ALLIANCE FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE INC

Youth Attitudes in Israel and Palestine -

Now 26 years after the Oslo Accords, hope for a just and sustainable peace seems remote. After a generation of well-intentioned but unsuccessful diplomacy, public support for peace is at historically low levels. Reports indicate that 47% of Israeli Jews and 71% of Palestinians perceive the conflict as zero-sum: what is good for one side must be bad for the other. Support for a Two-State Solution has been similarly declining over the past decade, dropping below 50% as of December 2017.

At the grassroots level, surveys report that only 25% of Israeli Jews trust Palestinians while only 11% of Palestinians trust Israeli Jews. Israeli Jews believe that Palestinians are determined to do them personal harm while Palestinians see Israeli Jews through the singular lens of the military, which is often the only channel for their exposure to each other. Subsequently, there is a dramatic lack of basic recognition for rights of the Other, reflecting increased dehumanization across all spheres.

We who care about peace between Israelis and Palestinians are urgently searching for new approaches to disrupt the current dynamic. We know from successfully resolved conflicts that people-to-people peacebuilding and a strong civil society are pre-conditions for social and political transformation. They are indispensable prerequisites for peace.

Research overwhelming supports what we in the peacebuilding community have always known: that in deep contrast to mainstream society, graduates of peacebuilding programs have fundamentally different outlooks and attitudes toward the Other. After surveying the work of 164 NGOs, a report by Ned Lazarus, “A Future for Israeli and Palestinian Peacebuilding,” noted a “profound long-term impact for significant numbers of adult graduates 10 to 15 years after their initial encounter experiences.” USAID’s own evaluation of people-to-people peacebuilding programs in Israel & the West Bank confirmed that three to five years after participation, program alumni: stay connected with each other; have enduring positive feelings about the Other side; and maintain an increased belief that peace is possible.

In 2018, ALLMEP conducted a year-long assessment of alumni engagement in our member organizations, encompassing NGOs working in both the shared society & cross-border realms. The conclusions were decisive, finding that Israelis and Palestinians who pass through our members’ programs emerge with opinions & perspectives greatly aligned with the pursuit of peace and are less likely to fall prey to the racism, dehumanization, and calls for violence that are on the rise in both societies.

Despite the empirical knowledge of peace NGOs and research-driven conclusions by authoritative institutions, the obvious centrality of alumni engagement is not matched by resource allocation in the field.

These results led ALLMEP to take determinative action with the creation of the Alumni Leadership Forum.

ALLMEP’s theory of change is rooted in people-to-people partnerships and focused on the work of our 110+ member organizations. ALLMEP strives to radically raise the capacity and visibility of the field, fostering cooperation, and creating a culture for ourselves and our members of best-in-class programming. Our ultimate goal is to create transformative social and political change through scaled collective impact as these NGOs work together to improve and strengthen Arab-Jewish and Israeli-Palestinian relations through people-to-people peacebuilding.

To advance these goals, ALLMEP has three interlocking strategic objectives.

1. People-to-People Peacebuilding:

ALLMEP’s growing network is comprised of over 100 Israeli and Palestinian member organizations doing grassroots, people-to-people peacebuilding in both the cross-border and shared society sectors. We work with our members to incentivize partnerships and cooperation, improve effectiveness, and make our community more than simply the sum of its parts.

2. Alumni Leadership:

Rooted in our theory of change is an understanding that Israelis and Palestinians who have passed through our members’ programs form a privileged constituency in the region who together can form the foundations of lasting peace. Following a year-long, full-scale needs assessment ALLMEP conducted of Israeli and Palestinian NGOs’ alumni programming, we have recently launched the pilot year of our Alumni Leadership Forum. Bringing together 21 alumni coordinators from our member organizations and others in the region, our aim is to ensure sector-wide improvement in the sphere of alumni engagement, ensuring that alumni are leveraging their experiences toward social and political transformation.

3. International Advocacy:

ALLMEP leverages a proven track record in advocating for government funding for people-to-people work, which has to date infused over $130 million in global governmental support to bolster regional peacebuilding projects. The flagship campaign in that effort is an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, modeled on the International Fund for Ireland. As part of this project, in June of 2019, ALLMEP’s advocacy resulted in the introduction of the Partnership Fund for Peace Act, promising to annually inject $50 million of funding for people-to-people partnerships in the region. The Fund was introduced into Congress with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, and endorsed by an unprecedented coalition of supporting organizations, including both J Street and AIPAC. The UK government has publicly announced support for this effort, with significant progress made across Europe toward the same goal: an international fund with unprecedented resources dedicated to long-term peacebuilding in the region.