{"id":70314,"date":"2025-02-21T07:25:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T06:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/meine-vision-wie-man-die-palaestinenser-und-die-israelis-retten-kann\/"},"modified":"2025-02-21T14:46:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T13:46:17","slug":"my-vision-how-to-salvage-the-palestinians-and-the-israelis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/my-vision-how-to-salvage-the-palestinians-and-the-israelis\/","title":{"rendered":"My vision: How to Salvage the Pales\u00adtinians and the Israelis"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=\u201c\u201d]<\/p>\n

Foto: Imago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=\u201d.vc_custom_1508251598805{margin-top: 30px !important;}\u201d][vc_column width=\u201c2\/3\u201d css=\u201d.vc_custom_1508252250311{padding-right: 20px !important;}\u201d][vc_column_text css=\u201c\u201d]<\/p>\n

Samer Abdel\u00adrazzak Sinijlawi grew up during the first intifada. He was imprisoned as a teenager. It was in prison that he got to know the other, the Israeli view of the conflict. Despite the current political situation, he believes in a peaceful solution between Israelis and Pales\u00adtinians \u2014 with the help of a dialog based on trust and mutual empathy. The West can also contribute, he says.<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=\u201c\u201d]The conflict between Israelis and Pales\u00adtinians is often assumed to be impos\u00adsible to solve, a matter of two national movements with irrec\u00adon\u00adcilable aspira\u00adtions for one tiny piece of land. It has felt like this for nearly a century, and perhaps never more so than during the past year of anger and grief.<\/p>\n

Childhood in Jerusalem<\/h2>\n

But as a Pales\u00adtinian who was born in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City, who has lived through the occupation, who sat in an Israeli prison for five years, I see a way out. Even today, with the pain so fresh, I believe it\u2019s possible for Pales\u00adtinians to get our state, and for the two peoples to coexist. But to arrive there, both sides will need to radically change their thinking \u2013 and their leadership.<\/p>\n

The future I imagine is in some ways rooted in a past I remember from my childhood in the early \u201980s. In the busy streets of the Old City, you knew which community you belonged to, but everyone shared the space. As a boy, before I had any under\u00adstanding of who was above whom, I knew only that everyone was bustling at the end of the week, with Jews going to synagogue, Chris\u00adtians heading to church, and Muslims following the sound of the muezzin to prayer. My family is Muslim, but I attended a Christian school. I never questioned how natural this layered reality was.<\/p>\n

Important lessons in prison<\/h2>\n

But then, in 1987, the First Intifada began. I was 14. All at once, I felt pulled into the conflict, drawn to what I heard on the streets and saw on television, which was a more straight\u00adforward story than what I\u2019d known in Jerusalem \u2013 the struggle of my people, armed with stones, standing up to tanks. I wanted to throw stones as well, to feel a part of it. And so I did. And like many of my teenage friends, I was eventually arrested and sentenced by a military judge to five years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

This was the most painful moment of my life. My childhood was over. I wasn\u2019t able to finish high school. But my experience in prison changed me in unexpected ways. It gave me a different kind of education. I was elected as a spokesperson to negotiate with the prison author\u00adities, whether for better food or special permits for family visits. And my under\u00adstanding of my enemy grew.<\/p>\n

Fears on both sides<\/h2>\n

Out in the street, we wore keffiyehs over our faces, and they saw us only through the scope of a rifle. But now I got to know some Israelis. I could see their eyes, and they could see mine. I learned Hebrew. I learned their names. And I saw for the first time that these people, whom I had feared as my oppressors, had their own fears. They were scared of us, the Pales\u00adtinians, of the violence we might cause them, of the violence we were causing them. It\u2019s hard for my own people, oppressed as we feel by Israeli power, to appre\u00adciate this, but the fears of Israelis are real, not exaggerated or invented. The images of October 7 are seared into their minds. Especially since the massacre, they desire the sort of security that any of us would want, and they will never bargain away the safety of their families. They are not a suicidal people.<\/p>\n

I also learned how to negotiate with Israelis. Maybe because of their own history of survival, they can be stubborn. You cannot expect to get anything through pressure tactics. Believe me, Pales\u00adtinians have tried: The strategy for decades has been to use violence against Israelis while beseeching the world to force Israel into making conces\u00adsions. But this hasn\u2019t worked. Trying to get the American president to use carrots and sticks with the Israelis is pointless. We need to deal with them directly. That\u2019s the only way. And just as we have needs\u2014dignity, rights, independence\u2014they have needs as well, and we must find ways to reassure them of their security, to defeat their fears.<\/p>\n

Dignity and security<\/h2>\n

I have often thought of the conflict as having DNA. The need for security is one strand, and the other is a desire for dignity. This did not require any special education for me to learn. It comes with the reality of being a Pales\u00adtinian. We live in a state of constant humil\u00adi\u00adation: at each check\u00adpoint, every time we need to cross a border, when settlers in the West Bank attack and kill our people and burn our fields with impunity. Half of our lives seem to be spent waiting in line as an Israeli soldier stands over us with a gun. We lack freedom. We are denied basic human dignity. And this existence, to feel forever trampled on, has been ours now for at least three generations.<\/p>\n

This is the DNA, a desire for both safety and self-deter\u00admi\u00adnation. By acknowl\u00adedging and attending to these twin desires \u2013 rather than parsing right from wrong or replaying history \u2013people of goodwill can solve the conflict. I am part of an initiative \u2013 organized by Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, and Nasser al\u2011Kidwa, the former Pales\u00adtinian foreign-affairs minister \u2013 to do just that. We envision a cease-fire in Gaza and a return of the hostages held by Hamas since October 7, and we have worked out the details of a two-state solution, proposing a plan for drawing borders, deter\u00admining the status of Jerusalem, and rebuilding Gaza.<\/p>\n

A plan and its obstacles<\/h2>\n

The contours are not hard to imagine, but many obstacles stand in the way. I see four main ones, two within our own societies and two from the outside.<\/p>\n

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government aren\u2019t inter\u00adested in making any conces\u00adsions to the Pales\u00adtinians. They hardly see us and are intent on ignoring our demands indef\u00adi\u00adnitely. But I don\u2019t think they represent the majority of Israelis, who dislike Netanyahu and want his rule to end. I believe that those who protest by the tens of thousands every week in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem know that the status quo is not acceptable for either people.<\/p>\n

The problem of political leadership in Israel<\/h2>\n

This is the first obstacle: Netanyahu and his reactionary, racist allies. Israelis must find a way to vote him and the extremists out. Nothing will change until Israeli leaders see the benefit of creating a Pales\u00adtinian state, and do not act with such indif\u00adference to our lives and needs. But the second obstacle I see is closer to home for me, and just as crucial: the corrupt and ineffective leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Pales\u00adtinian Authority.<\/p>\n

\u2026 and on the Pales\u00adtinian side<\/h2>\n

I first met Abbas as part of a Fatah youth delegation soon after the First Intifada ended. After being released from prison, in 1993, I became involved with the party, the largest faction in Pales\u00adtinian politics at the time. My fellow delegates and I were in our 20s; Abbas was then in his 50s and Fatah\u2019s second-in-command. \u201cYou are tomorrow\u2019s leaders,\u201d he told us. Today, Abbas is nearly 90, and we are in our 50s. Over the years, he has worked to ensure that the tomorrow he promised never arrived. He was elected president in 2005 to serve for four years. He has served for almost 20, without a single re-election. Over that period, he has compro\u00admised our democracy, our security, our economy, and our dignity.<\/p>\n

Abbas lost the 2006 legislative elections to Hamas, and then lost Gaza to Hamas control the following year. But he could have taken the past two decades to build up the West Bank, creating trans\u00adparent, accountable insti\u00adtu\u00adtions that would represent a thriving alter\u00adnative to Hamas. Because he didn\u2019t, he allowed the extremists to fill the vacuum. As recently as 2021, Abbas cancelled planned elections, this time after Fatah split into three factions. Younger, reformist Fatah leaders were ready to try to create that alter\u00adnative and might have offered a counter\u00adbalance to the extremism that led to October 7. But Abbas stood in their way.<\/p>\n

Political change!? A broad coalition<\/h2>\n

Pales\u00adtinians want change. Polls show that about 90 percent of the population wants Abbas to resign. But removing him isn\u2019t just important for the West Bank and the possi\u00adbility of negoti\u00adating with the Israelis. It\u2019s also essential to Gaza\u2019s \u201cday after.\u201d As brutal and oppressive as the Hamas regime has been, the people of Gaza don\u2019t want to see Hamas replaced with Abbas.<\/p>\n

Instead, Pales\u00adtinian political leaders should form a unity government that includes nonpar\u00adtisan national figures; Fatah reformists such as al\u2011Kidwa, the former security czar Mohammed Dahlan, and, with any luck, the imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti; and even members of non-extremist Islamist factions like the Ra\u2019am party, in Israel\u2019s Parliament. This broad coalition would be respon\u00adsible for recon\u00adstructing Gaza and unifying it with the West Bank. It would need the support of Arab countries and the inter\u00adna\u00adtional community \u2013 and, of course, recog\u00adnition by Israel.<\/p>\n

All of this is impos\u00adsible while Netanyahu and Abbas remain in power, which is why they are the biggest internal obstacles. But there are also two external ones.<\/p>\n

External obstacles: Iran, Saudi-Arabia and extremist senti\u00adments in the West<\/h2>\n

The first is obvious: Iran is the mutual enemy of both Israelis and Pales\u00adtinians who want peace, as well as of all the moderate forces in the Middle East. Iran has propped up Hamas and Hezbollah, whose ideologies and actions will lead to nothing but endless war. The best way to counter Iran is for Israel to build relation\u00adships with the Emiratis and the Saudis and a reformed Pales\u00adtinian Authority. But to do that, Abbas and Netanyahu need to go.<\/p>\n

The second external obstacle might seem surprising, but it\u2019s no less important to acknowledge: the extreme senti\u00adments in the West. I think that some of those who call themselves pro-Palestine and rally under the Pales\u00adtinian flag in the streets with slogans like \u201cfrom the river to the see Palestine will be free\u201d are doing us real harm\u2014and I would say the same about some of those western govern\u00adments who rally under the Israeli flag and call themselves pro-Israel and insisting to provide Israel with uncon\u00addi\u00adtional support to continue the war in Gaza. These waves of supports have merely hardened the positions of Hamas and Netanyahu. They apply the wrong kind of pressure: against compromise. Against seeing each other and finding ways to move closer. They alienate everyday Israelis and Pales\u00adtinians. As far as I\u2019m concerned, there is only one idea to rally behind; only one pro-Israel, pro-Palestine slogan: \u201cStop the war and free the hostages.\u201d Nothing else is helpful.<\/p>\n

I know how hard these obstacles will be to overcome; as a Pales\u00adtinian, I am accus\u00adtomed to endless heart\u00adbreak. It\u2019s far easier to remain self-righteous, to believe that with enough yelling or missiles, things will change for the better. But they won\u2019t, not until the two sides begin to look at each other honestly.<\/p>\n

The power of dialogue<\/h2>\n

I have talked with many Israelis over the years, after I was elected inter\u00adna\u00adtional secretary for Fatah youth, and then as the head of Israeli relations for the party. I have become close friends with many of them, and not just with people on the left and in the center, but with those on the right as well. I\u2019ve learned some lessons from all of this talking.<\/p>\n

Primarily, I decided not to hate them. For a simple reason: We have killed them and they have killed us. Hate has never achieved anything for the Pales\u00adtinians besides more misery. Additionally, I decided never to lecture Israelis on morality, on what to do and what not to do. I chose instead to focus on my side, on the example that I set.<\/p>\n

That is why I went to Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim attacked on October 7, for a condo\u00adlence visit early this year. Standing in front of cameras, I condemned the acts of Hamas. I didn\u2019t want history to document that no Pales\u00adtinian spoke up against this atrocity. In Kfar Aza \u2013 a mile away from the city of Beit Hanoun, over the border in Gaza \u2013 I could see smoke, and I could hear bombs, and I knew what was happening there, but I had come only to denounce what Hamas had done in the name of Pales\u00adtinians, in my name. One day, an Israeli will stand in front of us and denounce what has happened in Gaza. I don\u2019t have to lecture them. All I can do is offer my example.<\/p>\n

Pales\u00adtinians should make the first move<\/h2>\n

I know it\u2019s contro\u00adversial to say, but this is why I think Pales\u00adtinians need to make the first move. There is more urgency for us than for the Israelis. They are suffering because of the conflict, but not as much as we are. They can wait another 75 years until it becomes necessary for them to share the land. We cannot wait another 75 hours. They have an air force; we don\u2019t. They have tanks; we don\u2019t. We have spent decade after decade not achieving any progress with them. As a practical person, I\u2019ve concluded that we ought to try something else.<\/p>\n

Building mutual trust<\/h2>\n

Pales\u00adtinians need to put in place a strategy that prior\u00adi\u00adtizes the security of Israelis \u2013 not for the Israelis\u2019 sake, but for our own national interest. We need to make sure that the Pales\u00adtinian Authority properly crimi\u00adnalizes violence committed by Pales\u00adtinians \u2013 just as Israel must end settler violence in the West Bank and respect that the lives of Pales\u00adtinians are as sacred as the lives of Israelis. Both sides in this conflict need to gain control over their violent tendencies. And then our message to the Israelis will be: more for more. If we make you feel safer, if we build insti\u00adtu\u00adtions that clamp down on violence effec\u00adtively, that build a successful economy for Pales\u00adtinians, that create stability and trans\u00adparency, we expect from you more dignity, freedom, and trust.<\/p>\n

The two-state solution feels impos\u00adsible at this moment, so we need to build it step-by-step, offering more for more. Then we\u2019ll be ready for the tough decisions. This needs to start at the top, which is why I care so much about changing the leadership. People need to see how trust can form. If I were the prime minister of the future state of Palestine, I would want the Israeli prime minister to be my best friend. I would have him and his family over for dinner and let them get to know my wife and kids. Mutual trust between the top leaders will help facil\u00aditate trust among the people.<\/p>\n

Even today, after tens of thousands have been killed in Gaza in the past year, I still maintain that the majority of mainstream Pales\u00adtinians and mainstream Israelis want to find a way out of this.<\/p>\n

Envisioning the future<\/h2>\n

I recently decided to pursue a master\u2019s degree in conflict resolution at Hebrew University, in Jerusalem. Every Monday, when I show up for class, I get a vivid illus\u00adtration of what the future could be. When I was younger, Hebrew University seemed off-limits to Pales\u00adtinians; even just walking by the campus gates felt disloyal. But these days, the student population is nearly 20 percent Arab, and there are many young women wearing hijabs.<\/p>\n

When I look at these students, I see that many of them, Israeli and Pales\u00adtinian alike, wear nearly identical pendants depicting the same territory \u2013 between the Jordan River and the Mediter\u00adranean Sea \u2013 which each side claims in its entirety for their own people. (And I bet both pendants were made in the same factory in China.) But then they go to the same classes and listen to the same professors, and sometimes a professor will assign two Israeli students and two Pales\u00adtinian students to the same research group, and those students, each with their own necklace, will work together. At this moment, their differ\u00adences become irrel\u00adevant; they are just trying to get their studies done. And I promise you: They do not want to throw each other into the sea.<\/p>\n

They wear those pendants because they are confused, because their political leaders have poisoned their minds. These young people, who know how to work so well together, who know how to give and take, already know how to be neigh\u00adbours. They just need leadership that will reinforce the possi\u00adbility. This leadership doesn\u2019t exist now, and that is the real enemy for both Israelis and Palestinians.<\/p>\n

* The initiative, named after the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the former Foreign Minister of the Pales\u00adtinian Authority, Nasser al-Kidwa, proposes a joint plan to restore peace in the region, which also provides for the transfer of terri\u00adtories in the West Bank to Israel and vice versa.<\/p>\n

The article was first published in \u201cThe Atlantic\u201d.<\/a><\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Hat Ihnen unser Beitrag gefallen? Dann spenden Sie doch einfach und bequem \u00fcber unser Spendentool. Sie unter\u00adst\u00fctzen damit die publizis\u00adtische Arbeit von LibMod.<\/p>\n

Spenden mit Bankeinzug<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]