The great international guest – Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon: a Palestinian and an Israeli “brothers” and united for peace

Aziz Abu Sarah, you are Palestinian, your brother died during the first Intifada. Maoz Inon, you are Israeli. Your parents were killed on October 7, 2023. Together, you publishPeace is our futurea journey of reconciliation to the Holy Land published by L’Arbre qui marche. You write: “In the world we were born into, friendship between Israelis and Palestinians seems inconceivable. But the pain of mourning has not made us enemies. On the contrary, it brought us closer together.“You actually became friends the day after the October 7 massacres. Maoz Inon, how did it happen?

Maoz Nowhere:Â I met Aziz Abu Sarah for just ten minutes in 2014. We were friends only on Facebook. When Aziz Abu Sarah reached out to me after October 7 offering his condolences, telling me that he was by my side and by my family’s side when this tragic moment happened, it was as if he had reached out to me. A hand reaching out to save me from drowning in an ocean of pain. After walking with Aziz Abu Sarah for two years, after writing this book, I am very proud to say that, on October 7, I lost my parents, I lost childhood friends, I lost people I had always known, but I gained Aziz Abu Sarah as a brother.

Aziz Abu Sarah, why did you feel the need, after October 7, to write to Maoz Inon, who was then only an acquaintance, as he has just told us?

Aziz Abu Sarah:Â Because I understand what loss is. I lost my brother when I was ten. There is nothing more painful, nothing more angry than losing a family member. In those dark times, there was little empathy. I also knew what was going to happen to Gaza and the destruction that was going to happen there. I felt it was important to reach out to Maoz Inon, to share my empathy with him, to tell him that I felt his pain. He reacted with the same level of empathy. He said he too cried for the children of Gaza. If we had a little more empathy like that in our world, I think you wouldn’t have all these wars.

Do you both consider each other brothers?

Aziz Abu Sarah: Quite. We consider each other brothers and we love each other.

Maoz Inon:We didn’t call ourselves brothers, it was Pope Francis! When we met at the “Arena of Peace” forum in Verona, in 2024, we said that we were going to share our pain to create dialogue and bring peace to our people in the Holy Land. He said: “I support you, Brother Maoz and Brother Aziz, to bring peace to this earth. »

Aziz Abu Sarah : We can never divorce again, it’s a Catholic marriage.

The Pope united you, made you brothers, both of you. To get there, despite your personal stories, you had to reject the idea of ​​revenge. How do we manage to make this journey?

Aziz Abu Sarah : It took me a while. It took me eight years. I was ten when I lost my brother Tayssir. It was only when I went to learn Hebrew that I met an Israeli woman, a teacher, who was neither a settler nor a soldier. Not only was she not a colonist, but she was kind. She treated me like an equal, like a human being. It made me realize that we are not divided between Israelis and Palestinians. We are divided between those of us who want to live in equality, justice and peace and those who do not.

Is it easy to give up the idea of ​​revenge?

Maoz Inon:Dans Peace is our futurewe share many stories from biblical times, Greek mythology, ancient history, other places of conflict. In our personal lives, we transform revenge into reconciliation. In this book,Peace is our futuretwo days after losing my parents, my younger brother asked my three sisters and myself to reject the idea of revenge and to send the universal message that we did not want revenge for our parents. It was clear to us that by avenging our dead, we would not bring them back to life, but we would would only participate in the escalation of violence and bloodshed. To honor the memory of our beloved parents, we must continue their legacy. We must create a new path.

to writePeace is our future may seem utopian, unrealistic, naive, disconnected from the reality of the Middle East. What allows you to affirm that peace is our future?

Aziz Abu Sarah : The only naive people are those who believe in war. Since I was born, I have seen at least 15 or 20 wars. And I’m not that old! How much have these wars made the Middle East better? It is significantly worse today than when I was born, because of these wars. It is not naive to believe in peace. It is naive to believe in war. I have seen what wars do. The only logical thing to do, the only intelligent thing to do, is to believe that the future is peace. Any other alternative is a belief in death and accepting that our future will be as horrible as our present, perhaps even worse.

Is there no other possibility than peace?

Maoz Nowhere: No. This is exactly what we have proven in this book,Peace is our future. We studied conflicts around the world. We understood that, in all conflicts – whether in Europe, Rwanda, South Africa, Northern Ireland – eventually end. It is the force of nature. This is proof that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end. Not just because we wish, but it is the historical path. It will happen one day. We come here to ask: “Why not today? What can we do to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today? »

It takes courage to take the path of peace. Who will have this courage among the Israeli and Palestinian leaders? Do you see any peacemakers?

Maoz Nowhere: When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel in November 1977, then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was no peacemaker. He was the leader of the Irgun, the Jewish militia, which acted under the British mandate, responsible for the deaths of civilians and soldiers. Throughout his political life, he was opposed to reconciliation with Germany, to reconciliation with the Arab countries. Two weeks before Egyptian President Anwar Sadat arrived, his entire speech was geared against negotiation. Israeli Jews were against the negotiation. Public opinion was convinced that they would not see peace in their lifetime. Thanks to pressure from the international community, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat came to visit Israel. The children of Israel were waiting with the two flags, the flag of Israel and the flag of Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, a former terrorist, said at the time: “We can avoid the coming war, but we cannot avoid peace. Peace will come.“It’s proof that those who commit war crimes and choose blood can also be transformed. But we need the international community. We need France, the European Union.

What does this mean is that the international community must take up this issue and stop being a spectator of successive wars?

Aziz Abu Sarah : Yes, I think that the international community must act, and not just react with empty words. They cannot speak against a war whose weapons they supply. They cannot say they are against war and send weapons to profit from these conflicts. This is why we wrote this book which has been translated into French and English, because we are reaching out to the international community. We know that we alone, Israelis and Palestinians, will fail if you do not help us. You need to put pressure on your politicians to do two things. First, support peace efforts, support them with actions and with money – just like the European Union did with Northern Ireland, with billions of euros to achieve peace – to invest in peace. Second, take sanctions against those who promote war and bloodshed, no matter if they are leaders, soldiers, generals, Hamas, Israeli government, whatever. If you promote death, you are not an ally. These are the two things we expect from France, Europe and America. We will continue to fight for this.

Don’t you ever feel alone?

Maoz Nowhere: You know, our bookPeace is our futureis a bestseller in the United States. We turn to the French and European population who support us and help us. Together we can achieve peace in the near future.

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