Israeli and Palestinian peace advocates shared personal stories and discussed the importance of intercultural dialogue and changing political discourse to achieve peace in a talk organized by several Binghamton University departments.

Held in the Fine Arts Building on Tuesday, the discussion featured peace advocates Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, who are Palestinian and Israeli respectively. The event was a collaboration between the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, the Center for Israel Studies and the Center for Middle East and North African Studies. Students, faculty and community members were in attendance.

Moderated by Lior Libman, the Center for Israel Studies director, and Lubna Omar, the associate director of the Center for Middle East and North African Studies, the dialogue began with speaker introductions. Libman introduced Abu Sarah, an author and traveler who was 10 years old when his brother was killed by Israeli prison officials. He co-founded MEJDI Tours in 2009 — offering a “Dual Narrative” tour with local Israeli and Palestinian guides — to promote socially conscious travel and has received numerous awards for his peace-building work in over 60 countries. Omar then introduced Inon, an entrepreneur whose parents were killed by Hamas on Oct. 7. Inon has promoted peace and cultural dialogue through tourism initiatives like Abraham — a hostel and tour operation he co-founded in 2010 — that offer guided trips in Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and other locations.

“When people will tell you it’s impossible, it’s naive, there’s no way Israelis and Palestinians can make it work, I would ask them to look at what we are doing,” Abu Sarah said. “Maoz lost his parents, I lost my brother, and yet, not only are we here because we want a better future, not only are we here because we have to be here, but we see each other as brothers.”

After sharing a hug, the speakers acknowledged the suffering of those in Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They then recounted how loss pushed them to pursue peacemaking and consider different perspectives surrounding the historical conflict. Abu Sarah and Inon connected after the Oct. 7 attacks and began planning efforts to promote peace between Israel and Palestine. After holding a TED talk together in April, the pair met Pope Francis in May, who later spoke on their behalf at the 2024 G7 conference to advocate for an end to the crisis.

Inon presented a bottle of sesame oil to the crowd. His father, a farmer, created a five-step plan to develop a sesame seed capable of machine harvesting and mass production by 2025 — which was completed two weeks after his death, a year and a half ahead of the goal. Inon commemorated his father by attributing the basis of his and Abu Sarah’s plan for peace by 2030 to his father’s model.

“His dream is in this bottle, and we’re going to use the same five steps in order to achieve [and] harvest peace, between the river [and] the sea, because peace is possible,” Inon said. “Peace is possible, we just need to sow the seeds of hope, of the future and the seeds of forgiveness, and to cultivate those seeds in order to harvest peace by 2030.”

The speakers emphasized the importance of forgiveness in moving forward to find solutions. Acknowledging his initial desire to “seek revenge in those who betrayed and failed to [stand] to their promise” after the death of his parents, Inon shared that forgiveness is “the most powerful and effective power and emotion that we can use.” He explained that by forgiving those who harm you, you can free yourself of anger and work toward peace.

Both speakers highlighted the lack of interaction between Israelis and Palestinians. Inon noted that he did not have a Palestinian friend until he was 30. Abu Sarah explained that his first regular interaction with an Israeli who was not a soldier, settler or his employer occurred while studying Hebrew after high school. He was the only Palestinian in the classroom.

Abu Sarah shared an anecdote from his work with the Parents Circle — Families Forum, a group of Israeli and Palestinian families who experienced immediate family death. He recalled how his father asked if the Holocaust had actually happened, leading the group to travel to both a Holocaust museum and a Palestinian village abandoned during the 1948 mass displacement of Palestinians.

After the discussion, the moderators opened the floor to questions.

The dialogue is the second of three events organized by I-GMAP and the two academic departments to address the first anniversary of the Hamas attack and subsequent Israeli military offensive in Gaza. Last month, speakers from the departments held a roundtable discussion to deliberate the language and narratives used surrounding Gaza. The final event will be held on Nov. 6 and will discuss the role of American foreign policy, culture and society in the Middle East.

“The first time I heard Maoz and Aziz speak, the first quote I heard from was one that they repeated today, where they said, ‘People can try to divide us all they want, but what I say to them is, if you want to divide us, divide us by those of us who believe in peace and those of us who don’t yet,’” said Rebecca Cohen, a senior double-majoring in psychology and comparative literature. “And it’s been something that’s played in my mind over the last year, with everything that’s been going on, that I want to be someone who consciously takes the side of peace, and for me, being here today and engaging in these conversations is how I actively choose peace.”

Cards promoting peace and hope — including a Hebrew quote from Inon’s mother shaped into a ring — were distributed as attendees left. The talk was also part of the LOCO festival, a weeklong series of events and activities to celebrate the campus community’s diverse backgrounds and points of view. Originally organized in Spain and in partnership between the Center for Middle East and North African Studies, the Global Studies program and the Center for Civic Engagement, this year’s festival focuses on understanding and advocating for solutions to human rights issues — particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

“For a long time, we were not able to have these conversations on our campus, as you could perceive,” Omar said. “There’s a lot of conflict and division, so we thought it could be a seed to start having those difficult, unpleasant, uncomfortable dialogues and issues being discussed, and maybe find a way to have these discussions, rather than just going after each other.”