After a year of war, 'managing the conflict' is not enough— We need a peace agreement now

7 October 2024, 13:55 | Updated: 7 October 2024, 14:17

A year has passed since October 7th 2023, when Hamas brutally attacked civilian towns and villages inside Israel, next to the Gaza Strip, and our government responded with an even more brutal war, which continues to plunge our land deeper in pain and misery.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip exceeds 40,000 - among them more than 15,000 children - and as the lack of food and basic medical supplies continues to grow, a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds.

Inside Israel, hundreds of thousands of civilians continue to be evacuated from their towns near the southern and northern border, due to constant rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas. In Lebanon, the Israeli Army now engages in an all-out warfare, both bombing the capital city of Beirut as well as sending ground troops to capture the Southern part of the country.

As the war prolonged, there has been growing discontent towards Netanyahu’s government. A solid majority of 72% think Netanyahu should resign, and a recent public opinion poll by i24news that shows there is now a 52% majority that supports a hostage release deal that includes ending the war and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza.

But simply demanding a hostage deal to end the war, while urgent and necessary, is not sufficient. The dominant paradigm in Israeli politics for more than twenty years - one shared both by the center-right as well as the center-left - is one of “managing the conflict”.

Not only Netanyahu but also most of those set on replacing him, seem to believe that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a burning necessity, and that the decades long military rule over millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, who are devoid of citizenship and denied basic rights, is something that can maintained indefinitely into the future.

This bankruptcy of this idea became evident following October 7th. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be “managed”. This is merely a recipe for more October 7ths, for more wars, aggression and escalations, that will cause the loss of many innocent lives. Rather, what is needed is to recognize the basic truth: there are millions of Palestinians in this land. None of them is going anywhere. And there are millions of Jews in this land. None of them are going anywhere.

The only hope for safety and security lies in an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that will end the Occupation, allow the Palestinian people its right to national self-determination in an independent state alongside Israel, and respect the rights of both peoples to live in freedom, justice and independence.

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Uri Weltmann is National Field Organizer of Standing Together - Israel’s biggest grassroots political movement of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel, that campaigns for peace, equality and social justice.

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