What are effective organizing tactics, and how are they used? Can you build a movement by alienating folks who might be persuadable? What do litmus tests do for the health of a movement?
I’ve explained how “Instagram Organizing” has not brought systemic change for the people in Israel and Palestine. However, only breaking down tactics that don’t work does not leave any room for peace. I want to finish my analysis of organizing tactics by highlighting actions that have successfully brought social change and/or relief to those in Israel and Palestine. Most importantly for many of us, I will also highlight how US-based activists can be impactful.
Activism begins with identifying goals. If you give your time, talent, or treasure to a movement that does not align with your values and, by extension, your goals, your efforts may feel futile. The movement for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is riddled with misaligned goals, promoting feelings of hopelessness. On the one hand, there are often Jewish institutions who are working vigorously toward rebuilding impacted Israeli communities in the wake of the October 7th attacks, aligning usually with the IDF and focusing on the strength of Israel. On the other Muslim institutions are frequently found focusing solely on Palestinian humanitarian aid and working to reach a ceasefire. Some organizations, faith-based and otherwise, work with both the Palestinian and Israeli movements to achieve peace.
No matter where you stand, as an organizer, it is pivotal to identify your goals and how they fit into the movement. Only then can effective tactics begin. Researching and recognizing which institutions utilize effective, socially aware, trauma-informed tactics to promote peace is essential.
Beyond protests, an institution can be helpful in many ways. One of the most effective organizing groups in Israel is Standing Together, a group of Palestinians and Israelis who work together to lead a peace movement. Collectively, Standing Together has created the largest Jewish-Arab grassroots movement in Israel and has a long list of direct accomplishments. As just one example, they organized a large-scale aid window and fought off ultra-conservative Israelis who tried to stop aid from entering Gaza and, by doing so, helped the people of Gaza directly.
Standing Together is effective partly because they have explicitly defined their “theory of change.” Having a set of ideals generated through continued conversation and consensus building is precisely what Gal Beckerman prescribes in The Quiet Before. Nevertheless, even while what Standing Together has accomplished is incredible, it’s limited in impact because they have not reached a consensus or coalition with other, more traditional advocates (they are currently in a fundraising campaign to be able to achieve a broader coalition within the Israeli government).
United States Activism
One of the most complex issues in foreign affairs activism and the globalization of organizing is that activists can take relatively few actions to change distant situations. Middle East peace is a perfect example of this challenge. Many US-based activists struggle to find non-performative actions to help Palestinians, which explains why performative activism has become a crutch for such organizers.
Still, performative action is a distraction from the work of change-making. The fact that effective action is challenging should not deter activists from trying to make change. The difficulty should be a test of innovative and strategic thinking about what might be possible in the future.
Philanthropy
One of the most accessible ways to enter the change-making community is to donate financial resources to qualified organizations aligned with the identified goals. Peer-to-peer fundraising is an easy access point—think of a Facebook or Instagram fundraiser or any time a friend asks for donations to a cause.
One exciting development in philanthropy has been the idea of “trust-based philanthropy,” meaning that the people impacted most have the best knowledge regarding where the money would be the most impactful. It’s been fascinating over the last year to see trust-based mutual aid requests from citizens in Palestine utilizing Instagram to fundraise directly for families in Gaza. What’s most interesting in this type of philanthropy is that there is no way to know that the money is going towards what the donor wants – the point is to trust that the receiver of funds knows the best use of the donation.
The most important part of donating as a tool for activism is ensuring that the organization or individual will further the donor’s personal goals. Mutual aid is effective if your goal is trust-based philanthropy and empowering citizens in Gaza. If your goal is strengthening Israel, the Federation’s calls for Israel fundraising are effective. If your goal is direct action for peace, an organization like Standing Together might be the most effective.
No one form of philanthropy is the “best” for you. The critical part of activism is deciding what method of action most aligns with your values and the values of the movement you are a part of.
Civic Engagement
One of the most popular “Instagram Organizing” calls demands that all levels of the government push a ceasefire or arms embargo or to “divest” from companies and investments that have any connection to Israel. Many activists fail to advertise the basics of civic engagement that the government is notorious for.
Elected officials have built the United States government to listen (however imperfectly) to the needs and desires of their constituents. A simple way to ensure local, state, and federal elected officials take your goals into real consideration is to connect with them directly and express appeals and desires. It’s essential to attempt not to shame public officials towards your needs but to show them why it’s crucial. Alongside that, it is vital to ensure your communication about the effectiveness of any one strategy is going to the right source. Building relationships with elected officials also requires that they not only hear from an advocate when there is an emergency (consider: if your friend only talks to you when they want to ask for a favor, you stop listening when that friend reaches out).
Civic engagement is a long game. If the people in office do not reflect an activist’s values, they should feel empowered to persuade them otherwise. Alternatively, build up the community members who align with activism goals and work to elect those people. There was a common theme among activists this past election to abstain from civic engagement. Abstention is the “easy” route that ignores the opportunity that actual organizing work provides. It is willful self-disempowerment.
Coalition
Lastly, one of the most critical components of community organizing is not to organize alone. Not only does it ensure that ideas will be more diverse, but coalition among a community makes goals more achievable. It was notable the number of people who have approached me since my first Jewfolk article was published, who told me that I had reflected their views. What could this group achieve if we came together, talked about our views, identified priorities, and devised a plan of action to implement those demands?
Unfortunately, we in the US have little individual influence over this war. Activists should not feel discouraged by their lack of influence but rather see it as a challenge to devise new means of organizing to achieve their goals. There are plenty of ways people in the United States can make an impact without resorting to antisemitism or being solely performative.
The strategies of Philanthropy, Civic Engagement, and Coalition Building effectively promote peace in Israel and Gaza. Next time, I will show how to apply this framework to other social justice movements (many organizers struggle to transfer the application of tactics from one issue to another). Activists can use these strategies and lessons for other social movements in the United States.
