From ALLMEP Founder, Avi Meyerstein –

Finally, we were on the plane. After 2 years of arrangements, four attempted flights, and countless moments of anticipation and then disappointment, we were finally taking off for a year in Israel. There we were — two adults, three teens, 10 oversized checked bags, all the carry-on we could carry on, lots of hope, and a little disbelief.

Looking down the row at my kids, I remembered my first landing in Israel as a kid. On that plane ride in 1988, I read the book Exodus cover to cover. On landing, the passengers erupted in applause. The overhead projector beamed idyllic images on the wall of fields of yellow flowers, soaring coastlines, and golden ancient walls, accompanied by a soundtrack of kitschy Israeli folk music. It was thick (if simplistic), and I was all in.

Many of my trips since have had a particular reason, something that pulled me back. When Yitzhak Rabin — and the peace process itself — were assassinated early in my freshman year of college, I spent months feeling that I just had to get back to Israel. So I signed up as a student volunteer to get a free plane ticket and then spent three weeks navigating the country and its many complexities on my own for the first time. A year later, I spent a year in Jerusalem, studying, living, working, and traveling. Both times, I met people and saw things that expanded my mind with far deeper, broader, and more textured perspectives.

In 2004, I couldn’t stay away after helplessly watching the violence of the Second Intifada from afar. My heart ached for both Jews and Palestinians who were trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of violence. I saw two peoples, reluctant cousins, who were tied together (whether they liked it or not) through their love of the same land. What I could see in both, though many did not recognize it in each other, was that most of them had the same dreams, too — to raise their families in their homeland in peace, security, dignity, and freedom. 

Tired of watching the same tragedy play on repeat, that year I had begun working with dozens of Israeli and Palestinian civil society leaders to build ALLMEP. These peacebuilders were doing the toughest work imaginable. In an environment of separation, fear, and hate, they were bringing people together to chart a different course. That summer, my wife, Dana, and I had to come see their inspiring efforts and dedication firsthand. 

Ever since, my visits to the region have often involved a few days or a couple weeks of marathon meetings — with NGOs, embassies, and Israeli and Palestinian leaders — to help elevate the thankless and often invisible grassroots work, bring a supportive voice from America, and further our push to create an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace.

So what about this time? Why did we push so hard uphill, pack up our house, and uproot our kids in the midst of a global pandemic to come now?

Because, although it may not look like it, now is a moment of enormous opportunity for peacebuilding. Not a short-term window for fruitless peace talks, but something much better: a long-term chance to invest deeply and strategically in creating a thriving, peaceful Israeli-Palestinian future.

Why now? Among many somewhat surprising factors that are opening a bigger space for grassroots partnerships, there’s growing hopelessness (that final status diplomacy is possible any time soon), realism (that politicians will never make peace until their publics see each other as partners and support it), and momentum (with an entire field of innovative initiatives ready to expand and over $250 million in U.S. and other investments in cooperation on the way).

What’s always inspired me most about the peacebuilders is their sense of agency. They prove that you don’t have to accept things the way they are; there’s something each of us can do. We need not silently allow the next generation to inherit the same awful status quo; we can disrupt it. What’s more, inaction is a vote for more of the same.

And that’s a major reason that we brought our family here now. I’ll have the privilege of contributing a small part here on the ground, working side-by-side with our many partners as we build out the infrastructure of peace and cooperation. With major new investments on the way, ALLMEP continues to roll out innovative tools and programs to help scale and amplify so many initiatives on the ground. And as we continue our work to institutionalize this effort, we’ll be working with the International Fund for Ireland to bring some of the lessons from one formerly “intractable” conflict to one still seeking resolution.

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We didn’t come on our own, though. As much as they need funding, visibility, and resources, the peacebuilders need the strength of numbers and a sense of broad support. So, I’m bringing with me the caring, support, and energy of ALLMEP’s entire community of supporters and partners. While Israelis and Palestinians themselves are doing the hardest work every day in the field, we’re working hard to convert a great deal of love and energy from abroad into some extra wind at the backs of those everyday heroes on the ground. As we each contribute what we can, all together, we can help them make an immense difference.