In the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the non-governmental organization Fighters for peace (CfP) Fighters for Peace represents a voice of hope. The organization was born in 2005 in Jerusalem, its founders are Israelis and Palestinians who, to pursue a model of dialogue, use coexistence between the two peoples as a weapon of non-violence.
Members of Fighters for Peace (CfP) are young Israeli soldiers who have left the army and former Palestinian prisoners, both united to stop the spiral of violence. The organization promotes initiatives aimed at dialogue, knowledge and the humanization of others.
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The mission of Fighters for Peace
The NGO believes that the only tools are to end Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and create a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside the already existing State of Israel. The organization wants to influence social change first, then political change.
The activities of Fighters for Peace in civil society
Since the first months of 2005, the CfP has organized meetings between the Israeli and Palestinian civilian populations to talk about the violence inflicted and suffered, to reflect together on the non-violence as a weapon for conflict resolution. The actions carried out by the CfP aim for reconciliation and dialogue between the two communities inserted in two completely closed and ideological worlds.
Concretely, they organize actions to remove checkpoints, help rebuild demolished houses, and finally organize conferences and seminars in Israel and in the Palestinian West Bank territories to raise awareness and inform public opinion.
Some awards given to the Fighters for Peace.
The Fighters for Peace (CfP) have won numerous awards for their common, non-violent activism: in 2009, they won the Euro-Mediterranean prize for dialogue between cultures; in 2010, the Price J. Goldberg for peace in the Middle East; in 2017, the Cinema for peace with the documentary film “Disturb the peace”.
Long-term goals
For 18 years, the organization has sought to develop a non-violent culture to create a alternative and real model which, at the end of the war, becomes the seed around which to build a new peaceful reality with respect for human rights.
Lately, with the far-right government in Israel and the spread of Hamas's fundamentalist influence in Gaza and the West Bank territories, the tools for dialogue and coexistence are no longer enough.
It is for this reason that the NGO decided to use another pressure tool: the march for peace which takes place every month on the highway linking Jerusalem to the Palestinian settlements. The march aims to question the principle of separation.
The same objective is the basis of the joint replanting activity of uprooted olive trees. For Palestinians, these trees represent an important source of income and livelihood, while having a strong symbolic value of belonging to their land.
After October 7, reestablishing dialogue is a priority
In the aftermath of the new conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to co-founder Avner Wishnitzer, professor of Middle East history, veteran of one of the elite units of the Israeli army, interviewed by the Radio 24 program No Place is Far Away: “AND' become even more important restablish a dialogue and build a bridge between the two parallel realities which, after the latest events, are moving further and further apart.”
According to the professor, through social media and traditional media, Hamas and the Netanyahu government have created two closed worlds with only one extreme view of the other's people.
Breaking this pattern is the task of civil society within the two communities, but also of regional and international entities which really wish to resolve this terrible conflict which has lasted for too long.
