New Israel Fund leader urges Jews and Palestinians to unite against extremism, condemns Israeli government’s actions in Gaza
Mickey Gitzin, acting CEO of the New Israel Fund, says peace requires recognizing the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, opposing occupation and defending equal rights as his organization renews humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza.
The head of the major American Jewish humanitarian organization founded in California in 1979 called the situation in Gaza “a humanitarian catastrophe.”
By Ray Hanania
CHICAGO, IL, Oct. 10, 2026 — Jews and Palestinians must reject the extremists who have divided their communities and recognize that neither people can achieve a peaceful future without the other, Mickey Gitzin, acting CEO of the leading Israeli humanitarian organization New Israel Fund (NIF), said three years after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
In the interview on Michigan’s US Arab Radio Network, Gitzin sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for its military actions in Gaza and the West Bank, while urging Arabs and Jews to recognize the suffering of innocent civilians on both sides of the conflict.
A Jewish-led organization advocating for democracy, equality and human rights in Israel and Palestine since its founding in 1979, NIF has raised more than $3.7 million to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, expanding its traditional mission of supporting civil rights, equality and democracy.
“We see Israeli suffering and we step up, and we see Palestinian suffering and we step up,” Gitzin said, explaining NIF is raising more money to help address Gaza’s humanitarian needs.
“And I think that’s the natural thing to do when you’re a true humanist.”
The organization initially responded to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, by assisting Israeli victims. But as the war in Gaza intensified, Gitzin said NIF concluded that it had a moral responsibility to help Palestinians facing widespread destruction, displacement and humanitarian suffering.
Gitzin said the Israeli government’s response to the Hamas attacks had gone far beyond legitimate security concerns and had devastated the lives of Palestinian civilians.
“It’s not only going too far. It had no strategic goal. It aims at civilians that had nothing to do with it,” Gitzin said.
He warned that the destruction in Gaza has created a humanitarian catastrophe whose consequences will affect future generations of both Palestinians and Israelis.
“Jews and Palestinians will live together in this region forever,” Gitzin said. “And the idea that you can engage in such horrific, violent activities one against another and continue living as nothing happened does not make sense.”
Gitzin said that there are many Jews and Israelis who oppose extremism on both sides, in Israel and in the United States.
He said the central obstacle to peace is the misguided belief that Palestinians or Israelis can achieve security, freedom and justice by defeating or excluding the other. Extremists in both communities have helped undermine opportunities for a negotiated peace.
Gitzin accused the Israeli right wing and Hamas of effectively reinforcing each other’s political objectives by working against the possibility of a peaceful resolution.
“The Israeli right wing and Hamas have been in partnership for many, many years,” Gitzin said, describing what he sees as their shared interest in defeating peaceful alternatives.
He called for moderate Palestinians and Israelis to develop a common political and humanitarian movement capable of challenging those extremes.
“There’s never gonna be a future for Palestinians only in Israel-Palestine. There’s never gonna be a future for Jews only in Israel-Palestine,” he said.
“The only way to go forward that actually makes sense, which is pragmatic, which actually takes into account all parties, is by understanding that we need to learn to live together and to work together and to disagree and to go on.”
Gitzin said efforts to bring Jews and Palestinians together are sometimes dismissed as naive. He argued that the truly unrealistic position is believing the two peoples can be permanently separated or that one can simply disappear.
He also criticized the increasingly polarized political discourse in the United States, where positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become expressions of identity rather than discussions about practical solutions to humanitarian suffering.
Gitzin said some progressive Jews and Israelis who oppose the occupation and support Palestinian equality have found themselves alienated from political movements with which they previously identified.
“I’m a pro-Palestine, pro-Israel person,” Gitzin said, explaining that support for the rights of one people should not require denying the rights of the other.
Gitzin said the New Israel Fund has faced attacks from Netanyahu and Israel’s political right for more than 15 years because of its advocacy for Palestinian rights and its support for Israeli human rights organizations.
He outlined three central principles guiding the New Israel Fund’s current work: ending the occupation of Palestinian territories, securing full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and defending civil rights and democratic freedoms for everyone.
“There is no such thing as a democracy with an occupation,” Gitzin said.
He emphasized that the organization supports Palestinian communities in the West Bank facing settler violence and Israeli military actions, including efforts by Jewish activists to provide a protective presence for vulnerable Palestinian residents.
Gitzin also stressed the importance of equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, who constitute approximately 21 percent of the country’s population.
“The way you treat minorities says about your democracy more than anything else,” he said, adding the New Israel Fund supports Palestinian-led organizations that address discrimination, community violence, civil rights and political representation, while also working to strengthen Israeli democratic institutions and freedoms of expression and protest.
Gitzin said the organization employs approximately 70 people in Israel, including Jews and Palestinians, and another 40 in the United States.
Despite the political attacks, he said support for the New Israel Fund is growing, including among Israelis who oppose their government’s policies and American Jews uncomfortable with the direction of Israeli politics.
Gitzin cited opinion polling that he said showed opposition or discomfort among more than 70 percent of American Jews toward the Israeli government’s actions.
Gitzin believes there is a significant, often overlooked constituency of Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs and Jews who reject extremism and want to build a future based on equality and coexistence.
He argued that the loudest voices in the conflict frequently receive the most attention, creating the misleading impression that compromise and mutual understanding have little public support.
The New Israel Fund, Gitzin said, hopes to provide an organizational home for people who oppose violence and want to translate their beliefs into meaningful action.
He encouraged Jews, Arabs, Muslims and Christians to support the organization’s humanitarian campaign for Gaza through its website, NIF.org.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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