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A humanitarian truce in Gaza may give momentum to debates about Israel and Palestine’s shared future among British-Jewish organisations advocating a two-state solution.
Hannah Weisfeld, director of Yachad, feared that talking about peace sounded “naive” in the aftermath of the October 7 attack, but in the past month her organisation has kick-started efforts to empower moderate Israeli voices and have them heard in British-Jewish circles.
“A lot of extremism is being heard, we think people need to hear voices that are moderate but also talking about the future, and looking at the day after the war, and voices for change,” said Danielle Bett, Yachad’s communications director.
Marginalised by war, these voices may begin to gain more traction as hostages begin to be released. A four-day pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip began at 7am local time on Friday that allows the release of dozens of Israeli hostages and Palestinians detained in Israel.
Ms Weisfeld said the truce must be “leveraged long-term, sustainable ceasefire, and an end to the ongoing war” in a statement on Friday.
By combining the emotional attachment that many British Jews have for Israel with the call for a resolution to the decades-long conflict, organisations like Yachad have been able to influence mainstream thinking on Israel and Palestine.
Yachad has pressed the UK government to do more to hold Israel accountable for its actions, and to push towards a two-state solution. The UK has reiterated its commitment to the peace process, and voted in favour of a UN motion which deemed Israeli settlements illegal.
But this response has so far been “not good enough”, Ms Bett added. “They haven’t said they recognise the Palestinian state,” she said. “[The UK] hasn’t done anything to pressure Israel, which is the stronger and more stable state, in implementing its two-state solution.”
Without this, the UK’s policy on Israel risked being reduced to “visits, discussions and statements”. “In the short term we want the international community to work towards managing the war, and stopping it from erupting into a regional conflict. We have to start thinking about what happens when the fighting ends,” said Ms Bett.
“The international community puts out statements and holds prayers, but this isn’t enough. Forms of peace process are being neglected and the international community has a role to play.”
Their words echo those of Israeli historian Noah Yuval Harari, who in the week after the attack urged the international community to “help maintain a space for peace … because we cannot hold it right now”.
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