Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green on Standing Together

What It Covers

Brené Brown interviews Rula Daoud and Alon-Lee Green, co-directors of Standing Together, a grassroots Jewish-Palestinian movement in Israel mobilizing citizens for peace, equality, and ending the occupation through building political will rather than choosing sides.

Key Questions Answered

• •Building Political Will Over Solutions: Standing Together focuses on creating societal demand for peace rather than prescribing specific state configurations. Their organizing work targets both Jewish and Palestinian citizens to build power for ending occupation, recognizing that pressure must come from within Israeli society, not just external governments or international movements.
• •Two-People Reality Framework: Any viable path forward must acknowledge that seven million Israelis and seven million Palestinians both call this land home and neither population will leave. Solutions demanding one group's displacement are fantasies that prevent practical progress. Peace requires compromise where both peoples achieve independence, equality, and freedom simultaneously.
• •Asymmetrical Information Bubbles: Palestinians in Nazareth wake to Instagram feeds showing Gaza destruction while Jews in Tel Aviv see only hostage families and rocket attacks. Standing Together bridges these separate realities by organizing joint Jewish-Palestinian demonstrations, creating shared narratives about how both populations benefit from ending endless war cycles occurring every eighteen months.
• •Fear as Political Weapon: Israeli politicians weaponize fear and despair to make occupation seem inevitable, like weather forecasts beyond human control. Historical precedent shows rapid shifts are possible: Egypt transformed from Israel's most feared enemy to peace partner within five years after the nineteen seventy-three war, demonstrating how organized movements create conditions for breakthrough agreements.
• •US Blank Check Problem: Biden administration provides unconditional support to Netanyahu's right-wing government rather than supporting Israeli people's interests in peace. This approach strengthens the same government that hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated against for ten months before October seventh, missing opportunities to leverage US influence for ceasefire and political solutions.