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What do Jewish and Palestinian Israelis have in common? Hope.

At a time when Israel is living through the most significant crisis in its history, fighting a war in Gaza and a near-war in Lebanon, it is perhaps surprising that an organization promoting unity between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis is flourishing.

But Standing Together is attracting record numbers of new members in Israel with its simple and direct calls for peace, and its belief that Israeli-Palestinian partnership, starting within Israel, is not just aspirational, but essential.

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A group uniting Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel is enjoying unexpected success with its message of a shared home. The alternative, says one founder of Standing Together, is “ongoing slaughter.”

The organization’s view of Israel as a shared home, where Jewish and Palestinian citizens share common interests, is central to its work. Before the war broke out in Gaza, Standing Together concerned itself with social and economic justice issues. Since Oct. 7, it has pivoted its mission to fighting for what can feel like a radical notion these days: peace itself.

That fight takes different forms. Some members have been elected to municipal councils. Others accompany aid convoys into Gaza, protecting them from far-right activists trying to block the assistance.

What they have in common is hope, says Dani Filc, a founder of Standing Together. “We struggle because we did not lose hope,” he says. “Hope is mandatory, because the alternative is ongoing slaughter.”

Dusk has fallen over a major Tel Aviv intersection, now shut off to traffic and packed with protesters calling on the Israeli government to strike a deal that would free the country’s hostages from Hamas captivity.

A young woman, her dark hair fastened with a purple kerchief, rallies her comrades, struggling to make herself heard above the din of megaphone-led chants, drumming, and horns.

“Okay, now!” she shouts. “Hoist it now.”

Why We Wrote This

A story focused on

A group uniting Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel is enjoying unexpected success with its message of a shared home. The alternative, says one founder of Standing Together, is “ongoing slaughter.”

Together, arms over their heads, they unfurl a 100-foot-long banner that reads, “So that they may all come home: Withdraw from Gaza.”

That demand is unusual among the sea of placards, chants, and signs on display at the demonstration; it acknowledges Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip at the hands of the Israeli military, as well as the hostages’ ordeal.

And it comes from an unusual source – a grassroots movement called Standing Together, created jointly by Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, whose members are recognizable by their purple shirts and signs.

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