Dear Friends,

My name is Noa Harell, it's a pleasure to meet you. I come from a family of left-wing and peace activists, but until December 2016 I had not been politically active, and despite my views, I was very disappointed with left-wing politicians, left wing parties and was becoming reluctant to define myself as such. My general feeling was that the state of my country is deteriorating, and there is nothing to be done about it. Then the feature “Disturbing the Peace” was released, at the end of 2016.

This was a jaw-dropping, breathtaking experience for me. From that moment on, it was obvious to me that I could not stand aside and be passive – there was finally an option for me to act.

Since then, I have been active in Combatants for Peace – whether in the joint Memorial Day Ceremony, joint activities with Palestinian members of the movement, on-site and online protest activities.

Last month I took another step forward as I was elected to be the Israeli coordinator of Combatants for Peace. This role, it was explained to me, should require some weekly hours of communication, planning, and keeping in touch with the different branches of CFP. But this was before the war broke out. Right now, it feels as though a bomb has been dropped on all of us, threatening to shatter the delicate community which activists have toiled to build for the past two decades. We have all been deeply shocked and are still devastated. There are forces striving to break the mutual trust between us, Israelis and Palestinians; to pull us back into reciprocal blame and segregation. At this time, I see my first mission as coordinator, to do all that is within my power to hold our community together and keep this small flame of solidarity and humanity alive, until the time comes to allow it to grow and continue to plan our efforts to end the occupation and contribute to peace in this troubled land. Our country is still in deterioration, and there is much work to do.

Thank you for standing with us, and believing that for change to come, we must remain committed to peace, reject all forms of violence and recrimination, and unite behind this special and delicate community that we have created. I am sure we will get to know each other more in the future, but for now stay strong, and keep looking ahead to better days for us all.

In solidarity,

Noa