People attend a peace conference at the Yad Eliyahu Arena in Tel Aviv, July 1, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

This weekend, a coalition of 50 Israeli peace and shared-society organizations will convene in Jerusalem for the “People’s Peace Summit” — a two-day gathering that aims, according to its website, to “[work] together with determination and courage to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a political agreement that will ensure both peoples’ right to self-determination and secure lives.”

Here in Israel-Palestine, we live in dark and bitter times, the likes of which we have never experienced before. In these circumstances, such an impressive show of force by the reawakened left is undoubtedly important and meaningful, and I tip my hat to anyone working to create change toward a better future.

And yet, it must be acknowledged that the conference will take place amid an ongoing genocide, one that has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, and is likely to escalate even further in the near future. After carefully reviewing the conference’s densely-packed program of activities and panels, the word “Gaza” appears in only a single event, titled: “Peace After October 7 – Voices from the Gaza Envelope and from Gaza,” featuring “[Israel] residents of the Gaza border area and survivors of the massacre, along with video messages from peace activists in Gaza.”

More than a year and a half into Israel’s systematic annihilation of the Strip, the only victims organizers of the event seemed willing to fully acknowledge are the Israeli victims of the October 7 massacre. Gazans — those facing a genocide — must be designated as “peace activists” in order to be given legitimacy to voice their perspective before the attendees.

This raises some troubling questions: How does the “peace camp” conceive of its role in these unprecedented times? And even more fundamentally, does it even understand the magnitude of the genocidal moment in which we find ourselves?

 Facing a new reality

Perhaps it’s the inclination to be “of the people” which led organizers to choose such sterile and feel-good titles for so many of the conference’s events: “Woodstock for Peace,” including a “full day of connection to the earth, nature, peace, and hope”; “Israeli and Palestinian youth present their perspectives on the word ‘peace’”; “There is a Path”; “Hope from Jerusalem”; and so on.

People attend a peace conference at the Yad Eliyahu Arena in Tel Aviv, July 1, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

The desire to offer hope, at a time when it is so deeply absent, is understandable. But when not even a single event on the conference schedule is devoted to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, this hope becomes, at best, detached from reality, and at worst, depoliticized escapism seeking to dull and numb.

Alongside this, the conference includes several panel discussions dealing with potential future political solutions and frameworks for “ending the conflict.” This suggests that, despite what is unfolding under our noses, organizers believe that the primary role of the Israeli left remains unchanged: to insist that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn’t inevitable, and that solutions exist to benefit all people living between the river and the sea. In my view, at this moment we are obligated to reexamine not just reality, but our role within it.

This heavy emphasis on “political solutions” implies that what we lack most right now is “political imagination,” a concept frequently invoked in the conference. This assumption deserves to be challenged. What’s happening in Gaza isn’t the result of insufficient imagination on the part of Israelis and Palestinians, or because they haven’t been presented with adequately clear peace plans over the past few decades. Murderous fascism hasn’t taken over the Israeli government because the public wasn’t offered enough alternatives.

Indeed, we cannot take for granted that the deep and bloody rupture we’re living through will naturally lead the Israeli public to realize that a different path must be found. While a certain portion of Israelis may have learned this lesson since October 7, the more popular takeaway is that Israel can and should “end the Palestinian issue” by force, and if necessary, through annihilation, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion. The fact that polls show no dramatic rise in the strength of left-wing parties is not because the public is unfamiliar with their political offerings, but because it doesn’t want them. This is the reality the left must grapple with.

In this sense, the peace conference retreats to the Israeli left’s comfort zone, avoiding the existential questions this historical moment demands we confront. And this is before even considering the practical obstacles of the proposed solutions, like Israel’s deliberate dismantling of Palestinian leadership and its hollowing-out of the Palestinian Authority.

Nachala supporters at the Hanukkah celebration, calling to resettle Gaza, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Dec. 26, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

 Hard truths

I believe this conference is a response to the deep and overwhelming sense of helplessness we’re all experiencing, as the rivers of blood continue to flow before our eyes. While offering optimism, peace, and solutions is undoubtedly tempting — after all, these are things we all desperately crave — hope is never a luxury; it is a necessary engine for change.

But for hope to transform from a hollow wish into an actionable plan, it must be grounded in reality, not be detached from it. My suggestion to the left is to linger for a moment in this place of total rupture and helplessness, to recognize our limitations within this genocidal reality, and from that place, to reexamine our role.

The institutionalized crackdown now openly targeting all left-wing organizations in Israel is also part of the reality that we must confront, and it demands radically different tactical and strategic choices than those we’ve relied on until now. We must confront the hard truth: none of the political solutions currently proposed are feasible under this apartheid regime. The time for illusions is over.

Our task now is to rethink how to organize as an opposition camp dedicated to dismantling this system. This will require a good dose of humility, and the sober recognition that before any solutions can emerge, we must first endure a painful period of prolonged struggle. That is where our energy must be directed.

To be clear, these words are not written out of cynicism; I truly hold deep appreciation for the organizers of the conference and its many participants. I have no doubt of their good intentions and sincere commitment to changing our horrific reality. Yet as Israel systematically starves people in Gaza’s extermination camp, the Israeli left can no longer remain in its comfort zone.

What good are dialogue workshops, discussions about the sanctity of Jerusalem, interfaith prayers, or panels on political solutions while a genocide rages? These are privileged distractions we can no longer afford. To transform reality, we must first stare directly at its horrors and name them without flinching. If this conference cannot even convene a single panel on Gaza’s genocide, much less demand an end to complicity in it, how can it hope to drive the change it claims to pursue?

Orly Noy