Two unlikely allies sat down with community members at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation to share their unique story of solidarity and search for peace.
Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon and Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah have both experienced great losses in their life, before and after Oct. 7.
BHC’s “PeaceMakers in Conversation” event was only planned and announced about a week prior to its Sunday, July 14 date, but it immediately gained attention and community interest. People from around the Baltimore area attended, and during the event’s Q&A portion, the audience sent in so many questions that most of them went unanswered.
“I think [the attention PeaceMakers in Conversation has gotten] speaks to what our community is aching for: the opportunity to engage in a conversation about Israel and Palestine, the conflict that is happening in our community and the world, in a way that gives us a sense of hope,” said Rabbi Elissa Sachs-Kohen, one of BHC’s two rabbis.
The tragedy and the massive loss of life that both peace activists’ respective communities have experienced on and following Oct. 7 is what brought them together. While they previously shared spaces in the Israeli-Palestinian peace activism community, a show of sympathy is what made their friendship blossom.
“The day after Oct. 7, I got a message from Aziz … who I had only met once before, and he said he was standing with me and paying his condolences,” said Inon, who lost both his parents on Oct. 7 when the kibbutz they were living in was attacked. “I was so overwhelmed and touched by the fact that a Palestinian who wasn’t my friend or partner or colleague at the time was able to recognize my pain and sit with me.”
Inon first became engaged in peace activism after a five-day tour of the West Bank in 2002, where he came face to face with the realities of how Israel’s Palestinian population lives under occupation. From then on, he became dedicated to the cause. And Oct. 7 has only made him more committed to seeking peace.
Sarah lost his brother when he was 10, when his brother was arrested by Israeli police who beat him to death. For years, he was furious and wanted revenge. It was only when he moved to Jerusalem for work that he started to see things differently.
“I realized that by choosing hatred, I was being a slave to the person who killed my brother,” Sarah said. “Nothing can fill the empty hole that hatred creates in your heart. So from that point on, I’ve been focused on finding new ways to bring down those barriers of fear, ignorance and hate that divide us.”
Sarah also studied under Vivian Silver, a prominent Israeli peace activist and former board member of the B’Tselem human rights organization, who devoted her life to fighting for equal rights for Palestinians and an end to occupation. Silver was killed on Oct. 7 by Hamas.
Inon and Sarah both preached the ideas of forgiveness and cross-cultural understanding, stating that while they both felt anger toward Hamas and the Israeli government for the events of Oct. 7 and the months-long military siege on Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, they have chosen to forgive in hopes of seeking a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.
“There’s two ways you can deal with this anger. You can let this anger make you hateful and seek revenge, or you can make this anger motivate you to create a better future,” Sarah said.
So how can people across an ocean from the conflict engage in the peacemaking process?
Inon and Sarah suggest seeking out peace activists and following them to stay up to date on news. Many of their efforts are not covered in mainstream media: For example, on July 1, Israeli peacemaking groups advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza held rallies across the U.S. and in Tel Aviv. But this landmark event went largely unremarked upon by U.S. and Israeli news outlets.
“We are silenced by the media,” Inon said. “We are not invited to TV studios, they are not paying my bills. … We need legitimacy to make policy changes.”
But things may be changing for Israeli-Palestinian peacemakers. Inon and Sarah met with Pope Francis in June, and the pope agreed to be their ambassador to the G7 Summit, giving them a larger platform to speak about their activism efforts. Both activists said their goal is to have peace by 2030.
The event both started and ended with a hug between the two men.
“When people see an Israeli and a Palestinian together, the assumption is that we must be on opposite sides. The assumption is that we might not like each other, that we debate and argue with each other,” Sarah said. “And that’s not true. Maoz and I are here today because we’re on the same side, the side of justice and equality.”
