Dialogue for peace requires a meaningful reckoning
JVL Introduction
We must stop the “war” – and then what? First the bombing and starvation of Gaza must stop and this requires meaningful sanctions on Israel. After that dialogue may be possible. In this Opinion piece, Palestinian British film-maker Leila Sansour argues that the decades of dialogue have not brought peace and for dialogue to be meaningful, there needs to be a moral reckoning and that what is needed is not so much understanding as leverage.
“In a context where one people controls another, conversations that leave the machinery of domination untouched are not just naïve. They are politically suicidal because while dialogue drifts on, the facts on the ground harden. Kicking the problem down the road, we make it ever harder to solve.”
Sansour does not argue that a coming together is impossible but that it will take honesty and it will take pressure and an end to the requirement that Palestinians must always be considering Israeli – and wider Jewish – sensitivities while enduring domination.
LL
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Tue 22 Jul 2025. Read the original here.
Israeli-Palestinian Bridge-building Won't Stop Gaza From Burning. But Pressure on Israel Might
Economic measures, sanctions, diplomatic isolation and legal action are the tools that will compel the Israeli government – and those who support it – to face consequences. Then, we can finally sit down at an honest negotiating table
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The wider world also needs to see justice done to all those who committed war crimes, facilitated genocide, breached international law and undermined the UN. Future global security depends on that happening. The moral fabric of the whole world has been harmed by Israel’s dreadful deeds in Gaza and by our own governments’ implicit and explicit support for such wickedness.
Decades ago I saw an interview with Noam Chomsky where he perfectly describes Israel’s behaviour – they sign a treaty and then break it (to expand), renegotiate and sign a new treaty, and then break it (to expand), renegotiate and sign a new treaty …. and then break it
They agreed a ceasefire with Hamas and then broke it, to expand … and presently they are in the business of once again, negotiating …. which means absolutely nothing
Trump and the USA follow exactly the same playbook – whatever they agree or promise, it means nothing whatsoever
Likewise, Starmer and Lammy’s language. Not vacuous or empty, but deployed to allow Israel to continue …. and continue