Hope for civil society efforts to restore Israeli-Palestinian trust

What may be looked back upon one day as a step towards de-escalating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict passed under the news radar last month.

G7 leaders meeting in Italy two weeks ago gave a boost to civil society organisations trying to keep alive hopes of a two-state peace compromise solution between the warring peoples.

These bodies, promoting people-to-people contacts, have for the most part, survived October 7 and the Gaza war, though they are deeply challenged by the tragedies and bloodshed around them.

Some Israeli NGO directors say they see their roles now as more essential than ever. Perhaps more of their sense of purpose is needed in the burnt out and cynical environment prevailing today in Israel.

The NGO directors deserve credit at least for imagining a future of peace when the far right is in power, civilian casualties in Gaza continue to spiral and soldiers are killed on most days. Even ostensibly left-wing politicians such as Yair Golan, new leader of Democrats, the reborn Labour-Meretz party, refuse to use the word peace. The prevalent thinking is that it is a bad brand.

Meanwhile, Palestinian opinion polls show overwhelming support for Hamas’s brutal terrorist assault on Israeli border communities and growing backing for Hamas in both Gaza and the West Bank, despite the disaster it triggered for Palestinian people.

The continued ordeal of the Israeli hostages in Gaza and the possibility of war with Hezbollah is maintaining a wide sense of trauma, anger and fear in Israel. West Bank residents are worried, too, over becoming the next Gaza and fearing even to drive between cities because of a spike in violence by fundamentalist settlers.