The seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in a dispute over the land that makes up present-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. In 1917, British forces occupied Palestinian territory from Ottoman Syria and were then granted a dual mandate in 1920 that instigated a cycle of violence between the Jews and Arabs within the land. Following World War II, the United Nations proposed a partition plan for the British-controlled Palestinian territory, exacerbating violence between religious groups that spiraled into a series of regional conflicts between 1948 and 1973. By the 1980s, significant Israeli and Palestinian peace movements had emerged. Palestinian civil society groups, with women academics at the forefront, mobilized a primarily nonviolent [PDF] mass movement known as the first intifada in 1987. These women came from every facet of society and participated in mass demonstrations, labor strikes, and boycotts of Israeli goods. This economic pressure, as well as the first intifada’s inclusivity, played a central role in strengthening the durability of the movement and building momentum for the 1991 Madrid Conference, which brought all parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict together to negotiate for the first time.  

The subsequent Oslo Accords , meant to quell public discontent and form a Palestinian state, failed to resolve the conflict. The second intifada, beginning in September 2000, was far bloodier than the first and included a spate of suicide attacks on civilians before an informal ceasefire was reached in 2005. Waves of violence and instability have followed, and diplomatic efforts by the Middle East Quartet (the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations) have made little progress. There have been no direct talks since 2014, when a U.S. effort was derailed in part by Israel’s settlement expansion  and the Palestinian formation of a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. In January 2017, world leaders met in Paris to underscore their support for a negotiated two-state solution; no official representative from Israel or the Palestinian territories attended. In August 2020, following U.S. mediation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, wherein the two countries agreed to normalize relations, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan announced similar U.S.-brokered deals, known as the Abraham Accords. In early 2023, after nearly a decade of silence, Israeli and Palestinian representatives held meetings in Egypt and Jordan to address growing violence in the occupied West Bank. Israel agreed to temporarily halt new settlement expansion in the West Bank, and both representatives affirmed the need for lasting peace. Despite these talks, tensions remain high between the parties. 

On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which governs Gaza, carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 Israelis and taking roughly 250 hostages. Israel subsequently launched a counteroffensive aimed at destroying Hamas, leading to a formal declaration of war by Israel and a complete siege of the Gaza Strip. Over 50,000 civilians have been killed , and an estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced . In January 2025, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar—who have been serving as mediators to help end the crisis—announced that terms for a three-part ceasefire had been reached. The two parties worked through phase one of the deal, which saw the release of twenty-five living hostages by Hamas and the return of the bodies of eight deceased hostages; Israel returned thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange. The deal also initially led to a pause in fighting and allowed for the delivery of humanitarian aid. But in mid-March 2025, Hamas and Israel failed to reach an agreement on phase two of the deal, and Israel resumed a blockade of Gaza , as well as heavy bombardment of the territory. The humanitarian crisis is dire, and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are without shelter or healthcare and are facing the risk of famine. 

Although Israeli and Palestinian women have been underrepresented in formal negotiations, they have played critical roles in civil society for decades, advising negotiators and building grassroots support for the peace process. Nevertheless, only a handful of women have served as official negotiators and technical advisors in the last thirty years, and even fewer women have participated in leading roles in negotiations. Although the importance of women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution processes has been enshrined in policy by both the Israeli and Palestinian governments, both parties have fallen short in achieving inclusive representation. Women’s advocacy groups and civil society continue to advocate for negotiating delegations that include more women and representatives from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. 

Resolve impasses. When women have participated in formal negotiations, they have been lauded by other negotiators and third-party mediators as being critical to resolving impasses between parties and coaxing their own teams out of obstruction. In the U.S.-led negotiations from 2013 to 2014, for example, Tzipi Livni reportedly advocated for all parties to ignore political distractions and continue to discuss concrete agenda items , even while other members of her negotiating team appeared ready to filibuster talks over procedural matters.

Inform negotiating positions. Though agenda issues that are typically viewed as hard security concerns—such as the division of territory and military cooperation—overwhelmingly have been led by male negotiators and technical advisors, women have exercised leadership on both Israeli and Palestinian technical committees to provide critical expertise on issues such as water access and legal and human rights concerns.

Work across divides. Israeli and Palestinian women leaders have long built coalitions across national, ethnic, and religious lines in physical and digital spaces, which they have used to lead nonviolent efforts [PDF] to promote human security, equality, and access to basic services. For example, a women’s contingent helped unite Palestinian political parties and mobilize support from Israeli civil society to successfully protect a Palestinian village from destruction. Civil society groups have formed to facilitate dialogue and promote peace by uniting people from both sides—from parents who have lost family members in the conflict to soldiers and freedom fighters. 

Lead mass action campaigns. Women have mobilized mass action campaigns calling on political leaders to make progress in peace negotiations. In 2014, for example, roughly one thousand women staged a protest aboard a train to the Gaza border town of Sderot to call for the immediate restart of peace talks . In 2016, the Israeli organization Women Wage Peace staged a massive peace rally in Jerusalem. The organization has fifty thousand Israeli members and collaborates with the Palestinian women’s peace movement, Women of the Sun , which was established in 2021. Just days before the October 2023 attack,1,500 Israeli and Palestinian women gathered in Jerusalem and by the Dead Sea to advocate for peace and inclusion of women in the negotiation processes. In July 2024, the group helped organize a peace rally in Jerusalem attended by over five thousand Israeli and Palestinian participants to call for an end to the war. Women Wage Peace has also played an active role in calling for the return of the hostages held by Hamas, including by holding vigils.

“We [women] are getting involved in the war without anybody asking us if we want to, because we are paying the price of this war, we deserve to be on the negotiation table.”

— Member of Women of the Sun.