A week with Standing Together
Carrie Supple, a member of the London branch of UK Friends of Standing Together, reports on a recent visit to Israel.
“Peace is not something we wait for, we make it. Out of despair, we’re building a new solidarity.”
Each time I see members of Standing Together (ST) talk about their work, at rallies, collecting aid for Gaza, training, I want to be with them. So, after 17 months of feeling that way, I went to meet and march with them in what was a momentous week, with yet more bloody hell in Gaza and the West Bank, increasing authoritarianism from the Netanyahu government, and growing opposition.
I try to avoid hyperbole, but the ST activists I met are truly astounding. They have stayed with me, in my head and heart, making the reductive binary polarisation here in the UK even more insufferable. To quote Angela Mattar, a Palestinian member of ST’s national leadership:
“We are resistance! Standing Together is nothing like normalisation. We live in the fire! We’re building partnerships for change from within in hard circumstances. Those who accuse us of ‘normalisation’ are on the outside. We are the internal resistance!”
I visited ST’s “Purple Houses” in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, all busy, planning actions, campaigns and events. The offices serve as the organisations’ local HQs, resource store, and as venues for arts and other public events. 130 people were booked for a screening of No Other Land in Jerusalem, and the Haifa chapter held a packed evening focused on local crime and the government’s lack of response.
In Tel Aviv, I met Amoon Shany Gillon (local organiser); Rula Daood, (national co-director); Nadav Shofet (director of resource development and international relations); Itamar Avneri (head of training) and Galit Mass-Ader (local leader). They were reeling from the police violence against protesters in Jerusalem on 19 March, authorised by far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir. National organiser Oded Rotem was hit by a taxi and needed surgery on his broken leg. But morale remains high and ST has that mix of professionalism, persistence, warmth and humanity which attracts and retains supporters.
Sarah Goldberg (Local organiser, Haifa and members community manager) emphasised the centrality of training to develop leadership skills for the future and how important having a presence on the streets is, in order to increase their reach. Aya Khatib (local organiser, Jerusalem) came back from a positive meeting with students at the Hebrew University; she was encouraged by having met the former principal of the university, who said he was very pleased ST is organising there.
Yael Agmon (local chapter manager, Jerusalem) told me they were worried there would be a backlash against ST’s Refuse War campaign, but it has been well received. She is invited to talk to groups and media outlets ST sees as mainstream, and is pleased with the response. Their message is not only calling on people to refuse to serve, but to entirely oppose a war which fought in order to keep Netanyahu in power with Palestinian and Israeli blood. On 28 March, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported a 50% drop-off rate in reservists reporting for duty.
I joined the ST group, including Alon-Lee Green (national co-director) at a massive protest in Tel Aviv. Thousands upon thousands marched, with speakers, banners and music. There were protests every night. This one brought together protesters with distinct priorities; freeing the hostages, ending the slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank, or preventing the government attempts to crush any challenge by state bodies; plus groups like ST and Combatants for Peace, who were there for all of the above. Every ST chapter has a “wagon” full of megaphones to use on the protests, as well as merchandise to give away. I saw ST posters everywhere.
As for the overall mood within Israel’s wider protest movement, my observations are only anecdotal because I was there such a short time. A gay couple I know in Jerusalem who attend nightly protests are planning to leave the country because they can see no way of the situation improving and they fear for their own safety. I went to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, which was overwhelming. I met friends I had not seen since 1978, all viscerally against Netanyahu’s government and quite hopeless about the possibility of change. I think it needs millions to march and refuse to serve and a general strike.
ST’s motto is, “Where there is struggle there is hope”. The spirit of Maoz Inon’s affirmation that “Hope is an action” is at the heart of their work.
ST activists love UKFoST and how well organised we are! We need to keep spreading awareness and winning people over to ST’s Theory of Change and sending donations. It was helpful to see the scale of their organisation, and what they need fundraising for: rent, staff, events, publicity, etc. They are planning to launch more chapters. Galit (everyone said how tireless she is) in the Tel Aviv office gave me merchandise for FoST, saying Yes, Peace and Standing Together in Hebrew and Arabic.
Standing Together has 6,000 members in Israel and 3,500 Friends of ST internationally, whose donations provide half their income. Private funders make up the rest. They take no funding from any government.
On 23 March, there was a FoST Zoom event with Nadav Shofet, who joined ST when he was at Tel Aviv University, and Angela Mattar, who is a Hebrew University Student as well as part of the national leadership.
Angela is a Christian Palestinian from I’billin in the Galilee, named by Aziz Abu Sarah as a potential future leader in Israel-Palestine. She described how, during the 2006 Lebanon war, her family was in a bomb shelter with a religious Jewish family who shared their food. “It was my first meaningful encounter with Jewish people and I learned that solidarity is possible and there is always a choice.”
As a school student, she asked, “Why don’t we learn about the Nakba? Why are our villages restricted? Why do I feel like a guest in my own country?” She saw Jews and Palestinians side by side trying to stop evictions in the West Bank but didn’t join ST until 7 October “turned our world upside down.” She and her friends were called “terrorist sympathisers” and harassed for wearing keffiyehs.
ST asked her to start a student group at the Technion University. Faculty ignored their emails and they were kicked out of rooms and had to meet under trees. “We stood, Jewish and Palestinian students, holding pictures of children killed in Gaza and I thought, ‘this is real solidarity’. I found a political home with ST. My fears had to be channelled into making the world a better place.”
“When a settler’s dog bit me, I thought, ‘Is it fucking worth it?!’ Yes, because I want Palestinian girls like me to know we deserve dignity and more than survival, more than silence or surrender.”
“ST is a space where I can be Palestinian and free, without apology. Where Jews and Palestinians can organise through our differences not despite them. Division and despair are easy. I love people and I believe in justice. Antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism must be fought at the same time.
“It’s a struggle for everyone who lives here. We are one people, with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Deep pain and fear are felt by Israelis and Palestinians. ST holds a space for both. We need patience, truth, honesty, love and bravery. We must show what solidarity looks like and demand an end to war and occupation. I find hope in those who show up and say: not in my name!”
Being able to travel to, and around, Israel with relative freedom is a reflection of the structural inequalities that exist there. A member of the Palestinian diaspora living in the UK who wanted to make the same trip would encounter far greater obstacles. But if you are in a position to make the trip, the best way you can spend your time there is in supporting a movement at the forefront of the struggle to dismantle those inequalities.
With thanks to Josh Korn, who helped arrange my visit in Jerusalem.
Posted 31 March 2025