Alliance has invited us to comment on the two sets of contributions about the response of Palestinian and Israeli and Jewish philanthropy to the unfolding terrifying events in the Middle East.

In February of this year, international philanthropies, peacebuilders and government officials gathered in Belfast, Northern Ireland for a conference hosted by our organisation, the Social Change Initiative. The conference focused on how donors can counter violent conflict and polarisation. Some of the key insights from that conference can be found here.

In designing the agenda, we drew heavily on our many years of work in Northern Ireland to tackle the deep and bloody conflict. As civil society activists and as people involved in philanthropy, we believed that Northern Ireland’s experience of moving from a seemingly intractable violent conflict offers much needed hope and some learning for other conflicts around the world, just as we drew from examples in other places to inform our work. Philanthropy and the international community played an important and constructive role in the Northern Ireland journey to become a more peaceful place.

At the event, one panel heard from a diverse range of people with a past or present involvement of funding in the Middle East. It was a respectful and honest discussion with several of the participants sharing the challenges of even speaking within their own organisations about the truly awful situation and what they should be doing about it. Others suggested that philanthropy focused on bridging divides is missing in action when it comes to the current crisis.

In this context, it’s especially welcome to see Alliance carry a range of contributions from people active in philanthropy in the region. In reviewing the contributions, it is clear that much philanthropic activity is happening. This highlights the fact we learned in Northern Ireland that peacebuilding does not start when there is a peace agreement, it is possible throughout both the conflict and post-conflict periods, albeit taking different forms depending on circumstances and context.

Clearly, responses need to address what’s happening right now on the ground, but it is also important that someone thinks about the future. What you can do at the height of a conflict when violence is raging is inevitably different from what is possible when there are prospects for peace, or when negotiations are underway or if agreement is reached.  Several fundamental principles, nonetheless, remain constant. The importance of keeping hope alive; the need to invest in people that see beyond the ‘them’ and the ‘us’ narrative of conflict; and a recognition that unilateral military ‘victory’ can never deliver sustainable peace.

Philanthropy helped us to think beyond the apparent inevitability of intergenerational violence in Northern Ireland. It provided the networks and space for us to explore alternatives. It can do so here.  It also took risks and supported things that others were unwilling to do.  Philanthropy can be considered the R&D (research and development) of peacebuilding when it is at its best.

One other key learning was that no one thing is enough. The problems need to be addressed on a long-term basis and at a multiplicity of levels. Many different people within society have a part to play in identifying, and mobilizing around, solutions.

As the Arab Foundations Forum’s Naila Farouky points out in her article

‘Without a long-term, strategic approach to rebuilding a functioning society once a ceasefire is achieved, we risk failing to address the root causes of instability. We should therefore leverage this moment of crisis to create sustainable, long-term solutions towards the building of a thriving society.’

‘This means investing in education, healthcare, and economic development, as well as advocating for political solutions that can bring about long-term peace and stability’

Another key learning is supporting work bringing divided communities together.

In Northern Ireland donors supported initiatives within and between communities such as inter-community contact and dialogue, with a particular emphasis on the contribution of women and youth. Philanthropy also helped counter interface violence through local mediation including through community-based mobile phone networks to counter rumours and efforts to create shared spaces. Human rights monitoring and local and international advocacy were supported to counter abuses on all sides of the conflict.

Philanthropy invested in track two diplomacy and back-channel communications, institutional initiatives such as inter-faith dialogue and integrated and shared education, support work with victims of violence and political ex-prisoners/ex-combatants, and research, new thinking  as well as both community and political party dialogue about future political options. A lot can be done.

Some of the comments made by American Jewish philanthropist Annie Berdy resonate with our experience in Northern Ireland

‘My philanthropic practice now reflects a leaning towards policy change…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.’

Alongside this work, there was investment in economic regeneration, employment creation and community/social development,  together with the important investment in leadership. Fragmented communities were brought together around shared economic and social issues with a focus on a win-win outcome, but there was also investment in human capital. People make peace. Violently contested societies need to grow astute political leadership both within communities as well as in political negotiations. Many of these leaders were what we call ‘insider-outsiders’, who had been political prisoners, victims and/or combatants, who brought a grounded understanding of political red lines, how to navigate them and the importance of creative alternatives to ongoing violence.

One striking feature of the donor contribution to addressing the Northern Ireland conflict was that it eventually included major international philanthropic donors, local community-based foundations, diaspora funders, government and inter-governmental donors, and the European Union. This shared commitment to contributing together to respond to local developments and to shift the situation seems almost entirely lacking right now in respect to the Middle East. However, it will be a key requirement if the desperately needed significant change is to be secured and then sustained. Even if it is difficult to implement or envisage now, philanthropy needs to develop a collaborative funding agenda so that it can respond rapidly and effectively to those opportunities that will inevitably arise. Any such design process must be heavily informed by local voices, a point firmly made by the Ramallah-based Dalia Association and Rawa Fund’s Soheir Assad when she says

‘We Palestinians who are linked to the grassroots know our reality. We know what’s needed. We know how to do the work… We are on the ground.’

Finally, there are several insights that we learned through often painful trial and error. It is essential that those directly involved in violent conflict are included and actively participate in any peace process. These key participants also need to be supported in communicating the benefits of peace agreements and settlements to their respective constituencies. In addition, violence often means that important voices and issues are silenced and excluded by the dominant narrative. Ensuring that these hidden voices are supported and amplified is important as recognised in the Women, Peace and Security and related agenda.  The protection and advancement of human rights for all must also be foundational. Protracted violence frequently degrades standards and values. These must be reasserted as applicable to all and used, where possible, to build a shared understanding that can underpin any peace framework.

As French Jewish philanthropist Adrien Cohen observes ‘violence often pushes us all towards extremism. Something needs to be done to turn that tide.’

‘The idea was simply to listen to the other’s perspective. To avoid falling into binary divisions and the hallucination machine of social networks. Share our feelings, rediscover a little of the lost empathy.’

The Chinese General, Sun Tzu, wrote in his Art of War: ‘The greatest victory is that which requires no battle’, while the current situation in the Middle East has raged far beyond this, Sun Tzu also wrote – ‘In the midst of chaos there is also opportunity’. Thoughtful and committed philanthropy has an important role in working with local people to seek out, respond to, and support those glimmers of opportunity.

Martin O’Brien and Avila Kilmurray work for the Social Change Initiative (SCI). Previously Martin was Senior Vice President at Atlantic Philanthropies and was also deeply involved in Human Rights and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland.  Avila was Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and was also on the Good Friday Agreement Negotiating Team of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition