Two leaders in healthcare — one Israeli and one Palestinian — shared how members of both groups work together to improve access to healthcare, emphasizing their belief that “peace is possible.”

Ran Goldstein, the CEO of Rozana, and Mohammad Asideh, director of international advocacy, sat down with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington on June 24 to discuss their peacebuilding work.

The webinar was part of JCRC’s Partners for Peace initiative, which seeks to highlight individuals and organizations working to advance cooperation, shared society and practical solutions that improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.

“Our community hears a great deal about the political and security challenges of Israel. Those conversations are essential, but they do not tell the whole story,” said Adam Odesser, director of JCRC’s Dr. Stuart Lessans Israel Action Center, who moderated the discussion. “It’s also important to understand the work being done by civil society organizations that are addressing humanitarian needs, strengthening relationships, and creating opportunities for cooperation.”

Established in 2013 as Project Rozana, Rozana operates in Israel and Palestinian territories to address healthcare gaps and build relationships between healthcare actors, according to its website. The nongovernmental organization began with 10 staff members and is now a team of 45.

“Joining Rozana actually brings me a lot of hope when I wake up every morning to work with people and actually I see how we can work together, how Rozana brings not only cure[s] to people in need, but also more development, strengthening the capacity on both sides,” Goldstein said during the webinar.

Rozana has implemented mobile and community clinics in Gaza, where healthcare is under “constant strain.” The group also offers a healthcare program specifically for women, a rehabilitation center in Hebron, a volunteer driver program that provides transport from the West Bank to hospitals in Jerusalem, a women’s ambulance driver program and the Jewish-Arab Dialogue in Hospitals Program.

Goldstein spoke to Rozana’s ability to unite people from different backgrounds via a common cause.

“To see, for example, young women from East Jerusalem sitting together with women from West Jerusalem — Jewish and Arab — training to be ambulance drivers with [Magen David Adom], it’s something that, after Oct. 7, I think it’s kind of a miracle to see it happening,” he said.

The initial plan for Rozana was not to treat patients, but to work with medical teams from both the Israeli and Palestinian communities.

“Obviously, the [Israel-Hamas] war put us in a position that we didn’t plan to be [in], but now we have clinics in Gaza operated by Rozana,” Goldstein said.

Another challenge he cited was the United States government’s decision to end support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which affected Rozana.

“Despite all those challenges, we never stopped working for a second,” Goldstein said.

Asideh, a longtime activist for a two-state solution, spoke to the need for a practical approach to peace.

“I think activism is great,” Asideh said. “It comes with good intentions, but without a plan, without a strategy, it doesn’t lead to much.”

In his past experiences within activism, Asideh said he noticed that peacebuilding dialogue often prioritized coming to one understanding or narrative, when that is often unrealistic. He said Rozana takes a slightly different approach, with 30 displaced Gazans serving as staff members on the ground in Gaza.

“And we’re doing that in cooperation with Israel, [with] an Israeli organization, but they are very close to us in the way we view the political situation and the end to the conflict, which is establishing an independent Palestinian state next to Israel,” Asideh said. “So we agree on that general picture, and we’ve been able to work together to make an impact … even though we don’t agree necessarily on the same narrative.”

Trying to achieve one common narrative often isn’t effective, according to Asideh.

“At some point, I realized that the more you’re trying to have the same narrative and the same understanding, the further apart the parties become,” he said. “There are things we view differently, and we live in peace despite those differences.”

Israelis and Palestinians should stay true to their beliefs, not feel the need to sacrifice their personal values in order to join an organization or effort, Asideh said.

“Regardless of who’s right and who’s wrong, we are in the situation we are in,” he added. “I think there will be a political solution, but the … approach we’re advocating for is a policy solution as well in health, in environment, in energy infrastructure, in technology, that we could share, which would strengthen peace and would allow people to get to know each other.

“We all know an agreement wouldn’t achieve peace. You need communities to interact and get to know each other. Our goal at this point is to create that platform where people could interact, engage and get to know each other. They won’t necessarily like each other. Ran and I might like each other, or not, it doesn’t really matter much. We still do the job; we do it well.

“It’s enough to know that we’re doing the work together in Gaza,” Asideh said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com