Fighting is getting Palestinians and Israelis nowhere – an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.
Neither side, understandably, is willing to compromise on core needs: Israelis for safety and security, Palestinians for freedom and self-determination.
However, there’s only one way to move forward. We need to stop fighting and start healing. Stop erasing and start recognizing. Stop demonizing and start embracing. Acknowledge the pain but also move past it.
A better story is waiting for us. We just need the courage to begin it.
Only two states
We can achieve peace only when we convince 51% of Israelis to vote for a political settlement based on the two-state solution. Nothing else can help us to exit this conflict.
The road to the two-state solution does not go via Washington, London, Paris, Cairo, or any other world capital. It goes via Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Jerusalem, and every Palestinian and Israeli city.
It can be realized only when the majority of Israelis and Palestinians decide to salvage it. And there is a way to do it – by positive engagement, trust building, and defeating the hard feelings.
Israel wants to know why it is losing the media war all over the world. Recently, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich celebrated approval of the E1 West Bank settlement plan as finally “erasing the two-state delusion” – killing the possibility of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.
Israel is not losing the media war; you simply cannot sell bad toothpaste. No public relations firm, no talking points, no army of spokespeople can convince the world to defend an unjust vision.
When extremists like Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – and enablers like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – call for permanent occupation, annexation of the West Bank, or resettling Gaza, they impose an indefensible image on the entire nation.
This is not the vision of the majority of Israelis. These extreme voices represent less than 10% of the population. But their pronouncements dominate headlines – shaping perceptions of Israel as a nation throughout the world, and even more significantly , jeopardizing alliances in the region.
As long as far-right extremists dominate the discourse and dictate policy, Israel will continue to lose hearts, minds, and global legitimacy.
Open roads
The other day, I took a drive across the region – from Jerusalem via the Jordan Valley to Beit She’an, then crossing the border into Jordan. It is a journey that only foreigners and a handful of Jerusalemite Palestinians like me can make. Most Palestinians cannot cross into Israel, and most Israelis would never set foot in Palestinian cities. Our worlds remain divided, our horizons closed.
As I drove, I imagined every Israeli and Palestinian being able to make such a journey. I imagined a region woven together by trade, friendship, and shared wonder: Lebanon’s mountains, Syria’s souks, Saudi Arabia’s deserts, Palestinian cities alive with visitors, and Israel no longer “a villa surrounded by a jungle” but part of a beautiful neighborhood.
Over the course of a day, you could eat breakfast in Gaza, lunch in Beersheba, and dinner in Aqaba, Jordan. Some day, that could be the daily reality for everyone – Palestinians and Israelis alike – with open roads stretching across the region.
Despite the doubts, the divisions, and the heartbreak, we are close. The forces of history are pushing us forward. And we are one Israeli and one Palestinian election away from giving our children and grandchildren the freedom to connect, to belong.
Shattering stereotypes
Israelis on the Left and the Right are divided on many issues, but at least one thing unites them: the belief that Palestinians hate them and will continue to hate them, and that therefore they cannot be trusted.
It’s not just Netanyahu. The majority, even on the Left, are deeply skeptical, which is a tragedy. We Palestinians have the power to shatter this stereotype. To show Israelis that trust is possible, that coexistence isn’t a dream, that we don’t harbor any ill will. And once we do that, we will see those sentiments reciprocated.
We need a reset. And honestly, we don’t think it’s as difficult as people make out. Once Israelis and Palestinians gain each other’s trust, they can move ahead with a political resolution that will end this conflict once and for all. We are well aware that we have a history. But it needn’t determine our future.
We witnessed the announcements from France, the UK, Australia, Belgium, and Canada at the recent United Nations General Assembly, recognizing a Palestinian state. Unfortunately, recognition without reconciliation is just theater.
The Palestinian leadership enjoys celebrating symbolic statehood declarations by countries thousands of miles away. But none of them control the Palestinians’ future. The only state that can make Palestinian sovereignty real – the only state we all should be trying to win over – is Israel.
Real peace
Real peace requires strategy. That means talking to Israelis – not the G7 or the UN. It means less energy spent on hollow gestures and more invested in building trust, leverage, and alliances with the only state that can actually make two states a reality.
Until we convince Israelis that a Palestinian state is in their interest – for their security and future – nothing will change. Diplomatic missions across the world won’t bring the Middle East any peace; but conversations in Israeli neighborhoods just might.
Israelis need to realize that a Palestinian state is not a reward for Hamas, no matter how desperately the group tries to spin it. It’s the opposite: A Palestinian state would be a punishment for Hamas, a declaration of their defeat. It would push them to the sidelines. And as everyone from the Palestinian Authority to the Arab League and Western states has made clear, it would be contingent on Hamas’s disarmament and permanent removal from power.
Despite everything that has happened between us over these past two years, we Palestinians and Israelis must open our hearts and minds and allow our wounds the chance to heal. We must not remain trapped in the past, because the one clear truth today, after the war has ended, is that nothing has changed. We Palestinians have not left this land, and neither have the Israelis.
We are still here, seven million Palestinians and seven million Israelis, living together on the same land.
We must all begin to imagine peace between us, a peace built on security and self-determination; a peace founded on two states along the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as a shared capital; a peace grounded in mutual recognition of each people’s right to exist on this land; a peace built on forgiveness, cooperation, and partnership.■
Samer Sinijlawi is a Fatah political leader from Jerusalem, calling for Palestinian reforms, democracy dialogue, and coexistence with Israel.