“War Is a Disease of Humanity. There Is No Better Healing Than Peace.”

Authors Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon begin their book The Future is Peace with a story of two brothers in the Holy Land.

Fearing the other would not have enough to feed his family after the harvest, each brother slipped out at night carrying sacks of grain, secretly leaving them in the other’s barn. In the morning, they were confused to find their stores of grain unchanged. They continued this exchange until one night they met on the hillside, each carrying bundles of grain in his arms. Realising why their stocks had never diminished, the brothers embraced and wept together.

Abu Sarah and Inon write: “It was on this hill, the site of an extraordinary act of brotherly love, that the holy city of Jerusalem was built.”

Aziz Abu Sarah

It is in those that same Holy Lands that both men have experienced tremendous loss. When Abu Sarah was 9–years– old, the Israeli military arrested his older brother, Tayseer, for throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. After his sentencing, Tayseer was sent to one of Israel’s harshest prisons where he was routinely tortured. Shortly after his release almost a year later, Tayseer was rushed to the hospital, where he died from untreated trauma to his internal organs. 

On Oct. 7, 2023, Inon was texting with his parents as they sought safety from the Hamas onslaught on their Nir Am home, the closest Israeli community to the Gaza Strip.

 When the text messages stopped, he and his siblings feared the worse. At 4 p.m. that day, he learned from one of their neighbours that Yakovi and Bilha Inon were dead. Hamas militants had entered their home, shot them both, and set the house on fire. His father was burned so badly that it took 14 days to identify his ashes. Nothing remained of his mother. A few days later, while stricken with grief, Inon received a text message: “Maoz, I am so sorry to hear about your parents.” 

It was from Abu Sarah, whom Inon remembered meeting only once before, some ten years earlier. He writes: “His words were more than a message of condolence; they shone a light into the darkness.”

Last night, both authors were joined by Karen Kaufman, Director of Content & Convening at The Conduit, to discuss why they believe peace is the only way forward through the violence. The message that the only future is peace is one the two men have carried together across the world. Their 2024 TED Talk has been viewed more than two million times. They have met with two Popes, appeared on American late-night television with Jon Stewart, and made history as the first Israeli and Palestinian to carry the Olympic torch.

Kaufman began the evening by asking Abu Sarah what inspired him to send the text message to Inon, knowing the sensitivity of the moment.

“I sent it because it felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t expect a response. Within days he responded. He said he was not only crying for his parents, but for the children of Gaza.” Abu Sarah said.

Maoz Inon

For Inon the text arrived at a moment of profound darkness. “[Sending the message] was an act of courage, of bravery. His hand felt like it was saving me from drowning. I say I won another brother on October 7th, and that is Aziz,” he said. “We then co-founded our NGO with the mission to end the Israeli Palestinian conflict by 2030.”

Asked about the power of narratives, and how to reclaim a story so often reduced to us versus them, Abu Sarah cautioned against flattening the realities of the conflict. “There are horrible and evil things being done,” he said. Like many Palestinians, Abu Sarah said he grew up absorbing one narrative, while Inon learned an opposing one. But for both of them, it is only through deep listening and acknowledging that both narratives contain truth can they move forward. 

In their book, the two men confront the violence directly, writing about the occupation, the devastation in Gaza, and children facing starvation, while also making room for each other’s histories and grief. “What do we do now, because we can argue about the Nakba and Independence Day, and we will not agree?” Abu Sarah said. Inon added that while people argue, violence continues. “We can win a debate, and sometimes we lose a debate, but while we do that people on the ground are losing their lives. Our mission is to win lives.”

Kaufman asked how the two men think about language, particularly in a conflict where the choice of every word carries political weight. The speakers recalled preparing for their TED Talk in Vancouver, where producers encouraged them to sound as authentic as possible. For Abu Sarah and Inon, authenticity meant reflecting parity in the way they spoke about each other’s grief. “We said we must model equality between us. If Aziz says his brother was murdered, I will say my parents were murdered,” Inon said.

He acknowledged the asymmetry that shapes the lives of Palestinians and Israelis but insisted that equality must still guide the way they speak to one another. “But we are equals,” he said. “So in our language we practice that nuance.”

Kaufman then noted that this week marks the 30th anniversary of Benjamin Netanyahu’s first election victory. Given the current state of the region, she said, critics often dismiss peace activists as naïve, while peace builders themselves are marginalized both at home and abroad. How, she asked, do the two men respond to that criticism?

“Our response is simple. You are the naïve one.” Abu Sarah explained that in his 45 years he has witnessed repeated wars. He saw Israeli soldiers beating Palestinians when he was 5 years old. At 7, he said, he was shot at by soldiers. “I have seen war after war, and every time we are told ‘This is the war that’s going to fix everything.’ Did the war in Afghanistan fix anything? Did the war in Syria? How about all of Netanyahu’s wars? He has killed so many people in Gaza, and still Hamas is in charge.”

Inon said that Jon Stewart posed the same question when the two men appeared on his program. “War is a disease of humanity. There is no better healing than peace.”

Having the right words is one thing, Kaufman replied, but how do you build a movement capable of mobilising people? She noted that both men have been branded traitors within their own communities, while Abu Sarah has also faced accusations of normalisation. How, she asked, do they continue their work amid such criticism?

Abu Sarah began by defining normalisation as making the occupation appear palatable and acceptable. “There are people who do that, and they get hosted by much bigger venues than us,” he said. “But those people are looking for likes and followers. We are not their status quo.” History, he added, is filled with peacemakers who faced resistance within their own communities. “You cannot inspire change by going along with everybody. The accusations of normalization are from people who haven’t read the book.”

Towards the end of the discussion the speakers fielded a question from The Conduit’s co-founder and chief executive, Paul van Zyl. Given the asymmetry of the conflict, van Zyl asked how the two men maintain a relationship grounded in equality. “How do you avoid being trapped in allowing peace to normalise a situation when the asks of the two parties are so different?”

Abu Sarah agreed that the conflict is asymmetrical and acknowledged that the imbalance within the peace movement had at times made him uncomfortable. “I said I am open to this only if I am not tokenised,” he responded, before emphasising the importance of refusing to silence or censor any voices. While researching their book, Abu Sarah and Inon made a deliberate effort to carefully document the experiences of everyone they interviewed. “It is important that these stories are told. We believe peace will never be static.”

In her final question, Kaufman asked what those in the audience could do to help bring about peace by 2030.

Inon responded with a call to amplify their message, ensuring that media organisations, politicians, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists understand that peace is the only way forward.

Abu Sarah closed with a call to action by reciting verse from the Palestinian poet Samih Al-Qasim:

“TRAVEL TICKETS
The day I’m killed,
my killer, rifling through my pockets,
will find travel tickets:
One to peace,
one to the fields and the rain,
and one
to the conscience of humankind.

Dear killer of mine, I beg you:
Do not stay and waste them.
Take them, use them.
I beg you to travel.”