People attend the "It's Time People's Peace Summit" at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on May 9, 2025. (Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
Thousands gathered Friday in Jerusalem for a rare peace rally, as the war in Gaza enters its 20th month, with a humanitarian situation described as alarming by the U.N. and dozens of Israeli hostages still held captive.
Israel, which resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce, announced on Monday a "conquest" plan for the Palestinian territory that envisions a massive population transfer, drawing widespread condemnation worldwide.
"Gaza will be totally destroyed," Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an extreme-right leader, stated Tuesday.
"We cannot let extremists on both sides, who feed off revenge, fear, and hate, decide our future," said Maoz Inon, a 50-year-old Israeli entrepreneur and peace activist, and co-organizer of this People's Peace Summit held on Friday.
"Even if they control our present, we must choose an alternative and shape a different future," he added.
The event was organized by a coalition of about 60 local organizations working for a political resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On this occasion, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa presented their peace plan, unveiled for the first time last year.
Two-state solution
Kidwa, nephew of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, spoke via videoconference from the occupied West Bank. "Only a two-state solution can bring about a radical change for our country and the entire region," Olmert, the centrist predecessor of the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated.
"We must end the war and withdraw from Gaza. Gaza is Palestinian ... and must be part of a Palestinian state," he argued, calling for the establishment of an "internal security force" under the Palestinian Authority's command, equipped with "objective powers ... to rebuild the Gaza Strip without the participation" of Hamas.
The war in Gaza was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Kidwa stated that their peace proposal rested on a two-state solution, including a 4.4 percent territory exchange between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
According to the plan unveiled last year, Israel would annex the main Jewish settlements in the West Bank, particularly some areas around Jerusalem.
In return, an equivalent-sized Israeli territory would be ceded to a future Palestinian state, they said.
Their vision for a two-state solution is based on Israel's borders from June 4, 1967, before the occupation of the West Bank.
The Olmert-Kidwa plan also advocates for shared sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City, with a governance arrangement that includes both Israel and a Palestinian state.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.