Growing up in a single-parent home in Tel Aviv, Israel, Alon-Lee Green has been an activist for most of his life. He was one of 100 high school students who signed a letter refusing to be drafted. Part of that was a result of his political convictions, and part was that he was gay and feared the consequences of being among anti-gay colleagues in the military. After high school, he got a job in a coffee shop and noticed violations of workers’ rights. What did he do? He organized Israel’s first waiters’ union, led a strike, was fired by his employer, returned to his job after a court order, won the strike, and managed the country’s first collective agreement in the restaurant industry.

Green’s political career blossomed after that. He supported a mayoral campaign, and later, at the age of 21, he joined the Knesset, Israel’s legislative body, as a political and parliamentary adviser. Protests became the norm: In 2011, Green organized the single largest protest for social and economic justice in Israeli history, mobilizing half a million people. He then joined with others to found the Israel Social Movement.

However, it wasn’t until 2015 that Green actually found his place in society: He founded and became the co-director of Standing Together, a group that seeks to bring together Israelis and Arabs of different religions and cultures to fight for peace, equality, and social justice in Israel. As the website, www.standing-together.org, states, “We are building a shared home for all those who refuse hatred and choose empathy. We won’t erase our differences, but rather believe in a true partnership based on shared interests. This is the meaning of Standing Together.” To this date, Standing Together has more than 1,400 members and 2,500 activists throughout Israel. Among other activities, it has campaigned to raise pensions for senior citizens, to halt the demolition of Bedouin villages in Israel, and to participate in anti-occupation demonstrations. It fosters adequate housing, quality education, affordable health care, a safe environment, and—particularly lately—independence for both Israelis and Palestinians.

It is not an easy task, nor always a safe one, to organize different—sometimes antagonistic—groups of people behind a single cause. But Green and his colleagues at Standing Together have done just that. Here is what Green says about his activism:

“Change is not something that will be created in an instant. It will not be the result of a single campaign or a sprint. Change happens when committed people create a thinking collective, working with a focused plan and a shared set of values. It can be easy to lose hope, or to play the superhero who is all about the individual act. I have faced the choice of building myself as a politician or building the movement. I am proud to be part of a group, of a movement, committed to something larger than the individual.”