Ohad Naharin’s message amid Gaza war

Ohad Naharin in Haaretz, 11 of January 2024.

‘People call me a maligner of Israel, but it’s our government that maligns Israel, the settler-messianic right wing. They are the people who think that the IDF’s campaign should continue, and that dead soldiers and dead hostages are an understandable price.’ Batsheva Dance Company choreographer Ohad Naharin refuses to shut up and dance

Gili Izikovich

During the past few weeks the Batsheva Dance Company underwent an unprecedented experience – one that recurred every time they performed their work “2019.” As its title suggests, “2019” premiered some four years ago, and it was not even scheduled to be reprised now. Putting it on was a spontaneous move, an instantaneous decision that turned out to be just right for this moment. And like other things that are happening at this moment, it sparked side effects never seen in the past. Like the audience sobbing in response to it.

Nothing these days looks like it is supposed to, and art is generating even more unusual reactions than it normally does. For its part, “2019,” which is staged in the troupe’s small Tel Aviv studio rather than in its other venues, was conceived to be a demanding, intense work. The audience is small and seated in physical proximity to the dancers in a work that leaves no stone of the Israeli ethos unturned.

The narrow, runway-like stage is in constant flux. One moment it’s a ballroom, then a military parade, a gladiatorial arena and a party. In another instant the studio morphs into a venue for a sing-along, a nightclub, then a funeral. It’s a fetishistic, campy, quasi-militaristic work, pulsing with a sense of urgency and danger, and an anti-violence vibe – and also nothing less than heartbreaking.

It’s a piece that was created as a swift, well-aimed gut punch, but as we watch it now, it becomes a historic moment. It’s a moment at which this nearly 75-minute piece, unquestionably the most critical work veteran Batsheva choreographer Ohad Naharin has created, confronts reality in its current, post-October 7 version. And not only are the performers infusing it with new meanings and heft; its target audience is also different now.

“There is a dialogue here with the present,” Naharin observes. “I didn’t revise the choreography or the music, other than making some changes because there are a few new dancers in the performance [with different abilities than the original cast]. We also worked on interpretation and on the dance language. Its range has grown. About two months ago, we realized that the tours scheduled for Batsheva would not be happening, and we thought that ‘2019,’ even though it touches painful places, has the quality of untangling things – of untangling all those places simultaneously. The decision to stage it was made by the company’s artistic director, Lior Avitzur, and it was an idea that we are making good on now.

“Dance – and not just ‘2019’ – is consolation within the horror,” Naharin continues. “That doesn’t apply to every type of dance, but within the intentionality of what we’re doing, the soul that is imprisoned in its own self-image finds freedom through movement. There is beauty and a direct connection to the body, under the clothes. A connection to the essence of existence that doesn’t need any mediation. Anyone who sees and feels that body is able to communicate directly with the realms of imagination, thoughts, senses. There is no other art that can do it this way, with the aid of the body that was your prison and is now what releases you to freedom with its movement.”

The company’s international tours have been canceled?

“Batsheva’s schedule has changed radically. All our tours were canceled or postponed – Japan, Germany, Italy. There are no tours until June, and this was supposed to be a year of performances overseas. In June we’ll be performing in France. We were supposed to do ‘Anafaza’ there, but after October 7, I said we would only go on the condition that we will be able to perform ‘2019’ instead, and they picked up the gauntlet.

“We are performing here in Israel, renewing pieces we hadn’t thought of renewing, and canceling other things. Some dancers [not Israelis] have also left us because of what’s going on here: four of the troupe’s 18 members, and one or two from the [youth] ensemble. They wouldn’t have left, not at this time, at least, if war hadn’t broken out.”

What reasons are your partners abroad giving you for the cancellations?

“The main reason is that our hosts can’t take responsibility for our security. Batsheva is also afraid to take responsibility for its dancers’ security. In France, for some reason, they’re still onboard at the moment. I was surprised about the decision in Japan. I’m sure it wasn’t an anti-Israeli, anti-Batsheva, move. They all love the company and are actually talking not about cancellation but postponement. In Japan it’s the third time: The first two postponements were because of COVID. The tour that had been set for the United States this March has been postponed until next March.”

Is anyone talking to you about an anti-Israel atmosphere? About the possibility that your potential audience won’t want to come because of it?

“We are so not in the center of things. There are so many grave and upsetting things happening but that’s not part of the discussion. It’s like talking about a mosquito bite while the house is going up in flames. We don’t talk about the mosquito bite, and we do talk about the house being on fire. The story is not Batsheva.”

But Batsheva suffered, and has suffered for many years, from protests and from boycotts against it, which are sometimes vocal and thuggish.

“That is exactly the mosquito bite. When BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] people demonstrate, it doesn’t help the Palestinians, unfortunately, but it does add drama. Discussing how much we at Batsheva are affected is not important. We try to navigate amid the changes, but we are not a victim.

“I have never been so disturbed, worried, anxious as I have been in these past 90 days. These are not new fears, but the volume has changed. I am not one of those who are saying ‘I’ve become disillusioned now.’ I think that immediately, right after October 7, I felt the potential of what is happening now. I am against the actions being taken now [in the Gaza Strip]. People can claim they have empathy, but how is it possible to cut into the flesh and feel empathy at the same time? And if you have no empathy – heaven help you. The talk at the moment is between bad and worse. There is no clear distinction between good and bad, so everything is bad, everything is different shades of bad. I am helpless and I have no influence over anything.”

Comfort through Gaga

Ohad Naharin has always been a political person, and that has certainly not changed. The situation that’s evolved since October 7 is causing him such acute torment that for the first time in years he agreed to give an interview to a media outlet. The impact of current events is also reflected in his social activity. Earlier this month he gave a two-day mass class in Tel Aviv in Gaga, the unique language of movement that he created, whose proceeds went to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Thousands of people, dancers and non-dancers alike, take Gaga lessons with him or other teachers around the world, in person or online. For the past decade, Naharin has held a mass class in Gaga every year, benefitting ACRI. Since October 7, he has held four such events, and there are more to come.

He’s obviously troubled and frustrated. It’s clear, on one hand, that he wants to avoid militant speech – that he is hurting and speaking with a palpable feeling of devotion for and love of his homeland. This is evident from the slow, measured tone with which he articulates his thoughts in an interview conducted in his Tel Aviv home and innumerable phone conversations. Yet it’s equally clear that the general public would categorize him, based on what he is saying, as someone who is maligning the country. Indeed, two or three days after Hamas’ massacre in the south, he came up with a new WhatsApp profile picture in blue and white, with the words “Together we’ve lost” – a counterweight to the popular motto “Together we will win.” He observes recent events with growing discomfort and dread.

Something terrible happened and there was no choice but to take action. What should have been done differently?

“A horrific thing happened. On a scale we have never known. Hamas is the enemy of humanity. But what’s going on is part of a cycle of violence that didn’t begin on October 7. There is a cycle of suffering of Jews, Israelis, Palestinians. The Israel Defense Forces has a whole list of operations that it’s carried out in the past 40 years, in Gaza and in the West Bank.

People talk about the Arabs, the Muslims, the Gazans as the “other side.” There are people in Israel who are more on the “other side” than many people who live in Gaza. The other side is not in Gaza, it’s here.

Ohad Naharin

“When I say that the cycle of violence did not begin on October 7, people call me a maligner of Israel. It’s clear to me who the people are who are maligning Israel. They constitute a majority, if not all, of our government. Those who malign Israel are the settler-messianic right wing. They are the people who think that the IDF’s campaign should continue and who justify it; who maintain that one must not criticize IDF soldiers. They are the people who think that dead soldiers and dead hostages are an ‘understandable’ price [to pay] for enabling achievements in the fighting. They are those who are turning the war into a goal in and of itself.”

But how is it possible not to fight when such murderous ideology threatens you, just a few kilometers away?

“[We could come up with] a diplomatic solution. It was possible to stop on October 10, a few days after the massacre, when Israel seemed to be no longer in immediate existential danger. To try to bring back the captives and the hostages – that takes precedence over everything. When will the number of dead be reached that is supposed to let you feel you have won? After all, we’ve lost. If on October 10 we had said, ‘Together we’ve lost,’ not ‘Together we will win’ – what would have happened?

“We need to see to a decent present so that the future will be better. To stop, lick our wounds, look for an international community that will support a solution, liberate the prisoners and the captives, help the 1,300 grieving families, the thousands of wounded and the tens of thousands of evacuees. By doing that you already paralyze Hamas. You don’t fight. How could you not examine that mode of action before doing what you have done? I don’t know what will happen, but I do know that whatever’s happening now is in our hands.

“Stop fighting today – save those who will die tomorrow. We are being promised many months of fighting. In simple arithmetic: Let’s say six months, with two to three [Israeli] losses per day? That’s more than 500 dead.”

Naharin’s monologue will no doubt resonate among those attending performances of “2019,” simply because the work unfolds like a ravishing, tragic, kinetic version of his grim words. At the peak of the show, Naharin himself sings the late playwright Hanoch Levin’s ditty, “You and Me and the Next War,” from the 1968 cabaret show of that name – in a scene that virtually encompasses within it decades of mounting violence.

A few days later, in our second conversation, Naharin sounds even more agitated. It isn’t only a matter of the tragedy of what is going on, he says, it’s amazement at the still-evolving situation. “It seems so clear that everything that has happened since then [October 7] has not moved us forward – on the contrary – and that should have been already apparent back then, before plunging deeply into this mistake, whose resolution is not at all clear now. You don’t need to be an expert in history in order to exercise healthy logic and also be humane along the way.

“I stopped watching the news channels more than a month ago,” he continues. “I couldn’t take the insensitivity anymore, the arrogance, the lies, all the ostensibly tear-jerking broadcasts. I remember the moment when I said to myself: This is it. By that stage, a quarter of Gaza was already demolished, a million people were homeless and thousands had been killed. Gazans were without electricity and water.

“So there’s this military commentator, I don’t remember his name, dressed in black, no tie, on Channel 12, speaking in a quiet voice and saying, ‘At this stage there isn’t a humanitarian crisis yet in the Strip…’ With just a few words he succeeded in articulating the pure evil that has infiltrated our souls and has turned so many of us into human monsters.

“If we want to change something in our story after what happened on October 7, to honor our dead, act in their name and be able to emerge from the horror that is being taking place, the first thing we need to do is to stop living in the huge rift between self-perception and actual reality. If we don’t reduce this huge disparity, things will get a lot worse. People think their opinions are facts. Those who view themselves as great experts – especially people like them – are denying reality.

“The current discourse is being conducted by many people like that, everywhere – people who are supposedly familiar with history. In fact, we are experts without learning from history per se. We know about the Holocaust; we know the racism and antisemitism the Jewish people suffered from, the abusive force wielded against them. We are now doing something similar. What have we learned? Nothing. Because of the tendency to self-victimization, the most frequent justification for using violence, we are now mired in this ongoing horror.

“Jews have a history of being victims. The default is to feel like a victim and thus to find justification for extreme acts of violence and acts of revenge. It’s impossible to kill an ideology, one can only threaten it with other ideologies that will become more popular. The greatest threat to Hamas is a diplomatic solution, not war. War is Hamas’ fuel.”

But there’s little likelihood of such a scenario – and even if there were, citizens would be enraged by it.

“I’m not alone, I am not the only one who already realized this a few days after October 7. I think there were other people who grasped that if we didn’t search for a diplomatic solution, we would become bogged down. But when you allow generals and a corrupt government filled with ignorant racists to run the world, they do what they know how to do: fight.

“People talk about the Arabs, the Muslims, the Gazans as the ‘other side.’ What is the other side? There are people in Israel who are more on the ‘other side’ than many people who live in Gaza. The other side is not in Gaza, it is here among us. We must recognize that all human beings have much in common. Even if there is no agreement between them, there is no such thing as not being able to find love, a desire to give or genuine concern, in someone – unless he is truly a psychopath, one in a thousand. We need to believe that this potential can be discovered in everyone.

People can claim they have empathy, but how is it possible to cut into the flesh and feel empathy at the same time? And if you have no empathy – heaven help you.

Ohad Naharin

“We have 40 dancers from 10 countries in Batsheva. We don’t share a similar history and we don’t share the same citizenship, we have diverse and different preferences and opinions. We are involved in ongoing processes together, during which we are enlarging the circles of our awareness. I expect of myself and of them to learn from our mistakes. We are learning how to shed old ideas in favor of new and better ones. We are learning that when we do good, good will come of it. We admit that we will always be far from perfect, yet we will still be capable of creating moments of transcendence.

“When I teach Gaga online, I meet hundreds of people. Not long ago I gave a class in which there were 700 participants from 50 countries, including Iran, Russia, Hungary – countries that represent benighted regimes. They are people whose basis resembles your own, with the same realms of the imagination, a common scale of values and shared universal ethics.

“The problem is, that in order to destroy, no talent is needed, no prior experience, no skills. It’s very easy to destroy. There are many builders in Israel, people who know and want and are capable of that. They are also the ones who will build and bring about the change that seems to have no chance of coming about. It’s harder for us builders, because the destroyers operate with ease. I say ‘for us builders,’ because I think I am part of those builders. There are many builders in this land. Maybe even more than there are destroyers – it’s just so terribly easy to destroy.

“There are builders, people like that, in key positions as well, even in the [political] leadership. They are in that category even if they make mistakes. Even if they don’t represent the way I would like things to be managed. Their hearts are in the right place.”

Defining Israeli dance

At age 71 Ohad Naharin enjoys a status shared by only a few people in the world of culture and art, in Israel and internationally. Under his stewardship, Batsheva has become one of the most important and mesmerizing contemporary dance troupes on the planet. There’s not a moment, it seems, when a work by him isn’t being performed on a stage somewhere.

Naharin was born on Kibbutz Mizra, near Nazareth. His father, Eliav Naharin, was an actor and a psychologist; his mother, Tzofia, was a dancer who taught movement. He was 5 when his family left the kibbutz, but that specific form of Israeliness – of kibbutz, of the earth – has always been discernible in his dancing and choreography. He had always danced and was always in motion, but didn’t become a dancer per se until the ripe old age of 22. He was accepted to the Batsheva company, but not long afterward, after meeting the world-famous choreographer Martha Graham, he moved to New York to dance in her company. Concurrently, he attended the Juilliard performing arts conservatory, then danced briefly in Maurice Béjart’s troupe before gathering a group of dancers around him and becoming a creator himself.

After assuming the role of artistic director of Batsheva in 1990, he created revolutionary works, connections that seemed impossible, and brought a new audience and a surging libido to modern dance. A series of works choreographed by him redefined the world of Israeli dance: “Kyr,” in which he collaborated for the first time with the Israeli rock band Nikmat Hatraktor, “Anafaza,” “Deca Dance.” In 1995, The New York Times called him one of the five most important choreographers in the world. In 1998, he was awarded the French government’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters).

In 1998, a furor erupted in the government over a controversial Batsheva piece – the now-iconic “Echad Mi Yodea” (“Who Knows One”) that Naharin created as part of “Kyr” and which is also featured in “Anafaza.” Based on the eponymous Passover song, “Echad Mi Yodea” was supposed to be inserted into the “Jubilee Bells” event, the centerpiece of the state’s official 50th anniversary celebrations. However, religious groups, among them the ultra-Orthodox, threatened to disrupt the proceedings if the dancers, who in the course of the work shed their black suits and white nightshirts and remained in their underwear, did not promise to cover their bodies. Naharin refused – and the performance was canceled.

A few years later, passions had abated. In 2005, Naharin was awarded the Israel Prize, the country’s highest honor, and over the years has won virtually every other possible honor, local and international, in his field. In 2015 he was the subject of what was arguably the most successful Israeli documentary film of all time, “Mr. Gaga,” directed by Tomer Heymann.

Throughout, he never slowed down or stopped creating and developing the dance method he invented, even after stepping down as artistic director in 2018. His creative pace typically dictates a new work every two years; the latest, “MOMO,” premiered about a year ago. Since then he also staged a spectacular reprise of his seminal and perhaps best-known work, “Anafaza”; like in the early 1990s, he also performed in it, wearing a red velvet robe, singing and playing electric guitar. “Anafaza” was supposed to return to the stage yet again, but the costly production has been postponed. In any event, neither Naharin nor his company have the will or desire to mount it now.

In the meantime, Naharin seems to be keeping a relatively low profile. In mid-December he returned from Los Angeles, where there was discussion of his possible role as choreographer in a film being directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal (among others he worked with there was Christian Bale, the movie’s star). But he’s dividing his time mainly between the Batsheva studio and his home in the heart of Tel Aviv, where he lives with his wife, Eri Nakamura, their daughter Noga, a dog named Momo and the two kittens they recently adopted. Our conversation takes place in their pleasant kitchen, but he sounds more cautious than before when commenting about the general situation in Israel. (Full disclosure: We have become friends in recent years, following the interview I did with him and Tomer Heymann in 2015.)

You have always expressed your views and opinions, and that exacted a price: You were a target in a violent and threatening campaign conducted by the ultranationalist Im Tirzu organization, and there were threats to reduce the company’s funding – Batsheva, like every Israeli cultural body, receives millions in support from the public budget.

“Im Tirzu is an organization of loonies, to put it mildly. There are wonderful groups in Israel – such as Physicians for Human Rights, Combatants for Peace, Israel-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace, Standing Together, Zazim Community Action, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem and many others – which I support. In my case, creative work is the principal way for me to express myself. If I were to feel that I was truly endangering the company or my family or myself [by speaking out], maybe I would reconsider. Maybe I’d feel afraid.

“I have nothing to lose, because it’s my work that speaks, and by means of it I can continue to create and I will continue to create. I think that people who support and believe in me, realize that – even if they won’t agree with my views. I’ve been in situations of that sort many times, in arguments with our executive board. Twenty years ago, I was quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth as saying that the IDF was committing war crimes 30 kilometers from us, referring to the West Bank. I was summoned to a board meeting, there was talk of firing me. It didn’t upset anything. Just as ‘Jubilee Bells’ was a kind of incident that I thought was a storm in a teacup. It didn’t rattle me. Maybe because I wanted to distance myself from it.

It was possible to stop on Oct. 10, a few days after the massacre. To try to bring back the hostages – that takes precedence over everything. When will the number of dead be reached that’s supposed to let you feel you’ve won?

Ohad Naharin

“The money the government allocates is not the government’s money – the government will change and the money will still continue to come in, as it should in an orderly democratic regime. They can make cuts, perhaps, but the criteria have nothing to do with my political views. There are criteria related to quantity, quality, numbers and so forth. Among our private donors, who are very important to us, many might not be as extreme as I am [in my views], but they belong to the group I called ‘the builders.’ They feel that they belong to me, and I belong to them. I might argue with them, but we agree more than we disagree.”

Would you say that the IDF is committing war crimes?

“I wouldn’t use that expression today, because it’s a legal term. What is happening now is a total mistake. What is happening is cruel, inhuman: millions of refugees on the brink of hunger, without a roof over their heads; mothers who have nothing to eat and can’t breast-feed infants; thousands of people, including children, buried, dead and dying beneath the rubble after being bombed by the IDF, which is deliberately killing without ascertaining exactly who the victim is.

“Tens of thousands of wounded people dying, hospitals in ruins. A severe shortage of medication. Tens of thousands of orphaned children and bereaved parents who are part of a dreadful tragedy that was not mandated by reality. Cut off from water, from electricity. The destruction will not bring back the victims of October 7. In my view it desecrates their memory and also reduces the prospect of bringing the hostages back healthy, if at all. What difference does it make whether we call it war crimes or crimes against humanity or ‘the devil’s balls,’ if we don’t understand and don’t internalize how cruel and mistaken the army’s operation in Gaza is?”

You’re in an odd position in which you are severely critical of the government’s policy, and therefore are attacked here at home, while abroad you’re seen as being on the Israeli front line and are attacked there as well, from the other direction.

“Overall, the protest against Israel is not antisemitic, but pro-Palestinian. There is also stupidity and ignorance, but most of the protesters abroad are appalled by the scenes being played out in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and they are also aware that Israel has a far-right, corrupt government.

“I was at a demonstration in Milan in which thousands of people stood for two hours, and you felt a prayer for peace in the air that was far from militant. There were Arabs and Christian clergy around us, and local people. It was a prayer for peace. The heart of those people lay not in hatred but in a desire for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, based on the belief that most human beings everywhere want to live securely alongside their neighbors, find meaning and economic security, and see their children grow up and succeed in life.”

I think that most of those who say they have become “disillusioned” are referring to the understanding that in Gaza terrorism is supported by the population – in other words that your conception is incorrect.

“There is a difference between the discourse about different nations and the discourse about jihadists, Hamas and Hezbollah personnel. There are more than a billion and a half Muslims in the world. Talking about all of them in the same way is Islamophobic. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are enemies of our civilization, but it’s easy to see that the greatest threat to them is a diplomatic settlement – that’s clear. Using different types of power, such as diplomacy, will diminish their power.

“How is it that a groundbreaking, high-tech country resorts to 1948 methods to fight Hamas? What sense does it make? I’m not talking about developing new means of warfare. The solution must be serious, and the ideas we know and are working with are old ones. But for new ideas to evolve, it’s necessary to give up old ones, which is sometimes hard for people. We can and must find a way to weaken them [Hamas]. The solution is not liquidation but neutralization. In a law-abiding country you punish criminals, you don’t take revenge on them – and that’s a big difference. In punishing a criminal you remove him from the society he endangered and harmed. With revenge you often harm innocent people. Most of those who are talking about disillusionment are actually suffering from temporary blindness.”

On the other hand, what mental resources can be marshalled by those who were harmed, or by families of those who were harmed, for them to be able to pursue peace and restraint?

“There is this expression, ‘In their death they bequeathed us life.’ What is happening now is that in their death they are bequeathing us more dead. ‘And when all this is over, again we are three: the next war, you and the picture of me,’ as Hanoch Levin wrote in 1968. It’s almost boring to think how little we’ve learned. But I feel, exceptionally, that there is a new power arising here, that there is a group of builders. The destruction must be prevented, there must be a barrier to it. That is the only hope.”

In the meantime, Naharin may decide to channel his frustration into the dance studio. Even though he had not planned to create a new work so soon, he’s contemplating that idea now. And just as recent years were filled with works that seemed to be snapshots of an emotional state with intriguing ramifications, now too it’s intriguing to wonder what the current period will engender for Naharin – even if in the meantime it appears as though the ultimate work for the present era was created five years ago.

In any event, he is not talking about retiring. And when he does, it’s not clear who will step into his shoes. The disadvantage of the dominance of Naharin lies in that dominance itself. Meaning, one would be hard-pressed to think of a local creator of dance who hasn’t been influenced by him, whose language of movement doesn’t intersect in some way with Gaga or evoke Naharin’s aesthetic vision. The greatest of these individuals, from Sharon Eyal to Hofesh Shechter, have established acclaimed international dance companies of their own. Still, the question – of the successor – is asked from time to time.

“I don’t think about that,” Naharin says. “I am constantly divided between what I know and what I discover about the people I work with – I don’t hide anything. There are presently many people, talented creators who danced in the company, who are succeeding abroad. I don’t call them successors. They are good, important creative artists, and they have their own path, and our encounter was meaningful on that path.

“Beyond this, I meet very talented people every day, many of them people I work with. I don’t have the feeling that I am more important than them. We have an agreement, in our contract it is I who create dances for them. That doesn’t make me more important or smarter. That’s barely the case, it’s even the opposite. It puts me in my place – and that’s a place I want to be in.”

Text as PDF Text in Haaretz

Maoz Inon, an Israeli whose parents were killed Oct. 7 by Hamas militants, and Aziz Sarah, a Palestinian whose brother was killed by Israeli soldiers, were given a standing ovation by the crowd consisting of 12 500 catolics aswell as the pope Francis himself, at the ‘Peace Arena’ in Verona 18 of May 2024.

On July 1, an unprecedented group of organizations and individuals came together in Tel Aviv for the Great Peace Event.
It was not a conference; it was the launch of a revitalized, impactful Israeli
peace movement. The Robert Weil Family Foundation was one of many supporters who where part of making this come true.

Time is Now

How can we work towards peace between Israel and Palestine when an end to the war and conflict seems so far away? Standing Together is the largest Jewish-Arab grassroots movement in Israel and has played a leading role in Israel in organising demonstrations against the war in Gaza, for the release of hostages and for a ceasefire. On the 19 of february 2025 their spokespersons, Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green – nominated by Time Magazine as two of the world’s 100 most influential leaders in 2024 – will come to Stockholm, Kulturhuset to talk about human rights, equality and peace activism.

Standing Together was formed in 2015 with the aim of uniting Palestinian and Jewish Israeli citizens to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. They were also at the forefront of the protests for democracy in Israel in 2023, linking the fight for democracy in Israel with the fight against the occupation of Palestine.

Some of their many activities include collecting aid for communities affected by the October 7 attacks and creating a hotline for Arab-Israelis, particularly university students, who were affected by anti-Palestinian sentiments. And in March 2024, they organised a convoy consisting of 30 cars, in an attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to the Kerem Shalom border crossing into the Gaza Strip. An initiative that abruptly ended when Israeli police forced the convoy to turn around, some three kilometres from the border crossing.

About the invited speakers

Rula Daood is a Palestinian and Israeli citizen, working and living in Israel. Before joining Standing Together, Rula worked as a community organiser, staging events and protests that attracted hundreds of activists.

Alon-Lee Green is a Jewish and Israeli citizen, living and working in Israel. Green became one of the frontrunners of Israel’s social protests in the summer of 2011 and subsequently worked as a political advisor in Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

This event is initiated by Olof Palmes International Center, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and The Robert Weil Family Foundation. 

Read more! Link to live streem!

The Robert Weil Family Foundation has provided a crisis support to FeelBeit, an Israeli-Palestinian arts center on Jerusalem’s East-West border. But FeelBeit is actually much more than that. At its core, FeelBeit is a sacred partnership between Israeli and Palestinian creatives who are determined to prototype a better future for their land. Since 2020, these creatives have been building a shared home where the arts, community and social entrepreneurship is modeling an alternative to division, hatred and deadlock. 

FeelBeit’s beautiful, 7,000-sq.-ft. facility features a performance venue, gallery, café and co-working space. It stands atop the Sherover Promenade, a stunning public park between Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods that has long been underutilized due to inter-communal tensions, but which FeelBeit has been renewing as a shared space for all through cultural programming. 

Since its founding in 2020, FeelBeit welcomed more than 40,000 Israelis and Palestinians in approximately equal numbers to its arts events and cultural activities. Several hundred leaders and influentials from around the world visited to learn about FeelBeit’s model for bridge-building in a conflict zone. As a guest of FeelBeit in early 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, “This place is a sanctuary. It gives me strength.”

The horrors of October 7 called into question the fundamental viability of an organization based on Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and tested the bridges built with great effort over many years. Yet FeelBeit’s community has proven remarkably resilient, continuing to meet, talk and co-create gatherings and artistic events for more than 1,000 Israelis and Palestinians.

It is now clear that there are still Israelis and Palestinians who are committed to preserving bridges and imagining the day after the war. FeelBeit has emerged as their refuge; there is almost no other physical space that can take on such a role in this moment of crisis. In 2024, FeelBeit’s team will assume the responsibility that reality has placed at its doorstep, welcoming all who are ready to reach out across the abyss. The Robert Weil Family foundation is fully supporting the struggle for dialogue and bridgebuilding and is a proud supporter of FeelBeit.

Feel Beit

The Swedish Ambassador to Israel, Erik Ullenhag, published an article on the theme of the power of dialogue in the liberal magazine NU.

‘A couple of weeks ago, we gathered representatives from two peace organizations at the Swedish residence. Israeli “Women Wage Peace” and Palestinian “Women of the Sun” have cooperated with each other for a couple of years. However, the women had not met since the massacre on October 7, this was also the first time the Palestinian activists had been allowed to leave the West Bank since the war began. I began by deploring all the victims on both sides, especially the loss of Vivian Silver, one of the founders of Women Wage Peace. I had had the privilege of working quite a bit with Silver before she was murdered in her Kibbutz. Many of the Israeli women had lost loved ones and all had a family member who was drafted. One of the Palestinian women had lost her brother and 30 relatives in Gaza a week before the meeting. In the midst of despair, the women supported each other and the atmosphere in the room was electric as the women wept over each other’s grief. Their common message was that the war must end, the kidnapped be released and a way be found for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.

These types of meetings are currently unfortunately rare. A large percentage of Palestinians, both in the West Bank and Gaza, question that the massacre on October 7 really took place. On the Israeli side, very little of the suffering in Gaza is reflected – the television images seen in the rest of the world do not reach the Israeli citizens. Today I visited Kibbutz Nir Oz on the border with Gaza, where I was guided around by Swedish-Israeli Rita, who has lived there for decades. One in four members of the kibbutz had either been killed or kidnapped in the massacre and 80 percent of the houses were destroyed. Only three people have moved back, but many come from time to time to feed cats or take care of the Kibbutz. The devastation was hard to fathom and the grief of the victims I spoke to almost impossible to fathom. While walking around between burned houses, we heard the intense fighting from Khan Yunis a few kilometers away. In parallel with trying to take in the unimaginable atrocities that befell the kibbutz, I thought about the many thousands of children killed in Gaza. I heard the artillery fire and tried to imagine how people at that very moment were trying to seek shelter.

For me as a diplomat and in that sense an outsider, it is difficult enough to take in the suffering of both sides. I fully understand that it is even more difficult for two traumatized populations to see the other’s reality. But if peace is to be achieved, it is absolutely necessary that both sides try, and meetings between people are necessary. And as both Israelis and Palestinians often say – we all live here and none of us will leave. The key to peace and security after this war is a two-state solution and trying to understand the other side’s narrative. That is precisely why it gave hope when the Israeli and Palestinian women supported each other. And just recently I received a message from my guide Rita, whose parents-in-law were kidnapped on October 7th. She pleaded for help for a Palestinian family in Gaza “we need everyone’s help to free the kidnapped and ensure that we Israelis can live in peace with the people of Gaza”. Incredibly strong that someone who has been hit so hard still retains hope for peace and coexistence and can bear to see the suffering that befalls people in Gaza.’

Erik Ullenhag

Link to the article in NU

Zehava Galon was formerly leader of Meretz, one of Israels Social Democratic parties. She is know for her fight for equal rights of women, minorities and for fighting for ending the occupation. She is a voice for peace, all peoples equal value and for democracy. During her career she has worked in politics as well as in civil society, She co-founded and ran one of Israels most respected human right organizations B’Tselem who works for human rights in the occupied territories. Today Zehava is founder and head of the Israeli think and do tank Zulat -Institute for Equality and Human Rights.

The 30 of November 2023 Olof Palme International Center and the Robert Weil Family Foundation invited a group of representatives from the Swedish civil society to a round table discussion about the situation in Israel since October 7 and the role of Israeli civil society. Main speaker was Zehava Galon, we here publish the speech she held:

Shalom,

I would like to begin by welcoming the extension of the humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza, that resulted in the emotional release of a number of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, mainly woman and kids. This pause is also vital for millions of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, undergoing a humanitarian disaster, and for Israelis facing a barrage of rocket fire. We have been heartbroken since the horrific massacre in our southern communities on October 7th, sharing the pain of the families of hostages, whose fate remains unknown. We believe that all hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.

I want to tell what life in Israel has been like, since October 7^th, because it’s important that you understand what that day did to the Israeli psyche. I also will provide some background about the conflict and the price exacted by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s desperate desire to keep his ultraright coalition together. Finally, I will share with you my hope for the future, because despite the horrors the Israeli people experienced on that dark day, and despite the ease with which one can sink into despair, my faith in humanity remains strong, and my belief in a future of peace between the Israeli and the Palestinian people is unwavering.

When we were rudely awakened by the wail of sirens on that fateful morning, we had no idea about the tragedy that was about to overtake us. Since then, we’ve spent weeks in front of our TV screens, listening to blood-curdling stories, turning away when the images become unbearable, trying not to imagine the final moments of the victims of Hamas’s butchery. Entire families tortured, some burnt alive. Partygoers hunted down and sprayed with bullets as they ran for their lives. Hundreds taken hostage – infants, toddlers, the sick, the elderly. A bloodbath, recorded by the terrorists themselves, to share their barbaric deeds with the folks back home.

I personally know many people whose worlds were shattered on that dark Saturday. Friends from the peace movement and colleagues whose relatives were murdered or kidnapped. I meet with the families of the hostages, I go to funerals to share their grief, and I draw strength from the courage of those, who sacrificed their lives to save others.

As someone who has spent her life working for peace in partnership with others, in the region and around the world, I was shocked to see many, so-called progressives, people I thought were allies, squirming in an attempt to justify the kidnapping of children and the slaughter of innocent civilians. The atrocities committed by Hamas can never be excused! How can beheading children, or raping women before parading their naked lifeless bodies through the streets of Gaza, be considered part of the Palestinian people’s legitimate struggle for liberation? How can anyone consider this war crimes as a legitimate act of resistance? It is beyond my comprehension. You cannot say: “It’s awful, but….”  There is no “but.”

The actions of Hamas cannot be justified by citing the injustices of the occupation, but neither can the occupation be justified as a defense against the atrocities committed by Hamas. Millions of Palestinians live without democratic rights and freedoms, and I fully support their struggle to end the occupation through civil, political, and diplomatic means. Hamas, however, has shown that its objective is the annihilation of the State of Israel, and it must be fought with unwavering resolve.

Since that Saturday, there are sirens that alert the Israelis to seek shelter from incoming rockets and missiles. We huddle together in our safe rooms and wait, hoping that the boom we hear will be a distant thud, rather than the sound of metal, shattering the walls around us. Israel has not only the right but the obligation to protect its citizens, and it cannot accept a situation in which, a murderous organization bent on our annihilation, continues to thrive on our borders. At the same time, I believe that we must cling to our humanity and to the values that underpin international law. As a peace-seeking Israeli, I find it hard to witness the distressing images of thousands of innocent people fleeing Gaza, and the thousands of dead and wounded. The supply of food, water, and medicine must continue, and we must insist that our government observe the rules of warfare and try to avoid civilian casualties.

The war in Gaza threatens to turn, at any moment, into a war in the north with Hezbollah, which launches missiles at northern communities. As a result, the government has evacuated its residents. Today, there are more than hundred thousand refugees in Israel, both from the communities in the Gaza Envelope and from the north, who have no idea when they will be able to return home.

My concerns for the future of my country are amplified by the fact, that Israel is currently led by an unfit, dangerous individual, who heads a coalition that doesn’t have Israel’s best interests at heart. Messianic Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance, is calling for reoccupying Gaza and re-establishing the settlements in the Katif Bloc. Racist Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, is handing out weapons, to the left and right, as if they were candy. Other ministers are running campaigns of incitement against Israel’s Arab citizens, and then there are those, who are clinging the fictitious ministries, that Netanyahu created for them at a cost of billions, despite the need to grapple with the unforeseen costs of the war.

When considering how we got here, it’s important to remember that the government spent most of the last year focused on its attempt to crush democracy and establish a dictatorial regime, just so that Netanyahu could avoid going to prison. This is the same prime minister, who is placing the blame for the Hamas massacre, on the heads of the security establishment and has refused to say “the buck stops here.” Instead, he and his cohorts talk about shared responsibility, about decisions made by previous governments – although Netanyahu’s been in power for most of the past 16 years – and about the sins of the Oslo architects and Sharon’s disengagement plan.

Not only were Netanyahu and his ministers responsible for the greatest intelligence and military failure in the history of the state, but they continued to betray the public’s trust by displaying incompetence in taking control of the situation. The families of the hostages didn’t know where to turn, the refugees from the south didn’t know from day to day where they would be sleeping that night, the coffers of the southern regional councils, emptied with no emergency funding arriving from the Treasury. – The state simply ceased to function.

The media is rife with tales about personal gripes influencing the prime minister’s decision-making, and in the midst of all this chaos, the government is continuing to dish out money, to the settlers and the ultra-orthodox parties, instead of aiding the survivors of the massacre.

The one bright spot in all this madness has been Israeli civil society. As the state collapsed around them, Israeli citizens banded together to fill the void. Jews and Arabs, Eritrean refugees, the young and the old, masses of volunteers from all walks of life, rallied to help. They donate money, offer housing to those who no longer have a home, drive those who no longer have a car, pack meals for the hungry, do laundry, offer baby-sitting services. So many initiatives, such solidarity. And that’s why there’s hope. Despite the hatred, the fear, and the worthless politicians, there is hope because there are good people, who believe in basic human decency as the foundation of Israeli society.  And they need you now more than ever!

They need you now because, in this time of darkness, it’s hard for the Israeli people to think of the day after. We need your help to see beyond our pain and to start planning for the future. Together, we must join hands to secure a resolution of the conflict.

For 56 years, Israel has ruled over millions of Palestinians. We established settlements and confiscated their lands. What past governments justified as security needs, Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government exposed as a messianic sense of entitlement, to all the land between the river and the sea. In the West Bank, we entrenched a system of human rights abuses that became so routine, and today, with attention focused on Gaza, the West Bank is turning into a Wild West, where violent settlers have been left to go on the rampage. This cannot go on. The continuation of this bloody conflict is the greatest threat to Israel’s future as a liberal democracy. The only way forward is through a political agreement between moderate Palestinian forces and an Israeli government that upholds universal values. Palestinian partners exist, and they would welcome an outstretched hand. On the Israeli side, more and more people are coming to see that this extremist government, with its ultranationalist agenda, its high-handed ministers, and above all, its incompetence, needs to go. It needs to go now, and we need to start thinking about the kind of reality we want to see here.

There is hope. I believe that once the dust settles and Netanyahu is gone, most of the Israeli public will draw the same conclusions as President Biden – that there is no going back to the status quo before October 7^th, and that the next stage is a two-state solution. At Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, the institute I head, we are currently focused on the campaign for the release of the Israeli hostages, and on ensuring that the rights of the survivors, the bereft, the evacuees, those whose income has been affected, those whose education has been disrupted – in brief, that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are suffering the consequences of the October 7^th attacks, are not abandoned by the state.

The day after, our struggle will shift to a new agenda, based on the understanding that justice and equality and freedom and truth, are indivisible. This will be a battle for the soul of Israeli society, between those who want a democratic, modern and liberal Israel, in which all citizens are treated equally, and between those who want a racist, nationalistic Israel, that is shunned by the enlightened countries of the world.

Our challenge will be to grow a new Israeli society out of this blood-soaked soil – one that is devoted to the pursuit of full equality for all the people that share this land. That’s why we need liberal forces like you, people committed to democratic values, to voice support for our struggle for democracy at home, and for a fair and just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The knowledge that we can count on your support will give us the strength to go on.

Thank you.

Zehava Galon

a theatre performance by Ninna Tersman

Based on the true story of a young boy, Piotr Zettinger, who during World War II was smuggled through the Warsaw sewer system and out of the infamous Jewish ghetto. Hidden by Catholic families and nuns until the war was over, he survived. Today he is an 85 year old man, living in Sweden, lecturing about his life during the war, and about his narrow escape from certain death in the extermination camp at Treblinka.
This is the story of a boy living in constant fear of having his true identity revealed. It examines xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and prejudice, but also introduces some brave people who were prepared to risk their lives to help others. The Robert Weil Family foundation is a proud supporter of the production but also of the theatres ambitions to create a digitalized version to be available for schools and other organizations in their pedagogical work.

Not a sound will be performed in Stockholm for schools at Teater Tribunalen.

Book your tickets!

The Vice-Chancellor has taken the decision to award Stockholm University’s large gold medal 2023 to Robert Weil. The medal was instituted in 1990 and is awarded to those who have significantly and over a long period of time worked to promote the university, its research or its teaching.

The short story about Robert Weil is that he is a well-known Swedish businessman. As true as this may be, it is hardly a comprehensive description of his work or what makes him unique. Alongside his successful activities as a businessman, above all through investment company Proventus that he founded, Robert Weil has made himself known as a patron of the arts and culture – through the Jewish Theatre, the Berättarministeriet, and Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art. At Stockholm University, he is one of the founders and central contributor, through both the Robert Weil Family Foundation and Magasin III Museum, of the art space Accelerator, sister institution to Magasin III and a meeting place for the arts, science and society at the university. Stockholm University has happily and gratefully entered into developing this important arena of collaboration. Yet when Robert Weil is honored today with Stockholm University’s large gold medal, it is not primarily because of his financial contribution, however welcome, important, and decisive this may be for the creation of Accelerator. It is for his vision of the university, its inalienable role in the world surrounding academia, and its crucial contribution to the development of society at large, that he is awarded this medal. Over the years, Robert Weil has also made himself known as a fearless and combative debater, standing up for humanistic values. He criticizes companies that fall short of facing the problems of the future. He emphasizes the responsibility of capital owners for the future of society. He highlights the need for the humanities and arts to put a one-sided focus on profit into perspective. Not least, he condemns all politics, regardless of color, that are cowards for antidemocratic currents in society. It is here that he sees one of the university’s main tasks as a counterweight, to further knowledge, education, as well as free and critical thinking. Robert Weil’s insights never remain theoretical afterthoughts – he puts them into concrete actions. He is an invaluable collaborator for a university that strives to realize these ideals. This decision was made by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Astrid Söderbergh Widding, following a presentation by researcher Anna Riddarström, Vice-Chancellor’s Secretariat.

13 of January 2024, the British journalist Kenan Malik was invited to Kulturhuset in Stockholm to twist and turn the ideals of equality, the history of the concept of race and controversial concepts such as “white privilege”, a conversation about the origins and pitfalls of identity politics. Already 14 years ago Malik came to Stockholm invited by us through the Per Ahlmark Foundation, to talk about his then resently published book ‘From Fatwa To Jihad’. We here publish the speach he gave back then.

Kenan Malik 2010

Drops is an installation piece in glass created by Ann Wåhlström specifically for the new entrance at Södertälje Hospital. Free for all to interpret. Light reflections, a forest, a lake, tears, a summer rain or whatever comes to mind.

Ann Wåhlström, born in 1957, educated in Sweden and the USA, has created both functional and decorative glass since the 1980’s as a glass­blower, designer and visual artist. Wåhlström is based in Stockholm and collaborates with skilled glassblowers in Sweden, the USA and the Czech Republic.

Drops was originally an integral part of the staging of Different Trains which premiered in 2008 at the Jewish Theatre in Stockholm, based on Steve Reich’s composition of the same name. The performance piece was a multifaceted visualisation by Pia Forsgren, the Artistic Director of the theatre, where the Swedish string quartet Fleshquartet performed surrounded by glass drops made by Ann Wåhlström.

Donated by the Robert Weil Family Foundation and The Jewish Theatre in Stockholm.