By Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha, NIF international board member
On October 7 2023, I returned home at 10 PM after 15 tiring and exhausting hours of work in the emergency room of Soroka Hospital, in Israel’s southern city of Be’er Sheva. As I entered the door, one thought crossed my mind: “Everything has changed; what was will no longer be.”
Just a day earlier, on the Friday before Simchat Torah, the weekend editions of all the Israeli newspapers had marked the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. That trauma, a war against a brutal army that surprised Israel, still resonates even half a century later. And that day, October 7, I couldn’t help but draw the parallels in my mind — both were days the army and the state failed, both were days where it was proven beyond any doubt that military power has clear limitations and that that power cannot be used indefinitely to maintain security.
The thing is, the Yom Kippur War ended within three weeks. A UN Security Council decision led to the beginning of diplomatic talks, and in December of 1973, a separation of forces agreement was signed between Israel and Egypt. Two years later, an interim agreement was signed, and five and a half years after the war, the first peace agreement was signed between the State of Israel and an Arab country in the Middle East. For over 45 years, the border with Egypt has been Israel’s most stable in terms of economic and security cooperation.
Last October, I hoped with all my heart that we would be smart enough to do what we did 50 years ago.
Now it’s been a year — an opportunity to remind ourselves that the only thing that has ever brought peace and security to this region is peace agreements. Yet the current Israeli leadership continues to choose military pressure over political settlements, in an attempt to guarantee that we will forever live by the sword.
We at the New Israel Fund refuse to surrender to this state of mind. We choose life, peace, and security. That’s why we make a different choice. We choose to invest in efforts that will bring a political agreement because we know that without one, we will only continue to count our dead.
A peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians not only guarantees security, but also promises to get rid of the immoral occupation and control over the Palestinian people that have brought us to this point. In the last two years, the Israeli public has experienced the consequences of this occupation that has been ongoing for 57 years. Practices that were accepted as part of the control over Palestinians for decades: administrative arrests without a court order, violence against protesters, killing innocents and the subsequent cover-ups, have now become common even within the Green Line against civilians.
Before October 7, this government was working hard to undermine the power of the judiciary, an effort still running at full power. It was doing so in order to maintain its undemocratic rule over the occupied Palestinian territories and ultimately complete the annexation of the West Bank in violation of both international and Israeli law, not to mention any human value or moral code. We have known for years that the continuation of the occupation will lead to the moral deterioration of Israeli society. And today this is coming true.
It is a society that is unsure whether raping Palestinian detainees in the detention facility of Sde Teiman is OK, and can remain indifferent to the deaths of over 40,000 civilians in Gaza, most of whom are women and children. We must stop this dangerous process as soon as possible — and the only way to do so is through a political arrangement that will eventually lead to a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Finally, striving for a peace agreement is a commitment to the basic values of equality and freedom — for both Israelis and Palestinians. We must go back to the basics and commit to equality and freedom. No one will be safe as long as we are not all safe, free, and equal to each other — from the river to the sea.
I am writing this note from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Just a few days ago I visited the historical museum in the city, which tells the story of Estonia’s independence from occupation of the former Soviet Union. They call the museum Vabamu, which means “free mother” in Estonian. It is full of memories and testimonies of the Estonians who lived under the Soviet occupation. The longing for freedom was evident everywhere. Because that longing is perhaps the only thing that cannot be taken from a person, even if they lose their property, family, and even their dignity. History shows us that regimes that try and crush the yearning of a people to be free will never succeed — they will always fall.
Now is our time to fight and choose freedom, equality and peace — for both the Israeli and Palestinian people.
Dr. Yasmeen Abu Fraiha is a doctor, specializing in internal medicine, who is currently acting as the Executive Director of Rodaina, an NGO she founded that aims to prevent genetic diseases in the Middle East, especially in the Bedouin community, by spearheading premarital genetic testing and matching. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Project Wadi Attir, Yanabia, Tamar Center, and AJEEC-NISPED; all are social projects and NGOs aiming to improve Bedouin lives in Israel. She has won several awards, including the 2007 Ramon Award for quality, leadership, and excellence, as well as the 2015 Travel Grant Award for outstanding young investigators at the 38th European Cystic Fibrosis Society conference, and was also chosen to be part of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list. Yasmeen holds a BSc in Medical Science and an MD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is currently pursuing an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.