I want to start with the conclusion of this story, which is expressed in its simplest form in the title. Palestinians and the Jews of Israel are arguably two of the most hurt people in the annals of human history. Nowhere are the consequences of their mutual suffering more powerfully visible than in Gaza today.

Now for a deeper dive into how this has come to be the intractable situation these two peoples find themselves in. I shall start with the briefest of histories of the Jews. Having been blamed by too many Christians for 2000 years for the crucifixion of their messiah, the suffering of the Jews has been immense, indescribable and relentless. When we get to the late 19th century and the birth of Zionism, there is the expressed desire for a Jewish homeland where Jews traditionally lived, which is also where Palestinians lived.

With the promise of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 following the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the British Mandate, Zionist Jews had great hopes for the creation of a Jewish state. As if endless destructive pogroms in Eastern Europe weren’t enough, Hitler’s Final Solution had the intention of ending the Jewish people once and for all.

Some of those who survived these horrors somehow made it to Palestine and in 1948 at long last were able to celebrate the safe landing into the long promised Jewish state. But it was far from a safe landing. The big difference was this time, rather than coming so close to being destroyed by Nazism, they had the guns (supplied by the U.S.), and they inevitably saw Palestinians as next in the line of those trying to harm them.

Except, the Palestinians are also a “hurt” people. To consider their “hurt” we need to keep in mind the ways in which they have been oppressed – by the Ottoman Turks, the British and ultimately by Israel. I compare their plight to that of the Vietnamese who didn’t call their war for independence the Vietnam War. Instead they saw there being a French War followed by an American War. So, too, for the Palestinians who have struggled under the domination of two empires – Ottoman and British – in hopes of gaining their land, their independence and their own safety.

Is the picture resulting from seeing these two hurt people emerging in its tragic fullness? Palestine was never, as the early Zionists wanted to believe, “a land without a people for a people without a land.” The decision made manifest in the Balfour Declaration to enable Jewish settlers to occupy Palestinian land was inevitably going to provoke righteous indignation by traumatized Palestinians. It was supposed to finally provide the promise of safety for the traumatized Jews who created the state of Israel. If one does not have the time, the resources, the awareness of the crucial importance of healing from trauma – look at Gaza, circa 2023 and see the predictable result. Add to that the enormously complicated negotiations, agreements and acceptance of a reality neither people want and the strife that we’re seeing and that has been occurring for 75 years becomes even more inevitable.

Tragically what is occurring now does not bode well for the future. If the conviction that hurt people hurt people has merit, the harm being perpetrated by first the horrors of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre and now the ensuing relentless massacre of 17,000 Gazans and counting will require healing that I can only begin to imagine will take more decades before a peaceful solution is remotely possible.

But there remains hope. Somehow, despite all of the multi-generational trauma inflicted by both sides, there are many organizations that have transcended the pain, accessed empathy and compassion and forged bonds across the divide. At last count, meaning before the latest harms have been inflicted, a search for non-governmental organizations involved in the Israeli–Palestinian peace process revealed that there are upwards of 60 such organizations.

One such effort is Standing Together. Here is their goal:

We know that a negotiated peace agreement is the only way to ensure safety, freedom, and equality for both peoples. As a progressive grassroots movement, we are focused on building the political will in Israeli society to reach a political solution by building a mass movement of Jewish and Palestinian citizens who truly believe that such a shared future is possible.

If such a group can muster and sustain the energy, commitment and hope required to persist in such work, then perhaps all is not lost …yet.

Tom Weiner lives in Northampton.