Peace between Palestinians and Israelis cannot be like peace between Israel and Egypt or Jordan; it must be also on the grassroots level.

There is no military solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Although there are reasons enough for everybody involved in the conflict to be hateful of the other side, both peoples cannot commit genocide to the other.

Rather, both should make the efforts to get used to the other through realization of the fact that we are neighbors, whether we like it or not. We can and should develop our understanding of the others. We can and certainly should learn and teach the language of the other at schools on both sides much more than we do. We can and should develop sensitivities to the others through taking part in carefully facilitated meeting here and abroad, and through learning from peace educators.

We believe that the fact that 40% of the population in Northern Ireland has met with people from the other side of their conflict was crucial for the achievement of a lasting agreement there. Research shows that only 5% of the Israelis and Palestinians have ever met with somebody from the other side on equal grounds (e.g. not with or as soldiers, settlers, or prison guards).

These meetings are most important for the younger generation who has seen nothing but brutal violence coming from the other side in its short life. The younger people cannot know otherwise unless they are taken out of their life routine to meet the other in special, safe conditions, under guidance of peace educators. It is not their fault. They suffer from the mistakes of the previous generations. It is absurd that there is not even one building devoted to meetings between Palestinians and Israelis. We are working to create a peace center where such safe meetings could be conducted.

Based on the transformation that we went through, personally, the transformations we have seen and see occurring with friends and others around us, we have strong reason to believe that the circles of people who meet "the others" should and could spread to more people in the mainstream on both sides, reaching even to the most suspicious, mistrusting, fearful, and hateful of people.  Our project of arranging meetings between casualties of the conflict from both sides (Wounded Xrossing Borders) is a source of inspiration to us, as the participants are made of people from the right wing, from ex-prisoners and their ex-wardens, from victims of bombers and people who know relatives of the bombers.

Our experience, as people who passed such processes personally, as leaders of such meetings, as well as the conclusions from the many studies conducted in this field (“contact” theory), indicate that creating meetings in the proper conditions (which are, at the beginning, expensive conditions) do break stereotypes and prejudices, do lower the fear and distrust factors, and do open up new spaces in the minds of people to imagine possible futures and compromises that seemed totally unrealistic beforehand.

Although the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the most studied conflict today, the funds directed towards building the ground for its resolution, on the grassroots level, are surprisingly, disappointingly low. We currently conduct a study to establish this estimate more accurately.

We believe that hundred times more activities, projects, meetings, and budgets are needed in order to win the competition with the anti-peace activists who are well funded by international players, often enjoying the strong advantage of religious manipulations and the support of some strong religious institutions and organizations, and often enjoying the brutal force of explosive devices that are relatively easy and cheap to get and use.

Can we, the moderates, change anything even if we had all the money people ask for to create all the people-to-people projects that they dream of? From our own experience, from colleagues’ experience, and from available studies, we have good reasons to believe that peace-promoting projects work to some extent, but should not be expected to make a big impact on our societies until they are multiplied a hundred times, reach a hundred times more people, and funded by a hundred times more funds. Think of how many decades it takes to get results, on the society level, from investments in sports, or investments in the arts, or investments in science education. Now, think of how much money is spent on such projects, and how much is (and is not) spent on peace education...

Bringing true peace after a century of bloody conflict is expensive. It cannot be otherwise. It should become the number one priority of anybody who wants to see peace here. And we believe that it is possible! The funds for peace projects should grow from a few million dollars a year, to hundreds of dollars a year, not less than the funds for wars, settlements, sports, arts, religious studies, extreme parties, and then, and only then, we can expect to clearly feel the impact of such peace-promoting activities.

As Thomas Friedman put it: “To build a durable peace, it takes a willingness by moderates to work together to help one another beat back the extremists in each camp.”^* We, loyal Palestinians and Israelis who understand that we should find ways to live together on our beloved land, believe that the moderates in our societies, with the encouragements of others, should work together and help one another a hundred times more than we do today. In our humble way, the People's Peace Fund is working exactly toward this goal.

We believe that our records and our colleagues testify that we are worthy of your trust to allocate the funds in a wise, sensitive, just, and flexible way that cannot be formulated. We see our work as an art more than a science. For good and bad, we take decisions based greatly on our guts feeling. So far, we managed to do a great deal together with this unorthodox approach. We like to think “out of the box” all the time, with our heads open to the world and to new ideas, and our feet tightly connected to the ground we grew up in, to the ground we love, and to the people, our people, our peoples, that we love, cherish, worry for, and care so much about.

Will the bloodshed over this conflict ever stop flowing? Will this conflict ever be resolved to any extent? “It will never stop”, they said. “It will always bleed”, they said. They said it regarding South Africa and regarding Northern Ireland and regarding Cyprus. They were wrong! Much depends on us, the people on the ground, and the people who fund the people on the ground. We should do much more.

* International Herald Tribune, November 28, 2007