Peace activists in Israel and Palestine keep hope for peace alive despite conflict

Hopes for any form of long-lasting peace between Israel and Palestine were already fading when Hamas launched its murderous rampage on 7 October 2023, triggering a military response from Israel that has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Gaza alone.

The militant group first took control of the Gaza Strip in 2006 and since then has entrenched itself in an increasingly extreme ideology.

Israeli governments, meanwhile, have tended to the right and then the extreme right. The population of Israeli settlements in the West Bank — considered illegal under international law — has increased by 200% since 2000, often with the explicit approval of the authorities.

In the aftermath of everything that has happened since the 7 October attack, a poll found that almost three-quarters of Israelis think peace between Israel and Palestine can never be achieved. Among Palestinians in the West Bank, the number is closer to 80%.

Now, US President Donald Trump is suggesting that the embattled territory might be “turned over to the United States by Israel” and its 2 million residents “relocated”. Israel, meanwhile, is echoing Trump’s threat that “all hell will break out” if all 73 remaining hostages aren’t released by 15 February, further making the prospects of a lasting peace seem more distant than ever. 

Yet as the world waits with bated breath to see what will happen next in Gaza, many activists in Israel and Palestine are still pushing for peace — often in the face of intense criticism and deep personal loss.

Although Maoz Inon’s childhood was spent in kibbutzim just kilometres from the Gaza border, he says it took leaving Israel to bring him to the peace movement.

“By the age of 30, I’d travelled around the world twice, but I realised that I