Arab-Jewish Partnership Faces Scrutiny Amid Gaza Genocide Claims
The concept of "Jewish-Arab partnership" in Israel is presented as increasingly radical in a rightward-shifting society where Palestinian political rights are questioned. The "Standing Together" movement, founded in June 2026 by prominent leaders, aims to build this partnership and is now entering the electoral arena as the "Place for Everyone" party. The article argues that such partnerships are shaped by existing power dynamics and questions their effectiveness, particularly when the shared institution's capacity grows at the expense of independent Palestinian institutions.
A key example cited is the "Popular Campaign Against Starvation in Gaza," launched by Standing Together in August 2024. This campaign, which saw significant Palestinian participation in Israel, aimed to deliver aid to Gaza. However, the article highlights a contradiction: while this campaign expanded, Palestinian relief organizations within Israel faced severe restrictions, including frozen bank accounts and arrests of their members. The author questions why the suppression of these Palestinian institutions did not become a central political issue for Standing Together.
The "Place for Everyone" party, aiming for a "truly equal" Jewish-Arab partnership, is critiqued for not adequately addressing the historical context of Jewish-Arab political work and for focusing its efforts on the Palestinian community rather than confronting the broader Israeli society's resistance to political equality for Palestinians. The article posits that the primary obstacle lies in the limited willingness within Israeli society to accept political equality, suggesting that efforts should be directed towards challenging this resistance rather than solely expanding the Palestinian base for partnership.
The piece emphasizes that in the context of "genocide" in Gaza, the focus must shift from reconciliation to accountability. It argues that true reconciliation cannot bypass the process of confronting the societal and political structures that enabled the violence. The author suggests that the role of Jewish partners in Israel and abroad should be to challenge these structures within their own communities, rather than simply seeking to convince Palestinians of the possibility of a shared future. The article concludes that a genuine partnership requires confronting the colonial project and working towards an horizon that imagines a future without Zionism, based on Palestinian sovereignty and self-determination, rather than a mere rearrangement of relations within existing Jewish sovereignty.
