Every layer of my engagement in the complexity of the Palestinian/Israeli dynamic, be it philanthropic or logistical, has been inspired and informed by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s concept of the Beloved Community. As I understand it, ‘nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims… nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform’. 

My perspective includes the recognition that both Palestinians and Israelis have suffered and both have inflicted suffering. Although that pain and loss can harden one’s heart, it can also crack it open to feel the universality of grief. In my philanthropy, I have been committed to supporting those moving beyond holding the wounds and narrative of one side, while diminishing or demonizing the other.  

My funding and voluntary work, has focused on opening up sometimes-rigid space, towards crafting an inclusive, compassionate and innovative range of possibilities. Every endeavour shares a commitment to full civil rights, dignity, security, and opportunity for every Palestinian and Israeli.

Since 2014, I have supported initiatives on both sides of the green line. I have aspired to a peaceful end to the Israeli occupation and resolution of the conflict. This is demonstrated in a range of disciplines and approaches addressing three metrics: perspective, practice and policy.

Changing perspective on the conflict

I started funding programmes that guide individuals on both sides of the conflict to come to see themselves in the ‘other’ and to move from adversary to ally. That evolved to include initiatives that employ practices to influence viewpoints such as Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET). MEET brings Palestinian and Israeli school-age participants together in a three-year cohort focused on technology and entrepreneurship. Those three years of studying and creating together transform their concepts of each other rippling out to their respective families and communities.

But I realised I needed to go further.

Rather than waiting for the realization to percolate up and manifest in policy, my philanthropic practice now reflects a leaning towards policy change.

This is a challenging frontier in any cultural or political setting, but particularly daunting at this moment both in Palestine and Israel.

Yet there are visionary and dedicated individuals in Palestine and Israel that see possibility and are advancing policy and political directions advocating democracy and fostering peace.

On the evening of October 6th, 2023, I printed out a contract with an Ivy League school to fund an approach to address the disappointing and destructive practice by Israeli forces of designating and demolishing schools for Palestinian children in the West Bank.

This was to be my first solo flight, developing and deploying a concept, incubating it, and coordinating a cohort to ‘solve’ a problem: providing access to education in the face of a government’s policy to deny it.

Then October 7th.

Disbelief. Horror. Heartache. On the phone with my family in Israel. My cousin crying crying crying…. words… ‘it’s worse — it’s worse…they are not showing you….it is worse….Numb with shock, disbelief, terror… overwhelmed… disoriented… disillusioned.

Have I been a fool all along thinking peace was possible? The evening of October 7th I tore up the contract. What kind of Jewish idiot would send money to Palestine now?

A visceral fear permeated my being and home. I paced around like a caged creature. The boundaries of where the conflict begins and ends, the lines that won’t be crossed, have been obliterated. As the atrocities unfold, the people in Israel and Gaza no longer have any refuge or space that won’t be violated.

Then a new wave of terror. What was Netanyahu’s hateful and incompetent regime going to inflict on the Palestinian community as the line between response and revenge would be blurred, if not erased?

Humanitarian Ali Abu Awaad. Photo shared with permission from the author.

It took me a couple of days to recover my heart from the deep freeze of anguish and rage. And then I spoke to Ali Abu Awwad, the visionary leader and Palestinian community organiser and recipient of the 2023 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace and Disarmament alongside Daniel Barenboim and the recipient of the Luxembourg Peace Prize. My teacher and friend. He patiently guided me through the process of realising possibilities.

In my deep heartache, confusion and anger I needed his voice.

October 7th and what has followed made it clear to me that many more people needed to hear his voice. This was the most significant outcome of October 7th as it relates to my practice of philanthropy, the realisation that amplifying of Ali’s vision and voice could have an impact on changing perspective, practice, and policy. If only people would listen.

I requested Ali’s permission to engage and fund a professional communications and public relations firm to raise his presence in the media. Every aspect of Ali’s life has been adversely impacted by the occupation, including four years as an adolescent in an Israeli prison. His mother was in an Israeli prison. An Israeli soldier killed his brother.

Through these experiences, Ali realised that a cultural and political reality founded on mutual recognition, connection with the land and each other is the only way forward. A resolution of the conflict founded in nonviolence is the only strategy that will facilitate the security, dignified living conditions, freedom, and independence of all peoples.

Annie Berdy is an American philanthropist and Jewish member of the Forward Global network of funders.

This article was published as a part of a series of pieces exploring Jewish and Israeli philanthropy’s response to October 7. Read the series here.