Since the Gaza bombardment began, three joint Jewish-Arab gatherings for coexistence and mutual solidarity have been held in Haifa, hosted by the Israeli city’s Ahmadiyya Mahmud Mosque. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community convened the first meeting on Oct. 30, bringing together representatives from various faiths, including Jewish rabbis, Christian pastors, Muslim and Druze imams, and even a Buddhist monk. The meetings have drawn up to 600 attendees. The Ahmadiyya amir of the Holy Lands, Muhammad Sharif Odeh, urged Jewish guests not to justify collective retaliation: “It is haram [unlawful] to kill civilians and innocent people—this is not the right way, there are other solutions, without weapons. Muslims and Jews have lived together for more than 1,300 years, and Jews were given their rights under the Muslim rule… Muslims and Jews should know that not speaking up in the face of oppression destroys the human feelings in our hearts, and stops us from feeling empathy towards the pain and suffering of each other.” (Al Hakam)
Photo: Al Hakam. Banner reads: “We are allies, not adversaries”
Jewish-Arab solidarity meetings continue in Israel
The latest Jewish-Arab solidarity meeting was eld Nov. 6 in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, an Arab city in northern Israel bordering the West Bank that is home to around 30,000 people. “We are here with a simple message: We are determined to work together, Jews and Arabs, even—especially—at this time!,” Alon-Lee Green, founding national director of Standing Together, an Arab-Jewish advocacy and activist group, declared from the stage to applause. (TNH)
Vivian Silver, 74, a Canadian-Israeli activist and known for her humanitarian work, is among the hostages being held by Hamas. Her group is the Alliance for Middle East Peace, which is likewise engaged in trust-buiding and coexistence promotion. (CityNews)
Peace activist Vivian Silver confirmed killed in Hamas attack
Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born Israeli activist who devoted her life to seeking peace with the Palestinians, was confirmed killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel. For 38 days, Silver, who had moved to Israel in the 1970s and made her home in Kibbutz Be’eri, was believed to be among the nearly 240 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Her last statements were messages to her group, Women Wage Peace, saying tat the kibbutz was under attack. But identification of some of the most badly burned remains has gone slowly, and her family was notified of her death on Nov. 13. (NYT, AP)
Palestinian and Israeli activists on coming together
Two peace activists—Sally Abed, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and her colleague Alon-Lee Green, a Jewish Israeli—have just returned to the Middle East after a week-long tour of the US. The pair are leaders of a grassroots group called Standing Together, advancing a coexistence rooted in reality that “Jewish Israeli safety depends on Palestinian freedom.” (PRI, MSNBC)
Hands of Peace co-existence effort to shut down
Hands of Peace, a US-based nonprofit that has organized dialogue programs for Israeli, Palestinian and American youth for the past 21 summers, announced Dec. 5 that it will close down in the coming months due to a lack of “funding, volunteerism and leadership.” One alumnus of the organization, Naama Levy, was kidnapped and taken into Gaza during the Oct. 7 Hamas raid, and remains a hostage. Before announcing the closure, the last statement shared on the organization’s website called for Levy’s release. (ToI)
Peace activist Judy Haggai Weinstein confirmed killed in Hamas attack
A 70-year-old woman with US citizenship who was thought to have been taken to Gaza as a hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 was actually killed during the initial attack, according to a statement released by the kibbutz she was taken from.
Judy Weinstein Haggai, who was an Israeli, American and Canadian national, came under fire in the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz along with her husband, Gadi Haggai, 72, a dual US-Israeli national. Both were believed to have been taken hostage, but last week Israeli officials said they had confirmed Gadi Haggai’s death.
According to a spokesperson for Kibbutz Nir Oz, where the couple lived, Judy Weinstein Haggai was also “fatally wounded” by Hamas gunmen in the Oct. 7 attack.
Both bodies are still believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza, the spokesperson said.
The statement said Weinstein Haggai was a mother of four and grandmother of seven who taught English to children with special needs, and described her as a poet and entrepreneur who “pursued many initiatives to advance peace in the region.” (CBS)