Alon Lee-Green, co-director and one of the founders of Standing Together, spoke in London last night.

Last night in London, a unique meeting occurred. A large room full of people gathered to discuss the Israel-Palestinian conflict. That’s not unique, you might think. Well, the difference was that it was a meeting made up of Jews and Palestinians together, not arguing, but talking about how to build a future together.

It’s sad but true that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs don’t usually come together. It may sound simple, but that’s exactly what Standing Together (Omdim B’yachad) wants to change.

Standing Together, Stronger Together Standing Together, is a grassroots resistance movement that is active in Israel and the Palestinian territories. They defend Arabs who are being attacked by Jewish settlers as they pick the olive harvest, they campaign against violence in the Arab communities, the annexation of the West Bank, and, during the war, they helped organize aid trucks for Gazans deprived of food, among other campaigns. But this is a movement co-founded by a young Israeli in 2015, Alon Lee-Green, now aged 38.

So what was this social activist from the Middle East doing on a rainy, wintry night in a university building in London? What message did he hope to bring to his supporters in London?

Standing Together has a UK ‘friends of’ network that is growing. But it’s unclear who made up this audience. Many were indeed left-wing Jews or people who oppose the current Israeli government, but there were also a small number of Palestinians, and a mix of Londoners from all walks of life – elderly, students, peaceniks. 

The evening started with a short testimony from a Palestinian man, Abdalrahman Amer, a refugee from Gaza whose son was killed in the bombing of the past two years. Although the IDF had taken his son from him, Abdalrahman put his arm around Alon, saying he is like my brother, and “I don’t have any reason to fight with Israelis, I never wanted this conflict.” And he thanked Alon for campaigning for Palestinians.

The simplicity struck me again, that many of us have forgotten that people are not defined by their country’s army or government. Palestinians are not Hamas, and Israelis are not Netanyahu. Just as Americans are not Trump, and Iranians are not Khamenei.

“We’re not football teams,” Alon said at one point. 

Alon greeted the audience with Ramadan Kareem, as it was the first night of Ramadan, and he explained his motives for activism. “I’m fighting for Palestinian rights, but also for my own country. It is beneficial for Israelis not to go to war—not to send their children to fight and get killed.”

He covered many topics, including the upcoming elections in Israel later this year and the importance of the Arab population’s vote. He stated that although the Arab parties may stand again as a joint list, there are different opinions within Arab society. Some Arabs are socialists, others are religious, and so on. “They are two million people,” Alon reminded us.

He explained how Ben Gvir’s police are allowing the Arab criminal rings to kill each other. The Israeli security forces often don’t arrest the suspected killer, and are deliberately turning a blind eye to Arab violence in a bid to spread fear in the community and eventually keep the Arab vote down. The fewer Arabs who vote in the next election, the better it is for the current ultra-right-wing settler parties.

Once again, it’s a reminder that the radicals on both sides—Islamists and Jewish settlers—are sucking the moderates into their game of hate.

Co-resistance, not Co-existence Alon also explained what Standing Together is: “We are not a coexistence movement. The goal is not just to get into a room and share coexistence narratives; the goal is to get outside of the room and change the reality.”

To create real change, you’ll need to go into politics, one audience-member said. “That’s not my place,” Alon said, “I want Yair Lapid and Yair Golan to become a pale version of me. We need to put peace back on the menu.”

He explained that none of the political leaders were talking about the root of the problem, the occupation, and the Palestinians, even on the left.

“Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid opposition leader) and Yair Golan (leader of the Democrats, formerly Labour and Meretz) both talk about the importance of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) serving in the army. But no one is trying to fix the root of the problem, so there will be fewer wars, and not a bigger army.”

Naftali Bennett, the main forerunner to replace Netanyahu, is also hostile to peace talks. So, it seems, peace really isn’t on the menu, or part of the agenda.

This is strange, considering almost all citizens, Israeli and Palestinian, would benefit from a resolution to the conflict, not just a ceasefire, which has claimed thousands of lives and traumatized many more.

The situation is complex, but one of the Palestinian speakers made a good point that some of the complications are manufactured to make us feel helpless.

Interestingly, Alon spoke of something he noticed while addressing some young Jews in London. He noticed the warnings about what to do if there is an attack. “Yes, there is terrible antisemitism on the right, and there is antisemitism on the left, and these fears are real. But, I want to be clear: we can’t let antisemitism be weaponized to silence us and stop Palestinians and Israelis standing together.”

He supports a boycott of goods made in the West Bank, and blocking arms sales to the IDF and ‘genocidal’ ministers.

Arms race or a peace race? War and defense tech are big business, and Israel is like the showroom for some of the newest military technologies. As singer-poet Gil Scott-Heron once said, “The only thing wrong with peace is you can’t make no money out of it.”

But, Martin Luther King Jr said, “We must shift the arms race to a peace race.” 

A peaceful, secure Israel and stability with its neighbors would benefit the entire regional economy and bring back its tourism and other industries not connected to perpetual war.

Then, where will this peace come from? Someone asked why do pro-Palestinian protests in London bring 300,000 people, while Standing Together (Israelis and Palestinians together) brings 50 people?

It’s a sad state of affairs, and perhaps a sign of the social media times we live in, that it’s easier to galvanize large groups of people based on perceived outrage, rather than their shared dreams.

Much of the global Free Palestine movement is led by non-Palestinians. Many people in the West who follow these narratives have gaps in their knowledge or have been sold a version of history that excludes the other side’s suffering. The algorithms, the newsroom agendas, are polarizing people on all sides. Moderates who talk about two people, with two states, living in peace, are now viewed as radicals.

Standing Together is an important grassroots movement, and could achieve great things, along with others in the peace camp, such as Women Wage Peace and Combatants for Peace. Yet, they are under no delusions: the task Standing Together has chosen is a revolutionary one: “We strive to create profound change within Israeli society, the Israeli economy, and Israeli politics,” as stated in their Theory of Change. This will not be a simple task.

For more information, go https://www.standing-together.org

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)