Standing Together: Where there is struggle, there is hope
The event is fully booked!
In English
Almost two months have passed since 7 October. Two months since Hamas attacked Israeli towns and a music festival, abusing, murdering and kidnapping men, women and children as hostages. Two months in which the civilian population in Gaza has been suffering under the Israeli military operation which has already cost the lives of thousands of women and children. And two months in which the divisions in the debate about the Middle East conflict seem deeper than ever before.
The current discourse leaves little room for pain and grief – neither for Israelis nor for Palestinians. All too often, the debate is so narrow that it forces us to choose “one side”. But this blocks the view of those affected as human beings, of the fact that pain and suffering are not mutually exclusive. That simultaneity is possible and important. And that looking at the past must be followed by a shared view of the future. “She is Palestinian and I am Jewish. But the only home we both have is the same home”, said Alon-Lee Green, activist of the Jewish-Palestinian grassroots movement “Standing Together” from Israel (Hebrew: Omdim Beyachad, Arabic: Nakef Ma’an), recently in the New York Times.
Standing Together has been campaigning for peace and social justice in Israel since 2016. Since 7 October, their work and their message have become more important than ever: security cannot be guaranteed through war and violence, but through peace and equal rights for all.
In the Grüner Salon this evening, we want to talk to the two co-directors of “Standing Together”, Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, about war, pain and hope. What chance does peace still have after such a war? What does the path to peace look like? And what does international desolidarisation mean for people in Israel who want to fundamentally change the current situation?
Moderator: Dinah Riese, editor of taz
The event was made possible by the Coalition for Pluralistic Public Discourse (CPPD).
Alon-Lee Green is the National co-director and a founder of Standing Together. He got his start organizing Israel’s first trade union of waiters in a chain of coffee shops and went on to found Israel’s first National Waiters Union. Alon-Lee emerged as a prominent leader of Israel’s social protest movement in the summer of 2011, and subsequently served as a political adviser in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Rula Daood is the National co-director of Standing Together and is a practicing speech pathologist. She was born and raised in the Galilee village of Kafr Yasif and began her activism in her home city and later became involved in promoting Jewish-Arab partnership in mixed (Jewish-Arab) cities. Before joining Standing Together, Rula worked as a community organizer, organizing events and protests that drew hundreds of activists.
Standing Together is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jews and Palestinians from all over Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, social and climate justice. While the minority who benefit from the current status quo of occupation and inequality seek to keep us divided, we know that we — the majority — have far more in common than that which sets us apart. When we stand together, we are strong enough to fundamentally alter the existing socio-political reality. The future that we want to see — with peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for all citizens, and true social, economic and environmental justice — is possible. Because where there is struggle, there is hope.
