Building the infrastructure of peace
by Meredith Rothbart
Peace between Israelis and Palestinians seems more elusive than ever. Yet rather than simply giving up, we need to ask: has a holistic, coordinated effort to build a sustainable and more peaceful reality ever truly been attempted?
At Amal-Tikva, we believe it hasn’t. For decades, efforts have either focused on political negotiations without public support, or grassroots initiatives without political buy-in. The evidence suggests that the approaches most likely to resolve the conflict haven’t failed; they simply haven’t been implemented in a strategic or coordinated way.
Public support for diplomacy had declined long before October 2023. Leaders on both sides claimed the other was not a viable partner, while failing to model cooperation themselves, even within their own governments. Over time, the word “peace” became politically polarising.
One of the central failures of the Oslo process was its inability to involve the broader public in its development or implementation. As a result, it lacked legitimacy among large parts of both societies, particularly those with religious or nationalist identities. The result was not only a breakdown of the process but a hardening of attitudes that persists today.
Peacebuilding organisations have long tried to fill the vacuum left by failed diplomacy, but they too have limitations. Many efforts repeated the same secular, liberal framing that alienated religious and conservative populations from diplomacy. But these are often the very groups that wield the most influence in both societies today.
Meaningful change requires challenging the deeper narratives, structures, and beliefs that sustain the conflict. This means working within each society to shift internal dynamics, reduce violence, and create more livable alternatives in the present, not just preparing for some future agreement. This is especially important given the situation we currently confront, where, in both societies, the former so-called spoilers – individuals or groups that obstruct productive steps toward a peace process – have become each side’s leaders.
Amal-Tikva was founded to create the infrastructure needed for peacebuilding to become a professional, strategic, and scalable field capable of achieving lasting social change in both Israeli and Palestinian societies.
Through strengthening organisations, investing in leaders, conducting research and shaping discourse, Amal-Tikva helps donors, NGOs, academics, and decision-makers communicate and collaborate, monitor and evaluate, strategise and scale up. As a Jerusalem-based NGO, with Israeli and Palestinian staff and board members, Amal-Tikva works alongside the organisations and donors we serve.
So how do we work?
First, by building organisational capacity. Through our flagship Fieldbuilding360 programme, we provide long-term support to a diverse array of civil society organisations—from uni-national religious institutions to tech collaborations and youth engagement efforts. Each is equipped with the tools they need: from strategic planning and theory of change development, to monitoring, evaluation, and funding models.
Second, by strengthening leadership. While strong institutions are critical, building a more peaceful reality requires more than NGOs, it requires expertise and leadership. We equip emerging and established leaders with the skills, networks and resources they need to drive meaningful change in their communities. We call this the Amal-Tikva Leadership Institute (ATLI). We run a comprehensive, seven-month professional development programme aimed at strengthening Israeli and Palestinian NGO executives through mentorship, peer learning, and leadership skills development, while Emerging Leaders is a six-month intensive professional development programme for experienced Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilding professionals who have been working in the field for at least three years.
Third, by learning and innovating. Effective peacebuilding must be guided by continuous, evidence-based learning. Our research provides insights that can be used to shape strategy, influence policy, and deepen understanding across the field as we examine emerging challenges and opportunities. Our goal is to create a structured pathway for innovation in the peacebuilding field, where new ideas can be tested with low risks, evaluated, and scaled up with guidance and assistance from the Amal-Tikva consulting team.
Fourth, by cultivating resilience. The Resilient Peacebuilder Initiative is a new two-part programme launched in response to the 7 October attacks and the war in Gaza. We are currently being trained by the US-based Headington Institute, which is dedicated to promoting the well-being and resilience of humanitarian workers and organisations with staff working in challenging and high-stress environments. We aim to become an organisation that understands, and is sensitive and responsive to, the impact of trauma in our management, policies and programmes.
In the second phase of the programme, we will develop and integrate curricula into all of our programmes to help disseminate this training throughout the field. This includes training webinars on understanding trauma and its impact, workshops on trauma-informed approaches and leadership for peacebuilders, individual and organisational resilience assessments, as well as regular support sessions by clinical and organisational psychologists. One of the key outputs is to develop a series of handbooks on leading, managing, and facilitating through a trauma-informed, trauma-sensitive, and trauma-responsive lens.
Despite the trauma and disruption of war, the field of peacebuilding has shown remarkable resilience. Most of the 38 NGOs surveyed by Amal-Tikva in late 2024 maintained or expanded operations during the first six months of war. They delivered humanitarian aid, reached new communities, and adapted to urgent needs, all while managing staff displacement, reserve duty, and personal loss. These are not symbolic gestures. Many of these organisations are binational in terms of both their staff and their reach; they are not just promoting coexistence – they are serving both communities, even in wartime.
Many NGOs are adapting to the realities of war and polarisation by focusing on peacebuilding within their own societies to build trust, promote nonviolent communication and develop leadership capacity. This shift is not a retreat from cross-border peacebuilding work but rather a strategic reconfiguration. Dialogue alone, especially during wartime, is not always possible or helpful. But efforts within societies – when done with a clear theory of change – can prepare societies for eventual political progress.
Amal-Tikva’s “diamond approach” to peacebuilding supports this model. It has four points: the top, representing political/diplomatic “top-down” peacemaking; the bottom, representing grassroots peacebuilding efforts; and the two sides representing each party involved in the conflict. The dotted line in the middle is where the two societies meet, and the people holding that dotted line represent those doing the peacebuilding work. It encourages engagement within societies, with the intention of sharing observations and developing approaches across national lines that will enable each society to see the development of a new nonviolent construct from within their religious and national aspirations.
Other conflicts offer valuable insights. For example, the International Fund for Ireland helped build what negotiators later called the “social peace” that made a political agreement possible in Northern Ireland. By funding and coordinating civil society work across divides, it laid the groundwork for the Good Friday agreement more than a decade later. Israeli and Palestinian societies need a similar long-term strategy. That means large-scale, sustained investment, but also serious coordination and accountability across actors. Amal-Tikva, a partner of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, is working to build that infrastructure.
Political negotiations remain essential – but without public readiness, they are likely to stall again. At the same time, peacebuilders on the ground cannot succeed alone. What’s needed is a coordinated effort: one that recognises each actor’s role, strengthens internal capacities, and promotes broader systems change.
Amal-Tikva’s model does exactly that. We invest in individuals, organisations, and networks – and help them grow into a cohesive, professional field.
Peace will not come quickly or easily. But by building the infrastructure now, we make it more likely that when political opportunities do arise, both societies are ready to seize them.
Meredith Rothbart is founder and chief executive of Amal-Tikva
