Last week, over 35 diplomats from G7, Arab, European, and Asian countries met for an ALLMEP briefing, graciously hosted by the United Nations Special Coordinator’s Office (UNSCO) in Jerusalem, to hear Palestinian and Israeli civil society experts outline key recommendations ahead of UNGA and the French-Saudi Two-State Solution Conference in New York on September 22.

Building on the Paris Peace Call, co-organized under President Macron’s patronage, ALLMEP updated diplomats on the concrete recommendations co-produced by hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian civil society actors over the summer. It highlighted steps diplomats can take to help end the war and emphasized how diplomacy, combined with civil society, can, in tandem, deliver sustainable peace and equality. The full recommendations are available here, and an article on how they were developed—and integrated into the New York Declaration following the last French-Saudi Foreign Ministers’ meeting—is here. 

Speakers at the UNSCO briefing included ALLMEP members Mohammad Asideh, Palestine Director of Project Rozana; Netta Loevy, Co-Director of the Center for Women, Peace and Security at Itach-Ma’aki; Eran Nissan, CEO of Mehazkim; as well as ALLMEP’s Regional Director, Nivine Sandouka, and Director of Strategic Relations, Brian Reeves.

Deputy Special Coordinator of UNSCO, Ramiz Alakbarov—who is about to travel to New York for UNGA—delivered opening remarks on the importance of civil society peacebuilding within a broader Israeli-Palestinian strategy.  

ALLMEP emphasized that ending the war remains the overriding priority, for everyone. Beyond that, civil society can play a vital role on the other side of the war in building societal support for peace, complementing the international community’s efforts to help broker a genuine diplomatic process for a conflict-ending agreement. 

Following years of advocacy, we are seeing a historic shift in which civil society’s crucial role is being recognized, and we are seeing their expertise and advice embedded into official frameworks and top-level policy processes. Civil society organisations are laying the groundwork for societal support of urgent peace agreements—through public campaigns, education, and advocacy that prepare communities for political solutions that are broadly accepted and implementable. They develop practical policy ideas, socialize them within their respective communities, and generate innovative solutions to some of the conflict’s most intractable problems—creating, spreading and “de-risking” ideas that politicians are reluctant to pioneer themselves.  

Speakers focused on the connection between peacebuilding and humanitarian work, centering the role of women in the diplomatic process, building support within societies for a renewed peace process, and the policy recommendation for governments to institutionalize their support for civil society peacebuilding by creating an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. 

Some of the core recommendations raised in the briefing were:

• The imperative of realizing a comprehensive political and security framework for the Middle East, that fulfills the promise of the Arab Peace Initiative by integrating the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the achievement of Palestinian statehood, the end of illegal occupation, and the recognition and integration of Israel into a new regional political and security framework underwritten by the United States, Europe, and key Arab States which rejects and prevents all forms of terrorism and political violence. And the need for international oversight bodies to oversee implementation of humanitarian access, legal accountability, and reconstruction efforts.
• To support the Two State Solution at home, in affirming that both Israelis and Palestinians have an inalienable right to a future defined by mutual recognition, self-determination, and statehood for both peoples. This starts with the recognition of Palestinian statehood and denouncing all forms of terrorism, and must also promote accountability by countering destructive policies, illegal settlement expansion and de-facto a nonviolent resolution.
• The need to invest in a new narrative and in rising generations – which means promoting a new political momentum in both societies, and ensuring the inclusion of youth, women, and civil society at the heart of all of these efforts, who are so-often silenced and excluded – in particular Palestinian woman activists.
• The need to create a large-scale, internationally-backed International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace dedicated to empowering and scaling the work of civil society, and helping to shape constituencies in both societies ready to embrace conflict resolution.

ALLMEP also highlighted the very real threats facing civil society – as peacebuilders and their work are being attacked, delegitimized, and politicized, whilst facing political intimidation through taxation and financial pressure aimed at silencing their work.

The briefing concluded with a call on diplomats to take these insights back to their colleagues, in the region and in their capitals; to invest in long-term peace to ensure the cycle of violence and the growing need for aid ceases to exist; and ensure that Palestinian and Israeli civil society are meaningfully included in the decisions shaping their futures.