As heads of government, foreign ministers, and top diplomats gathered for this week's G7 Leaders' Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, they entered intense discussions on the Middle East with a groundbreaking blueprint in hand. The document includes fresh multilateral funding commitments, with major new Canadian support announced by Foreign Minister Anita Anand, and comprehensive recommendations jointly developed by 150 Israeli and Palestinian civil society leaders.
Paris Call 2026 Framework
The policy framework, summarized in "The Paris Call 2026," and the accompanying funding surge are the direct outcomes of a day-long pre-Summit conference convened by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. The gathering brought top diplomats en route to the G7 from over a dozen nations face-to-face with on-the-ground peacebuilders. It was organized in partnership with the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), Les Guerrières de la Paix, and Principles for Peace.
Through five intensive working groups, joint Israeli and Palestinian delegations collaborated with diplomats to deliver concrete actions designed to move beyond a seemingly frozen status quo after nearly three years of acute violence. The recommendations outline pathways to stabilize fragile ceasefires, expand humanitarian aid, and advance disarmament, reconstruction, and a region-wide peace and security framework.
Unusual Format for Proposals
The proposals were presented through an unusual format: a series of panel discussions where civil society representatives sat on stage alongside foreign ministers, accompanied by direct appeals from individuals personally affected by the violence. This approach aimed to humanize the conflict and underscore the urgency of action.
Major Civil Society Funding and Policy Measures
In conjunction with the conference, ministers announced several major new initiatives to scale up and strengthen civil society infrastructure. Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the launch of a new International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace to scale grassroots peacebuilding efforts, following a 17-year campaign by ALLMEP. Anand also revealed that Canada will provide an additional $100 million in urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinians, addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and spiraling settler violence in the West Bank.
At the Paris summit, Minister Anand also held a breakfast meeting with a group of peacebuilders that included Yonatan Zeigen, whose mother, Canadian-Israeli peace activist and ALLMEP leader Vivian Silver, was killed in the October 7 attacks. Zeigen later delivered a powerful address during the conference's closing session, calling for a joint formula of bold diplomatic intervention and radically scaled support for civil society.
