On July 1st, 2024, over 8,000 activists from the different organizations of the Israeli peace movement came together in a Tel Aviv stadium for a mass rally calling for an end to the war, the return of the hostages and a resolution of the conflict. Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, Israel’s leading public intellectual, was the keynote speaker at the rally. This was his presentation:

Once, there was no Jewish people and no Palestinian people. A hundred million years ago, there were dinosaurs here. A hundred thousand years ago, there were Neanderthals here. Ten thousand years ago, people like us, Homo sapiens, had already arrived here, but none of the nations that we know today existed yet. There were no French or Germans, and there were no Jews or Palestinians. Time creates nations. One can argue about when exactly the Jewish and Palestinian peoples came into existence, but what really matters is that now they both exist here.

Unfortunately, too many of us refuse to recognize the very simple fact that there is both a Jewish people and a Palestinian people here, and that both have a deep historical and spiritual connection to this land, and that both have the right to exist here.

The bitter truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that each side fears the other is simply trying to erase them, and both sides are right. Our fear that the Palestinians want to eliminate us is completely justified, and the Palestinians’ fear that we want to eliminate them is also completely justified. This is not paranoia; it’s a sober assessment of reality. In its charter, Hamas states that the entire land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, from Ras al-Naqura in the north to Umm Rashrash in the south, belongs solely to the Palestinian people, and it does not recognize any Jewish connection or right to this land. On the other hand, the current Israeli government declared in its foundational principles that the Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all the territories of the Land of Israel. Each side believes that the entire space belongs only to them. “What do Jews have to do with Jerusalem?” many Palestinians ask in all seriousness. “There is no such thing as Palestinians,” many Israelis assert in all seriousness. “They have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear.” How can such a level of denial be explained?

Well, reality is usually complex and vast, but our souls are sometimes short and small, and it is difficult to compress much reality into a small soul. So, what do small souls do? They try to erase what they cannot contain. “I can't handle this,” says the soul, “so it must disappear.” The attempt to erase entire parts of reality, entire peoples, is the fuel for the cycle of blood and terror, and from year to year, the situation only deteriorates. As small souls try to eliminate what they cannot contain, they become increasingly closed off, increasingly shriveled, until all that remains of them is just me, me and me, “a world narrow as the world of an ant” (a line from the early Israeli poet Rachel – ed.)

But the truth is that the world is large, and even the densely packed land between the sea and the Jordan River is big enough for two peoples.

There is no shortage here, the land says. There is enough space between the sea and the Jordan to build homes, roads, factories, schools, and hospitals for everyone.

We suffer not from a lack of space but from a lack of soul. But each and every one of us can expand the soul. The soul of each one of us can be vast, because one soul can contain a whole world.

Each side needs to recognize the existence of the other and give up the fantasy that they don’t exist or that one day we will ensure they no longer exist. Peace will come to our region only when both the Palestinians and we can say with hand on heart that even if, one day, we have the power to do so, we will not want to erase the other side.

It doesn’t matter how right we are or what they have done to us; they are still part of reality, and they have the right to live in security and dignity in the land and in their faith. Because they are human beings like us.

Humans argue a lot about ideas. But we all share the same basic emotions and needs. All humans in Gaza and Tel Aviv, in Hebron and Acre, thirst for water, for peace, for truth, and for love. Who among us does not need water, does not want peace of mind, does not want to know the truth about life, or does not want to love and feel loved? They also want to feel loved.

The problem is that it is not always easy to quench this thirst. Many of us seek peace of mind through struggle. We try to reach the truth by spreading lies. And worst of all, we think we can buy the love of God or the love of people with the currency of hatred and violence. It’s like people trying to quench their thirst for water in a lake of fire.

But it is never too late to change. War is not a law of nature. It is a choice made by humans. And at any moment, we can choose differently.

At any moment, we can start making peace. It’s true that we’ve tried to make peace before, and we weren’t good at it. So what? We’re not that successful at making war either, but that doesn’t stop us from trying one war after another.

All the wars have led us to the abyss. It is time to try peace again.

And remember, war is the attempt of small souls to erase the complexity of reality. Peace is large. It can contain multitudes.