Tag Archives: Liberal Democrats for Peace in the Middle East

Building bridges for Middle East peace

By Paul Walter | Sun 21st September 2025 - 3:00 pm

-That was the title of a Bournemouth fringe meeting today. It was hosted by Liberal Democrats for Peace in Middle East. Their President, Leon Duveen, was on the panel with their Chair, Mohammed Amin.

The panel (above) featured Sharon Booth, who is the Chief Executive and founder of Solutions Not Sides. SNS “is an education programme that exists to provide humanising encounters, diverse narratives and critical-thinking tools in order to empower young people with the knowledge, empathy and skills to promote dialogue and conflict resolution, and to challenge prejudice in the UK.”

Also on the panel were two peace activists who SNS use as mentors in their programme.
They included Hamze Awawde has been leading programmes that bring Israelis and Palestinians together for the last 12 years. He leads YaLa Young Leaders, which brings young people together to break down divisions and barriers.

Posted in Conference | Also tagged israel, middle east and palestine | 2 Comments

Introducing Liberal Democrats for Peace in the Middle East

By Zachary Barker | Thu 12th August 2021 - 11:59 am

Peace cannot be kept by force: It can only be kept by understanding.
(Albert Einstein)

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is presented as a key example of an intractable conflict, where there is continual, tragic loss of life and political solutions prove illusive. Understandably, many Liberal Democrats have strong feelings about the continuous loss of life and injustices that stem from this conflict. The longer this conflict continues, the greater the risk becomes that we feel tempted to take positions that mirror the parties to the conflict.

Readers will note the existence of other groups within the Lib Dems concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. It would be reasonable to ask, how are Liberal Democrats for Peace in the Middle East unique compared to them? Our position can be summed up as looking for solutions and not taking sides.

We believe it is completely reasonable to care about the security and wellbeing of both Israelis and Palestinians equally. We believe strongly in taking an approach to this debate that leaves out partisan bias. Constructive, clear minded and reasonable debate about this conflict and possible remedies for it are urgently needed. It is our position that discussions based on accusations and declaring the moral high ground for one side over another, have been to the detriment of finding workable solutions and promoting meaningful debate. After all a sustainable solution will require the consent of people on both sides of the conflict.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged middle east | 18 Comments