For 47 years, I have specialized in organizing and running direct secret back-channel meetings between Israelis and Palestinians. From 1988 until the end of 2011, I co-directed IPCRI – Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, which I founded in March 1988 during the fourth month of the First Intifada.
During those 24 years, we specialized in providing a safe space for mainstream Israelis and Palestinians to meet and work out ways to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We ran more than 2,000 joint Israeli-Palestinian working groups on every issue in the conflict, including the Palestinian state and its sovereignty, border delineation and border management, security, economic cooperation, tourism, health, water, the environment, the future of Jerusalem, refugees, and more. We brought together senior government people, academics, and professionals in every area of life that involves the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.
There was a need for those meetings and for safe spaces where people on both sides could speak openly without fear that their names would appear in the newspapers the following day. The meetings were very productive. When formal negotiations began, many of the negotiators had already known each other for years and, in some cases, were even friends.
When the peace process began to fail, there was a lot of criticism on the Palestinian side against Palestinians who continued to meet with Israelis. It was called the anti-normalization campaign. The claim was that meeting with Israelis gave legitimacy to the occupation while the Palestinians were still struggling for their freedom. The campaign claimed that while Israel received legitimacy, the Palestinians were being denied the same.
Official Israeli reports to international institutions, such as the United Nations, included sections about ongoing Israeli-Palestinian meetings as evidence that the State of Israel was fostering peace and coexistence – when, in fact, much of the time it was not. In some cases, it also became difficult for Israelis to participate in those meetings from fear of their employers, sometimes government officials, or criticism by friends and colleagues.
Initially, the anti-normalization campaign came with threats against Palestinians who were planning to participate in meetings with Israelis. I remember vividly a meeting planned when the Palestinian participants received in their homes or offices an envelope with a bullet in it. Most of the invited Palestinians participated anyway, but their fear was clear, and the threats of violence were having their impact. When the anti-normalization campaign moved from threats to actual violence, it became increasingly difficult to organize those meetings.
The Palestinian Authority and its president spoke in favor of such meetings in public gatherings in Ramallah with Israeli activists, but in reality, many Palestinian activists reported getting late-night visits from Palestinian preventative security officers. Some were called for interrogations as well.
For many years, Palestinians who tried to register non-governmental peace-oriented organizations in the Palestinian Authority were unsuccessful. Some of the existing and registered Palestinian NGOs that were engaged in joint activities with Israelis were threatened, had their bank accounts frozen, or shut down their operations by themselves.
Most recently, the Palestinian Authority security threatened the management of a Christian venue in Area C, where we were planning to convene an Israeli-Palestinian meeting. That venue canceled the event the day before the meeting. We found an alternative venue nearby, and the meeting of 100 Israelis and Palestinians took place as planned.
There was a time when we needed to take groups of Israelis and Palestinians abroad in order to meet. Holding Israeli-Palestinian meetings in-country became increasingly difficult because of the problem of getting permits for Palestinians to enter Israel and the fact that it is illegal for Israelis, according to Israeli law, to enter Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A.
In 2003, during the height of the Second Intifada, we convened 23 long weekend meetings in Antalya, Turkey – one hour away in great hotels with prices for the whole trip that competed with prices in Israel. Every other weekend that year, I was in Turkey with groups of Israelis and Palestinians.
After the Second Intifada, we even convened Israeli-Palestinian meetings in Jericho. We needed to get permits from the Israeli army to allow Israelis to enter Jericho, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
After October 7, Israelis' and Palestinians' interest and willingness to meet decreased significantly. Nonetheless, there are many who still recognize the fact that between the river and the sea, there are about seven million Israeli Jews and seven million Palestinian Arabs. They also realize that this conflict will never be resolved by not talking, and many believe there are potential partners for peace on the other side, so we have to engage.
Needless to say, the Palestinian anti-normalization campaign and the BDS campaigns still exist. Furthermore, finding venues in-country that don’t require getting permits for Israelis or Palestinians is very difficult, but there are some places.
I continue to receive invitations to participate in Israeli-Palestinian meetings that are held abroad and are conducted under "Chatham House Rules” (which allow participants in a meeting to use the information received but not to reveal the identity or affiliation of the speakers). Chatham House Rules is a code word for a closed-door, secret meeting.
Why secret Israeli-Palestinian meetings don't work
I will not participate in Israeli-Palestinian meetings that are held in secret anymore. Their time has passed. I will participate in secret meetings with participants from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. There is still a need for those types of meetings. But for Israelis and Palestinians – we have to come out of the shadows and own up to our common belief that we must create partnerships for peace and work together to end this conflict.
It is my firm belief that a majority of Israelis and a majority of Palestinians want to live in peace, and if they believed the other side genuinely wanted to live in peace, both sides would make the concessions necessary to reach a peace agreement.
The problem is that both sides are convinced that the majority of people on the other side do not want to live in peace. That view is strengthened by the reality of life for both Israelis and Palestinians for at least the past 25 years.
Neither side has leaders who unequivocally speak in support of the two-state solution and genuine peace. Those who speak in soft language about possible peace usually do so by referring to the separation paradigm, and while there must be political separation, peace will not exist with walls and fences that put people in cages. Peace is built by creating cross-boundary cooperation, not by forced separation.
It is difficult to grasp the possibility of Israeli-Palestinian peace. As opposed to the past, future negotiations will most likely be more regional and not just bilateral. Israeli-Palestinian peace will be supported with regional security agreements and regional economic development – providing much more solid guarantees for both Israel and Palestine.
The road to that peace must be paved by Israelis and Palestinians who are courageous enough to stand up together, embracing hands and jointly calling for the building of partnerships of peace between Israel and Palestine. We have no more time for hiding behind closed doors – we cannot afford ourselves the luxury and comfort of being in the shadows. It is time for Israeli and Palestinian supporters of peace to come forward and demonstrate their hopes and visions in broad daylight.
The writer is the Middle East Director of International Communities Organisation and the co-head of the Alliance for Two States.