At Jerusalem ‘peace summit,’ thousands demand end to Gaza war, two-state solution
Second conference of its kind since Oct. 7 draws broader ideological mix amid rising despair over hostages’ fate; ex-PM Olmert attends event, which Macron and Abbas address remotely
Israel’s beleaguered peace camp gathered for a two-day convention in Jerusalem from Thursday to Friday, uniting around the shared goals of a hostages-for-ceasefire deal and a negotiated end to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The gathering came to a head Friday morning as thousands of peaceniks packed an auditorium in the city’s International Convention Center to hear speeches from politicians, bereaved families and left-wing activists.
“Each one of us here can act to end the war, towards a comprehensive deal and the creation of a new leadership for both peoples,” said Maoz Inon, whose parents were murdered by Hamas in their Netiv Ha’asara home on October 7, 2023.
“We are here with you not despite the pain, but because of it. Instead of revenge on behalf of my parents who are no longer here, I am choosing a different future for my children,” Inon continued. He spoke alongside Aziz Abu Sarah, whose brother was killed in an Israeli prison during the First Intifada.
Organized by a broad coalition of left-wing and shared society groups, the “People’s Peace Summit” was the second conference of its kind held since the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught.
This year’s event attracted a broader swath of participants than its forerunner in Tel Aviv last summer. Amid rising despair over the hostages’ fate as Israel enters its 19th month of war, some center-leaning opposition figures took to the stage alongside seasoned members of the Israeli left.
Organizers this year sought to take their message further than simply calling for a hostage release and ceasefire deal. After the main event, attendees split up to attend panels and workshops on narrower issues pertaining to the conflict.
Tami Yakira told The Times of Israel that these panels aimed to “spark the political imagination” of participants by providing proposals for “concrete solutions,” which she felt were lacking last summer.
‘Signal of hope in a time marked by pain’
Politicians of international renown also partook in the conference, with French President Emmanuel Macron expressing his support for the gathering in a pre-recorded address, as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Macron lauded the conference as a “signal of hope in a time marked by pain.”
He went on to call the two-state solution the “only possibility for peace and security for all,” noting that France, in June, will co-chair a conference to this end alongside Saudi Arabia.
A two-state arrangement, he added, must be based on three prerequisites — the release of hostages, disarmament of Hamas and reform of the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas, who spoke not long after Macron, also called for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a prospective Palestinian state.
The aging PA leader’s former negotiating partner, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, sat in the auditorium’s front row, and later addressed a smaller panel at the heels of the main speaker lineup.
Olmert touted a new plan that he and former PA foreign affairs minister Nasser al-Kidwa had drawn up for a two-state solution.
The ex-premier called for an interim security force to ensure that Hamas does not return to power, and a new administration linked to the Palestinian Authority that can rebuild Gaza without any involvement of the terror group.
“We must pull out from Gaza,” Olmert said during the panel. “Gaza is Palestinian and not Israeli. It needs to be part of a Palestinian state.”
‘Peace the best guarantor of security’
The wider ideological spread of this year’s conference meant that some speakers met opposition from the crowd, as did National Unity MK Alon Schuster.
“I believe that the first job of the State of Israel is to protect the security of its citizens in any place, at any time,” said Schuster. “At the same time, we must strengthen the political, economic and moral basis for our existence in the Middle East by signing peace agreements… Peace is the best guarantor of security.”
When mentioning his party chairman Benny Gantz, Schuster was met by a wave of boos from the crowd.
“I am diverging from the written remarks to beg you, pursuers of peace, do not omit [anyone] from the peace and democracy camp, even those who don’t agree with everything you say,” the politician urged.
As he walked off stage, some called on him to invoke a two-state solution, which he neglected to explicitly mention in his speech.
While this year’s confab featured a few new faces, many of the keynote speakers remained the same, such as Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi, who ascended to the stage as a pair. Taking turns talking, the two denounced not just the ongoing war but the government’s “de facto annexation” in the West Bank.
“Under the auspices of this war, the annexation machine in the West Bank is grinding on at a dizzying and violent pace,” said Kariv.
Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh, who was also at last year’s event, gave an impassioned speech to loud applause from the audience. He began with an anecdote about a mother and her three children who are chased down by a pack of hungry wolves.
“Out of despair and her survival instinct, the mother throws her eldest son — maybe the wolves will be satisfied with him — but their hunger only intensifies. She throws her second son, then the third, and in the end when she alone remains, the wolves devour her,” Odeh recounted. “This is exactly how fascism works. It pursues the opposition, and the opposition, frightened, rushes to sacrifice us all.”
Odeh likened the panicked mother to the anti-Netanyahu opposition, which he claimed gave up on peace with the Palestinians, and soon after, on partnership with Arab Israeli leadership.
“I want to put before you a crucial proposition — the historic role of Arab citizens. Without us, it is possible to build a dictatorship, but without us, it is impossible to build a democracy,” he said.
“Even during this excruciating and bloody war, Jews and Arabs — you all — continued to have faith in each other and believed that only together we can win,” he continued, invoking the well-known wartime slogan.
The Times of Israel Community.