Israel & Palestine
Our commitment to transforming conflicts for Palestinians and Israelis alike has deep roots: we have maintained an office in Jerusalem since 2000 and our multipartial team of Palestinians and Israelis has worked with countless local, regional, and international partners over the years to prevent violence and transform conflicts both within and between Palestinian and Israeli societies through tailored programs that address the root causes of the conflict, build new narratives, forge new partnerships for peace, and give agency to both people to choose peace as a tool for change.
Our teams are not only local but crafted from across societal divides and represent the communities we serve. In a context where conflict often forces people to take sides, we operationalize a vision of peace through cooperation. The fact that our frontline team represents the communities with whom we work enables us to advocate uncompromisingly and with integrity for the human dignity of all.
A path to peace in the Middle East
Since October 7, 2023 the world has had its eyes on Israel and Palestine. The mass violence committed on that day and for many months since then mark the latest eruption of a long-standing conflict, putting on full display intertwined histories of violence and repression. Security in the entire region has been unsettled, and governments and citizens have struggled to respond. Amid such horrors, the temptation towards an “us vs. them” posture surges. Anger and grief strengthen the pull towards simple and extreme narratives.
Drawing on thirty years of regional experience, we firmly believe that sustainable, long-lasting peace can only be built on mutual trust, dialogue, and long-term commitment. This conflict has deepened historical wounds, and true peace will only emerge when trauma is addressed and trust is restored. Lasting peace requires inclusive engagement, community-driven reconciliation, and the recognition that peace cannot be rushed. Even after the violence stops, it will take a generation of robust peacebuilding efforts to heal and achieve a stable, just future where all communities can live in dignity and enjoy full rights.
Hard work will be required within Israeli and Palestinian societies. Traumatized people need to feel heard and acknowledged long before they can hear and acknowledge others. Handled with care, these intra-communal processes can help communities heal and identify who among them has the constituency and credibility to participate in any broader peacebuilding effort.
For future peacebuilding to succeed where past efforts failed, people must see that political progress is keeping pace with any community-based, people-to-people efforts; key stakeholders must have a genuine voice in shaping the process, and the influence of powerful actors—from media and foreign governments to religious leaders—must be actively directed toward fostering reconciliation, not hindering it.
With the world’s eyes newly turned to this region, we are witnessing and facilitating the emergence of new and diverse actors and coalitions intent on ensuring that this is the last – and not merely the latest – war to devastate these communities. They give us hope that a solid path forward to a better future for all is possible. With this hope, we are investing in new approaches to leadership by engaging women and youth as key actors in shaping the future of the region.
Three Pillar Strategy to Peace
Political Processes
Key Constituencies
Media
Three political processes must advance concurrently to ensure the viability of an eventual peace process.
Intra-Israel: Peacebuilding must enable the processing of trauma and help identify leadership that can have credibility in light of both the effects of the war and significant unresolved domestic fissures.
Intra-Palestine: Palestinian peacebuilding must enable the processing of trauma and help to identify leadership that can have credibility and constituency across Palestinian society.
International: Regional governments, global powers, and multilateral institutions can all contribute to or detract from any effort to build a just and sustainable peace.
Peacebuilding must engage those whose inclusion can strengthen momentum toward peace, and whose continued exclusion would greatly hinder it.
Women: Abundant research and experience is clear: peace processes involving women yield stronger, longer-lasting peace than those dominated by men.
Youth: Nearly half of Israelis and nearly three-quarters of Palestinians are under the age of 30. No process will succeed if their needs, hopes and contributions are excluded.
Religious leaders: Religion can be a weapon of war or a force for peace. Drawing upon shared history & reverence for the sacred, religious leaders can bring unique credibility and influence in support of peace.
Over the past 40 years, Search for Common Ground has used media to support reconciliation and collaboration across dividing lines. Through radio, television, theatre, comics, and social media, Search media programs reach 86 million people per year. We support local producers to develop content that sparks community-level conversations, builds understanding across dividing lines, and amplifies marginalized perspectives, complementing small-group dialogue with social consensus-building and opening two-way communication channels between communities and leaders engaged in formal negotiations.
A Peaceful and Prosperous Future
From over four decades of experience in peacebuilding, we know there is no quick fix to complex conflict. We also know what’s possible when we invest in peace – which is what makes your support essential. Our teams are committed to the work it takes to build peace in Israel and Palestine, but we need the resources to fund it.
A peaceful and prosperous future for these two nations is linked to the well-being and security of the entire region – of the world – which requires partners in peace to join together and invest in the world we are determined to bring about and that our children deserve to inherit.
