Five days from hope to hell

I left Jerusalem on Thursday, June 12 with a suitcase full of hope and a heart weighed down by the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza that has no end in sight.

I had been invited by the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) to attend the Paris Peace Summit. The aim of the summit was to bring together leading civil society actors, mostly Israeli and Palestinian, “united in their commitment to promoting the two-state solution and a shared future based on mutual recognition, peace, and security for all.”

The Arkia flight to Paris from Tel Aviv was remarkable. The plane was filled with hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians, many of whom are close friends who work in over 180 member organisations of ALLMEP. As soon as the seatbelt sign turned off, many people stood up and began conversations across aisles on everything from our feelings about the rushed planning of the trip to discussing political ideas about how to end the suffering in Gaza.

Closer friends also shared dilemmas and challenges that arise from working in organisations that are much maligned in both Israeli and Palestinian society. I’ve been to many think tanks and brainstorming sessions in my life, but this altitude networking experience was something else.

As the plane soared over the Mediterranean, my wife Carm and I thought about our teenage children, and how they would manage during their first weekend home alone. But I also thought about the opportunity ahead, to be part of something bigger—a movement striving to ensure that all the children of this land grow up with full bellies, not heavy hearts; under skies not haunted by drones and missiles, but alive with laughter and joy.