Israeli peace activists don't give up
The Israel-Palestinian peace camp has long promoted dialogue against hatred and bloodshed but the passions inflamed by the deadliest Gaza war yet pose entirely new challenges for the movement.
One recent evening, a small group of around 40 Israeli and Palestinian activists gathered by the walls of Jerusalem's Old City to observe 15 minutes' silence for "all the dead". Standing with their eyes closed or crying, or sitting cross-legged, they listened to Jewish and Christian prayers under the gaze of often sceptical passers-by.
The peace camp has always made some people bristle on both sides and become ever more marginalised. Yet it still counts more than 200 organisations, some more than 40 years old.
Among their ranks are environmentalists for peace, motorists who drive Palestinians to visit doctors in Israel, and joint Israeli-Palestinian choirs. They remain convinced that they have been right to advocate dialogue.
One group, the Circle of Parents, is made up of Israeli and Palestinian families bereaved by the conflict.
"I already see people who may come and join us after so much violence," said its co-director Yuval Rahamim, based in Tel Aviv. "It will be part of the personal process for some."
Most activists, initially stunned into silence by the October 7 attacks, resumed their discussion groups a few days later. It hasn't been easy, they say, and not just because of logistical hurdles such as additional roadblocks in the occupied West Bank.
"It has never been that difficult to hear the other's point of view," said Avner Wishnitzer, another co-founder of Fighters for Peace. In the current wartime climate, he said, all sides are torn by "the pain, the fear".
Dehumanisation is at a high point. It will intensify. People -- of course not all -- are ready to see the other side's babies killed. There is no place for nuance, complexity. There is a rise of extremism on both sides.
Reflecting on the peace groups, he said, "we are a minority, maybe a smaller minority now. The space for free speech has narrowed significantly."
The hurt from October 7 runs even deeper for some because peace activists were among the victims. One of them was Vivian Silver, a founder of Women Wage Peace, who died at Kibbutz Beeri.
There are many members who go to sleep consumed by frustration and wake up optimistic. It's not black and white, people are on edge.
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Some non-government groups fear they will lose funding as donors reassess their relationships or redirect their cash to Gaza aid relief. The Alliance for Middle East Peace receives distraught calls every day from its members.
A veteran activist Doubi Schwartz said the movement will need time to find its bearings to maintain the dialogue towards peace.
The conversation we share and the ways we operate will evolve significantly. But the fact that people still want to talk to each other is something that makes me optimistic.
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Но мы с пути кривого // Ни разу не свернем // и если надо снова // Пойдем кривым путем