The Middle East is an area with systemic, violent conflicts between and within states. These conflicts are often linked to one another and fan one another. There is a chronic dearth of human security in the region. Civilians pay the price of the conflict. In the Netherlands, IKV Pax Christi calls for public and political support for peace negotiations, political transformation and reconciliation; elsewhere, it organises peace dialogues and supports local peace activists in their efforts to resist violence in the heat of conflict. IKV Pax Christi works in the Middle East to increase freedom of expression in Morocco and Jordan, to broaden civil society's room to manoeuvre in Syria and to prevent torture and improve the treatment of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.