People’s Peace Summit: hope, resistance and an Israel that doesn’t want to know

On May 9, over 5,000 Israelis and Palestinians came together in Jerusalem for the People’s Peace Summit, organised by the ‘It’s Time Coalition’—an alliance of more than 60 peace, reconciliation, and shared society organisations.

From the main stage, moments of raw emotion and powerful calls for change echoed across the crowd. Dr. Iman Said, a Palestinian physician from the now-destroyed Rimal neighborhood of Gaza, issued a heartfelt plea to end the war through a two-state solution.

French President Emmanuel Macron sent a video message supporting the efforts of civil society groups working for coexistence.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas—dismissed by Prime Minister Netanyahu as an unworthy partner for peace—stated, “We reject violence and terrorism. We reject the killing of civilians. And we are for the release of all the hostages as soon as possible.”

The summit, supported in part by the New Israel Fund, was the second major gathering of the coalition following an event in Tel Aviv last July.

It featured moving speeches by bereaved family members and peace advocates: Moaz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah, who each lost loved ones in the conflict; Liat Atzili, a former Hamas hostage whose husband Aviv was killed defending Kibbutz Nir Oz; Sigalit Hilel, mother of Ori Tchernichovsky, murdered at the Nova music festival; and Elana Kaminka, whose son Yannai was killed on October 7.

Jewish and Arab political figures took to the stage as well—former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, MK Yair Golan, Ayman Odeh, Ahmad Tibi, Naama Lazimi, Gilad Kariv, and Alon Schuster, the sole representative of the National Unity party. MK Schuster was the only speaker booed by the crowd, after mentioning his party leader, Benny Gantz—who now calls for a hostage deal but previously supported the war and even joined Netanyahu’s coalition.