Israel-Palestine conflict: Reconciliation is not neutrality
March 2025
As the continuation of the ceasefire in Gaza looks increasingly fragile, Daniel Munayer reflects here on the power imbalances of the Israel-Palestine conflict and what it takes to work for a just and sustainable peace.
Based in Jerusalem, Daniel serves as the Executive Director of Embrace's partner Musalaha, an organisation dedicated to teaching, facilitating, and training reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
The first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, under which dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were freed, reached its expiration date on Saturday 1 March. Hamas insists that negotiations include the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of Gaza they still occupy and a permanent end to the war, as envisaged in the second phase of the deal. Yet, Israel refuses to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, the stretch that borders southern Gaza and Egypt. There are thought to be 24 Israeli hostages still alive in Gaza and thousands of Palestinians to be released from Israeli prisons. At the beginning of Ramdan (2 March), Israel announced it would halt humanitarian aid to Gaza until a further agreement was reached.
As we hold our breath in prayers and hope that phase two will continue, we are also witnessing the "Gazafication" of certain areas in the northern West Bank, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. The Israeli army has been bulldozing buildings and basic infrastructure and have forcibly displaced over 90% of the populations in the refugee camps, uprooting around 50,000 Palestinian brothers and sisters. Simultaneously, we are seeing further embodiment of Israeli-Jewish settler attacks, which have become a weekly norm in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
In the face of these troubling developments, we at Musalaha continue to ask ourselves: How do we ethically continue to bring people together under these circumstances? How do we restore broken relationships between Palestinians and Israeli-Jews considering these political developments? How does reconciliation function in a context of oppression when one side objectively oppresses the other?
We often encounter people who mistakenly believe that reconciliation requires neutrality. Insisting that when bringing people together, we must remain neutral. They argue that speaking up about injustice compromises our credibility as reconcilers. Nowhere in the teachings of Jesus do we see a call to be neutral in the face of suffering and oppression, nor do we see it in the lives of other non-violent peacebuilders. While neutrality may have its merit in certain situations; when it comes to injustice, it becomes complicity.
It is troubling that some are more concerned with whether we remain neutral than with the human and environmental suffering that compels us to speak out. The ability to restore relationships becomes futile if we do not address the political realities that prevent reconciliation in the first place. How do you restore a relationship with someone who is pinning you down with their boot to your neck? A reconciliation that truly seeks the just restoration of relationships cannot be neutral toward injustice. In some contexts, reconciliation demands speaking against oppressive powers and rejecting the notion that some humans have more rights than others.
In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail", many of his most famous quotes come from this text. He criticized the position of White churches, who would criticize the ways of the civil rights movement while preaching agreement to its principles. "Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection", he wrote. It is disheartening to hear these 62-year-old words resound as if they were written today. We still face those who say they would support us if only we struggled in a correct manner.
As Dr. King explained, peace is not only about the absence of tension, but about the presence of justice. Reconciliation is an active pursuit of justice, truth, and healing, a powerful and costly endeavour. It is not about standing on the sidelines, waiting for conflict to resolve itself, nor is it about maintaining a false balance in the face of deep injustice. It is not about asking for both sides to compromise as if both sides were equally powerful.
True reconciliation demands that we acknowledge pain, confront systemic wrongs, and seek the restoration of relationships in a way that honours the image of God in every person. We will continue to insist that reconciliation means listening to those in pain, amplifying their voices, and walking together toward a just peace.
Let us reject the false notion that neutrality is a precondition to reconciliation. Instead, let us embrace the hard, transformative work of standing for justice, giving voice to the unheard, and being peacemakers who do not shy away from the weight of truth.
This blog was first published in Musalaha’s newsletter.
UPCOMING LECTURES - HEAR MORE FROM DANIEL
Is there hope for the Holy Land? Is peace possible in Israel and Palestine? Daniel Munayer will be exploring these questions at upcoming lectures in London and Coventry.