin, August 2025 – Thousands of citizens, Israeli Jews and Palestinians, gathered in Sakhnin to demand an end to the war, genocide, and forced starvation in Gaza.
Gaza border, August 6, 2025 – At the Gaza border, Israeli Jews and Palestinians joined together to say no to annihilation, destruction, occupation, and forced starvation, and to denounce the abandonment of hostages.
Standing Together activist Eliah Levine explained to the BBC why they interrupted the live broadcast of Big Brother Israel to call for an end to the horrors in Gaza. “We cannot continue as if nothing is happening while tens of thousands of Palestinians are being killed and 50 hostages are being abandoned.”
These two movements, Combatants for Peace and Standing Together, together with around 60 other organizations, are part of the It’s Time Coalition, formed after the attack on October 7, 2023, with the aim of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a political agreement, guaranteeing the right to self-determination, equality, and a safe life for both peoples.
So let’s return to the question about August 17, knowing that before this date, a part (too small? significant enough?) of society mobilized, breaking the silence and propaganda, denouncing the genocide, horror, annihilation, forced starvation in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the abandonment of hostages. A feeling of openness fills our hearts. Perhaps all is not lost. Perhaps there is hope on the margins.
As internationalists, as Europeans, as Italians, do we give enough space and support to these joint movements that are co-resisting, so as to nurture hope?
Al-Jazeera also reported on the strike and demonstrations on August 17. Al-Jazeera is often the most watched channel in Arab countries, especially in the Palestinian Territories: in the West Bank and Gaza, it is the primary source of information for over 53% of the public, far outstripping other networks such as Palestine TV and Al Arabiya. Its vast audience has meant that, according to the Columbia Journalism Review, Al-Jazeera’s coverage of any peace agreements with Israel could determine whether or not such agreements are accepted by the Palestinian public (source: Wikipedia).
Al-Jazeera is often accused of bias (but who is impartial?). With this in mind, it is worth noting that Al-Jazeera brought in Alon-Lee Green, leader of Standing Together, to comment on the August 17 protest, with a question that goes straight to the heart of the matter: “How does your movement of Israelis and Palestinians view the protests in Israel that want to bring home the hostages and reduce Israeli deaths and focus less on the Palestinians and their conditions in Gaza?”
Alon-Lee Green replied: “We are part of a society… and we believe that changing society from within and organizing ourselves is key to ending this nightmare and the ongoing destruction in Gaza, freeing the hostages, ousting the government, and resolving the deep-rooted problem of the occupation. And we must understand that every person who is on the streets now to resist the war is welcome. And we must understand that starting from our own interests is important. … And we must understand that it is important to connect this to Palestinian interests, because only if we build a majority of people, Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, who build trust, collaborate together, and resist this reality together, can we not only end this destruction and this war, but also go further and end the occupation.”
Alon-Lee Green acknowledges reality while also drawing attention to possibilities. He is well aware that part (apparently a large part) of Israeli society that has taken to the streets wants an end to the war for its own “tribal” interests. Yet he sees the possibility of using this as a starting point to work from within society to transform it. In several videos on his Instagram channel, Alon-Lee addresses the Israeli public, saying that it is indeed a matter of saving the Palestinians, but it is also a matter of saving the humanity of the Israelis, and provocatively asking them to answer the question: what kind of country do we want?
From a Palestinian and pro-Palestinian perspective, this could be seen as arrogant rhetoric. And in the urgency of a time crushed by pain and anger at injustice, it is perhaps truly arrogant. Yet, in the dimension of a profound time, in which means and ends overlap and the liberation of the oppressed is also the liberation of the oppressor—how dense this statement is and how hard it is to write it for the part of me-us that has the sharp sword of justice—these statements are not arrogant, but courageous. Indeed, they are the only ones possible in terms of collective liberation.
An Palestinian Israeli from Standing Together, Sally Abed, refers to the self-interest of Jewish Israelis, offering an unusual perspective that calls for a choice of radical empowerment and profound transformation. “I am a Palestinian woman, I ask you to fight for the liberation of my people, not to save me, to save us… I refuse to let you participate in our joint struggle to save us… I ask that every Jewish Israeli in this country join this struggle out of their own private interest… a deep interest in ending the occupation and achieving peace… Otherwise, we will not build a truly equal partnership. I ask you to join the struggle in which we both have an interest in a better life, a better future, in peace and freedom… They prevent us from imagining a better future, and we insist on imagining a better future.”
It is delicate to write and talk about Palestine and Israel because there is a sense of urgency, which brings with it a feeling of indignation, an instinct to shout, and a feeling of going mad; there is genocide happening before our eyes, and we must do everything possible to stop it.
Yet there is another dimension that is apparently less urgent, and for this reason is marginalized. It is the dimension of deep time, of compassion and reconciliation; it is the essence of conflict transformation; it is preparing for a future of reconciliation by working toward it, even and especially in the midst of carnage. It is working from within a society that does not see (does not want to see) the crimes it is committing. Here, a voice (or perhaps a cry) is heard from within: “Can’t you see? It’s practically a genocide live on TV. Don’t you want to see? Even worse. How is this possible? It’s… monstrous.”