The Convivencia Alliance is a coalition of Jewish, Muslim and Christian organisations supporting a just peace in Palestine based on One Democratic State, launched in London in May 2022. The founding organisations were Jewish Network for Palestine, (JNP), Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) and Peacemaker Trust.  

Convivencia simply means ‘coexistence’. It is an academic hypothesis, first proposed by the Spanish philologist Américo Castro, regarding the coexistence of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities during the period of Spanish history from the Muslim Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the early eighth century until the expulsion of the Jews by Christian rulers in 1492.

By extension the term can describe the contemporary religious and cultural interaction and exchange fostered by such proximity as a way to challenge the various forms of ethno-supremacism and exclusive religious nationalisms emerging in different parts of the world. 

The Convivencia Alliance has grown significantly since the launch and the Convivencia Declaration, outlining the aims and objectives of the Alliance, has already been endorsed by an extensive and growing list of internationally known leaders and organisations

The views expressed here are of the Convivencia Alliance in the UK. Our constituencies rightly expect a clear description of our commitment to a just peace in Palestine and we have shaped this document together with leading organisations and activists in Palestine. We fully accept that the future of Palestine will and should be decided there through the process of decolonisation and the ending of Zionist control and its privileges and will be shaped by the political forces on the ground.

Recently, Israel has initiated the ‘Abraham Accords’ with some of the Gulf states. This is part of the normalisation agenda fomented by Israel and the US, designed to separate the Palestinians from the rest of the Arab world. It is a dangerous development, aiming to freeze the situation in Palestine, denying Palestinians rights and allowing more and more of Palestine to be actively illegally confiscated and colonised by settlers. In no way is the Convivencia Initiative supporting this toxic move towards denying justice for Palestinians. 

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