Constructing peace, then, means greater than a ceasefire or a treaty. It means Israelis and Palestinians selecting new leaders who will reject the politics of worry and revenge.
Girls Wage Peace supporters carry an indication in Arabic and Hebrew that reads: “To any extent further, nobody decides something with out ladies.”
Constructing peace means altering the way in which we train our historical past in Israeli and Palestinian faculties, in order that the subsequent technology is taught that there are two nations with deep ties to this land, neither of which is made up or invented, with every having deep cultural and spiritual connections to this land that’s their solely house.
Constructing peace means actively studying one another’s language, Arabic for Israelis and Hebrew for Palestinians, which is able to make it more durable to carry on to the false notion that the opposite has no place right here.
Constructing peace means 50-50 illustration for men and women in all management positions. Girls’s participation increases the probability of a peace settlement lasting at the least two years by 20 per cent, and by 35 per cent the likelihood of a peace settlement lasting 15 years.
Constructing peace means embracing a brand new sort of journalism, one which not solely reviews on violence and pressure but additionally seeks out tales of co-operation, empathy and sensible options that assist societies heal and transfer ahead.
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And at last, constructing peace is about reclaiming our holy traditions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity from all these right here and overseas who’ve abused our non secular traditions to develop into blueprints for conflict. We should reassert that the aim of our sacred texts is to understand the golden rule of all our traditions: love your neighbour as your self, all the time remembering that what’s hateful to you, you could not do to others.
The selection, as ever, rests with us. When the weapons lastly fall silent, the actual work of therapeutic and reconciliation should start, not by means of a distant, grand negotiation, however by means of the quick, every day choices of Israelis and Palestinians.
Historical past reveals this path, although steep, isn’t not possible, from the land-for-peace settlement with Egypt to the top of the Troubles in Northern Eire. Hope isn’t a passive want, it’s an motion. It’s present in rerouting a single greenback from shopping for one other weapon, to a youth program that challenges dehumanisation, or within the easy, defiant act of correcting a single line in a historical past e-book. If all of the immense effort that went into combating this conflict is now directed towards making a actuality the place it may by no means occur once more, something is feasible. For the sake of all our youngsters, let this important grassroots course of flourish and plant the seeds of peace in all our hearts.
Ittay Flescher is a Jewish-Australian journalist and peace educator dwelling in Jerusalem. His e-book, The Holy and the Damaged: A Cry for Israeli-Palestinian Peace from a Land that Should Be Shared, was revealed by HarperCollins Australia and lengthy listed for the 2025 Walkley E book Awards. He wrote this piece for New Israel Fund of Australia & Associates occasions held in Melbourne and Sydney final Sunday to mark October 7 and its aftermath.
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