FAQ: party/parliamentary politics, Standing Together and UKFoST

As Israeli elections approach this autumn, we want to address questions that are often raised to us about Standing Together and party politics in Israel.

1. Is Standing Together a political party? No. Standing Together is a grassroots organisation of Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel. It has a clear political programme of peace, equality and social justice. It is not a registered political party and does not stand for the Knesset (parliament).
2. Why not? Standing Together avoids taking a party-political stance for both legal and strategic reasons. People who vote and are members of different political parties in Israel still support Standing Together and its grassroots theory of change.
3. Does that mean Standing Together thinks elections don’t matter? No. One of Standing Together’s recent campaigns has been to increase voter turnout amongst marginalised voters sceptical about whether voting can achieve change. But these campaigns do not advocate voting for a specific political party, in line with Standing Together’s party-political neutrality.
4. What about Friends of Standing Together? Friends of Standing Together follows Standing Together’s party-political neutrality, for the same legal and organisational reasons. We work with groups with party-political affiliations both in Israel and elsewhere, but we do not ourselves take a party-political stance.
5. Didn’t Standing Together establish a political party? No, it didn’t. In recent months, some members of Standing Together, including its national co-directors Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green, were amongst the founders of a new political party, A Place for Us All. However, they have taken a leave of absence from their roles with Standing Together in order to do this. The new party is legally, financially, and organisationally separate, and Standing Together’s general party-political non-affiliation remains in place. Standing Together and Friends of Standing Together encourage members of all political parties, including A Place for Us All, in their efforts to promote the values of Standing Together in political parties and the Knesset.
6. I have more questions. We know that the establishment of A Place for Us All has led to a robust public debate about both Standing Together and A Place for Us All. If your question is about the work of Standing Together, you can contact them directly here: info@standing-together.org. If your question is about Friends of Standing Together, you can contact our British branch at info@ukfost.co.uk, find more information about European branches at eufost.org and find out more about international work at https://www.standing-together.org/fostgroups. If your question is about A Place for Us All, you can contact them at info@place4all.org.il or visit their website at https://www.place4all.org.il/.