Is it wrong for Jews and Palestinians in Israel to collect food for hungry Gazans?

Israeli activists from Standing Together with food aid for Gaza

Sally Abed writes in Haaretz on 17 September 2024:

“The largest mobilization of Palestinian citizens of Israel since October 7.” That is how Standing Together’s campaign to collect food donations for the starving in Gaza, launched a month ago, has been described.

This aid drive isn’t the first of its kind, but it’s on a scale unlike any other Israel-based humanitarian initiative to help Gaza since the start of the war. From the north and the south, we collected 400 trucks-worth of aid donated by tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

So eager were people to donate, that in some towns people set up their own impromptu collection areas, from which they drove trucks loaded with food to our campaign’s ‘official’ collection sites. While I am writing these words, hundreds of people are volunteering every day in warehouses in cities throughout the country, preparing many tons of aid to be transported to the civilian population in Gaza.

On TikTok, Instagram and in the media, there were millions of interactions and significant coverage of the aid drive, mostly from inside Israel, but also from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. But there were also negative and skeptical voices casting doubt on the authenticity and motivations of those involved.

The concerns are based on one fundamental assumption: That Israeli Jews aren’t truly interested in advancing equality between Jews and Palestinians inside Israel, nor do they genuinely want to advance freedom and justice for Palestinians toward a sustainable Israeli-Palestinian peace. Thus, they contend, any initiative (like that of Standing Together) based on a partnership with Israeli Jews, including initiatives aimed at the welfare of Palestinians, even a food drive for hungry Gazans, is illegitimate.

Those who hold this position believe that Jewish Israelis have no interest in changing the status quo, in which they are currently hegemonic, “benefiting” from what they characterize as a Jewish supremacist regime, and that therefore they are “beyond redemption.” Any partnership effectively normalizes Jewish supremacy.

Indeed, on average, there is no debate that, compared to Palestinian citizens of Israel, a Jewish Israeli enjoys more security, better healthcare and education, better infrastructure and more justice from Israel’s judicial system. Likewise, Palestinians suffer disproportionately from second-class citizenship, military occupation, siege and apartheid.

But the assumption that Jewish Israelis don’t also pay a price at all is not only misinformed and disconnected, but is also catastrophic from a strategic point of view, as it effectively seals the political impossibility of ever reaching a solution to the ongoing plight of the Palestinian people.

And here is a confession: Standing Together is unapologetically, proudly, primarily, and intentionally a political movement. We aim to build power for change, to construct a new paradigm based on joint struggle, and create the political will within Israeli society to demand a cease-fire, a hostage deal, to end the occupation, and work towards peace, equality, justice, and freedom for all.

You can disagree with our ideology, but arguing with our methodology is much harder – because it is working. The friction we are creating along the way, including the pushback on our Gaza aid initiative, validates our movement and our growth. There is no movement without friction.

What the critics of our activism don’t, or can’t, explain is what is motivating Palestinian citizens of Israel to get involved with Standing Together.  Since October 7 and the start of the Gaza war, the Palestinian public within Israel has been in a state of paralysis, suffocated by despair, oppression, silencing, and lacking a trusted political leadership.

We were one of the very few movements able to react to October 7 immediately on a national level as well as locally, and we offered a challenge to paralysis: We offered a vision for change. We provided a political and social refuge to many Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, right from the evening of October 7. We managed, mobilized and organized tens of thousands of people and established hot-line for Palestinians for legal and social aid, solidarity watches in 14 towns and cities, dozens of conferences, campus and community gatherings, rallies, protests, and a constant online presence in Hebrew and Arabic, the biggest among the Israeli Left.

And yes, a large portion of that growth was within Israel’s Palestinian society. We not only reached out to the Palestinian public but we are led by, developed, and feature strong, uncompromised, emerging Palestinian and Jewish leadership. That differentiates us from the many past models of failed, limited, and conditional Arab-Jewish partnerships and initiatives.

It is also why we reject criticism targeting true partnership between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Real change must be built from the grassroots and cannot be based on external forces alone. Bringing about the radical change required to end the occupation must come from the collective self-interest of not only the Palestinians, but also of Israeli Jews.

If Palestinians operate under the assumption that all Jewish-Palestinian partnerships inside Israel are invalid, if not seditious, only an external savior can offer a solution for which Palestinians must wait, while trying to “survive” as a collective. The main act of defiance and resistance becomes narrative preservation, oral history, and cultural performance.

I am not dismissing their importance: the resilience of Palestinian citizens’ collective narrative, despite the continuous and vicious attacks to erase, is a major source of my strength and pride. These voices have very deep, resonant sentiments, that I find myself “liking,” sending around, sharing. They can even provide an accurate commentary on our unfathomable reality and tragedy. It is, however, insufficient. It lacks a well-rounded theory of change, and therefore a serious intention to change reality.

In short, it lacks a real call for action.

We are committed to building a different, better social and political alternative, and not from the safety of the keyboard of a social media ‘activist’ or from the alienated isolation of academia, because we insist on operating from within the society we want to change, and not as an observer or analyst.

This groundedness is what allows us to build a new kind of leadership: On the one hand, Jewish Israelis – who are not required to step out of or denounce their own society to join the Palestinian cause, but instead demand partnership, not out of altruism but out of solidarity and self-interest. On the other hand, Palestinians, who do not have to compromise their demand for equality, justice, and freedom while also claiming responsibility and a place in the leadership of the Israeli public as a whole.

Disagree with our ideology, criticize us, point out how we can improve, how we are inaccurate, insensitive, or plain wrong. Be skeptical about our chances to lead a change within an Israeli society that is moving towards extremely dangerous, undemocratic place. But don’t deny that Standing Together is one of the most successful political projects in Israel in recent years, tackling unfathomable challenges, leading popular mobilizations on the ground during this critical, historic period – and yes, building on real achievements against all odds.

Sally Abed is a member of the City Council of Haifa and a member of the national leadership of Standing Together.

This article is reproduced in its entirety