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Palestinian and Israeli whose family members were killed sit face-to-face to talk peace

One man lost his parents. The other lost his brother. Their dialogue is moving people to tears.

Photos by cottonbro studio/Pexels (left), and by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash (right)

Hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians

Conflict between Israel and Palestine has been ongoing for many decades, with scholars around the world spending years analyzing and explaining why and how. But regardless of how we got here, the violence we saw perpetrated on Israelis on October 7th and the violence we've seen perpetrated on Palestinians in the months since has been a drastic escalation with unspeakably tragic results.

People of goodwill everywhere search for hope in times such as these, for evidence that humanity hasn't been completely destroyed by vengeance and violence, that real peace is in fact possible. And there is no better pair to offer glimmers of such hope than Palestinian peacemaker Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli peacemaker Maoz Inon, who sat down face-to-face on a TED stage in April of 2024 to share their personal stories and talk about what peace requires.

Unlike those of us watching war unfold from half a world away through the lens of media spin and social media algorithms, these men have lived this conflict up close. Sarah's brother was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces when he was just 19 years old. Inon's parents were killed by Hamas on the October 7th, 2023 attack. They both have every reason to be angry—and they are—but the way they purposefully process their anger into peacebuilding is an example to us all.

Inon begins their conversation by sharing how his parents and childhood friends were killed on October 7th, then shares how grateful he was that Sarah was one of the first people to reach out to him even though they'd only met once before. Sarah shares how his brother was killed by the IDF and how all of his friends have lost family members to Israel's bombardment of Gaza, yet praises how he Inon has processed his loss.

"When I sent you that message to offer my condolences after your parents were killed, I was surprised by your answer," Sarah told Inon. "Not just to me, but your public answer. Because you said you're not only crying for your parents, you're also crying for the people in Gaza who are losing their lives, and that you do not want what happened to you to be justifying anyone taking revenge. You do not want to justify war."

"And it's so hard to do that," he added. "So much easier to want revenge, to be angry. But you are a brave man."

Sarah said it took him "much more time" to reach such a place after his brother was killed. "I was angry, I was bitter, and I wanted vengeance. I was 10 years old and I thought there is no other choice. And only eight years later, when I went to study Hebrew with Jewish immigrants to Israel, that's only when I realized that we can be allies."

Both men have been peace activists for years. What's particularly beautiful about their conversation is that they are talking directly to each other, not to the audience, offering an example of what sitting down with the "other side" can look like when you share the goal of peace. They tell their personal stories and explain what has driven them to seek reconciliation over revenge. They listen to and learn from one another. They acknowledge the difficulty but are unwavering in their dedication to build peace.

The division stemming from the historical reality and current politics of Israel and Palestine may feel intractable, but if these men who have lost so much can find common ground and a shared vision, then hope remains. Their dialogue is moving people to tears and is well worth a watch:

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Democracy

Powerful cartoon illustrates a fundamental truth about the human cost of war

@cherubicdoll1/Twitter (Marzieh Kanizadeh)

A cartoon by Iranian artist Marzieh Kanizadeh portrays the basic human truth in every war.

War is one of the oldest and most consistent things human beings do, and also one of the weirdest. It's horrible, hellish, tragic, traumatic—and yes, weird.

In the most basic analysis, war makes no sense. Killing one another over being born on opposite sides of imaginary lines makes no sense. Fighting for land under which we will all be buried eventually makes no sense. Sending people to fight to the death because men in charge can't get along makes no sense. (Seriously, why don't leaders just duke it out in a boxing ring themselves? That would actually make more sense.) Destroying the places you're trying to conquer, thereby requiring enormous resources to build them back up again makes no sense.

And the fact that we actually make rules for war is even weirder. You can use these weapons of death and destruction, but not those ones. You can bomb these kinds of places, but not those ones. You can kill this group of people, but not that one. It's all so stupid and senseless and futile and weird.

And then there's the psychology of it all. When tanks start rolling and bombs start falling somewhere in the world, it's far too easy for us to lose our sense of humanity. War compels us to choose a side, and choosing a side makes it easy to demonize the other. Even when we are 100% certain the side we've chosen to support is the right one, we still have to remember that human beings are on the other. The fact that we forget this every time is why humanity hasn't broken its habit of making war over and over and over again.

A powerful cartoon by Iranian artist Marzieh Khanizadeh illustrates this point beautifully. The cartoon was shared on Twitter by Prashasti Chanchal with the words, "One person's medals are another one's children."

This is the fundamental truth we must remember about war, no matter where or when it's taking place. One side's glory is the other side's tragedy, and in the end we're all just one big, human family trying to make our way on this rock hurtling through space. The second we start to dehumanize one side's people, forgetting that ordinary people don't choose to go to war and are always the primary victims of it, we create the very conditions that lead to war in the first place.

Prejudice, hatred and dehumanization are both primary causes and primary outcomes of war. If we don't disrupt those tendencies within us prior to war, we have to disrupt them during. Otherwise we will continue to repeat the same pattern we've seen throughout human history.

By all means, support freedom, support democracy and support nations that are being invaded without justification. But don't glorify killing and don't dehumanize the people themselves on any side of any war. Killing in defense may be necessary in war, but in the end there's no true glory in any of it. It's all tragic.

"One person's medals are another one's children," indeed. If every one of us keeps that truth front and center, maybe we can finally get to a future where war is just a terrible, weird thing humans used to do.

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Family

A letter to the mother huddled with her children in the basement in a war zone

Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash

The mothers of the world stand in solidarity with those who are trying to protect their children from war.

Dear mother huddled with her children in the basement in a war zone,

As I sit in my living room reading reports from Ukraine, my thoughts scatter to many places at once. The analytical part of me wants to understand the historical and geopolitical forces that led up to this moment. The middle-aged side of me remembers with visceral tension the nuclear threats of the Cold War era. The American in me ponders what my country's leadership should, can and will do under the circumstances.

But the mother in me—the raw, human heart of me—goes straight to you and your children.

As you sit huddled together in a basement or a subway or perhaps a leftover bomb shelter from another generation's war, my 13-year-old son cuddles close to me on the couch. He looks at me with wide, worried eyes and asks what we would do if we were in your shoes. He's barely old enough to know the truth, but I tell him anyway: I don't know. I honestly don't know.

I know that our children look to us for safety, security and reassurance, so I try to imagine what you must be telling your young children as they hear air raid sirens, explosions, gunfire from above.

"You're OK. We're safe here," you tell them, not knowing if it's true. "It's going to be OK."

You lie to your children because you don't know what else to do. You're scared, but you don't want them to see it. If you can't protect them from the violence on their doorstep, you will shield them as much as you can from fear and despair. You—your body, your presence—are their primary shelter and safe place, so you wrap your arms around your babies, knowing full well that your flesh is powerless against weapons of war. You know you would die for them. You worry that won't be enough.

I am keenly aware that only the happenstance of my birthplace allows me to sit safely in my living room while you hide from violence. Whether you and your children are huddled in Ukraine or Yemen or Ethiopia or another war-torn region, geography is the only real difference between us. I didn't choose any of this and neither did you.

None of us wants this for our children. None of us ever has.

War is hell, and women and children bear the brunt of it. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." I've always appreciated his blunt honesty, but I think mothers might hate war more than soldiers. Soldiers are at least trained for the brutality, if not the futility or stupidity. There is no training that can prepare a mother to nurture her children in the violence and chaos of a war zone.

I think back over human history. How many mothers have witnessed the maiming of their children, physically or psychologically, by war? I look into my sweet son's eyes and my heart breaks, knowing not just that he could be hurt or killed, but also knowing that corrupt men with power would eagerly turn him into a killer to satisfy their need for conquest.

Too many mothers have sent their children off to fight in fruitless wars. Too many of those children haven't come back or have come back broken beyond repair. Too many mothers are hiding in basements with their babies in too many places, trying to keep their children's world from falling apart. Too many, too many, too many.

No one truly wins in war, no matter the political outcome, and it's beyond frustrating that humanity has not yet learned that armed conflict causes more problems than it solves. I've often wondered why don't we force the leaders who want to wage war into a boxing ring to duke it out among themselves. It makes no less sense than sending thousands of their people to fight to the death and destroy valuable infrastructure and architecture while they're at it.

I'm so tired of madmen playing violent games with people's lives because they can't figure out how to fill their soul holes. I'm so tired of their attempts to make us enemies, when all that separates us are invisible lines imagined into existence by insecure men. I'm so tired of fallen soldiers being hailed as heroes by those who sent them into battle to be sacrificed as pawns.

Imagine if moms were at the helm instead. Moms who understand that brute force is both immature and unnecessary. Moms who see all the world's children as our own. Imagine that world, just for a moment. What a vast difference that would make.

But here we are in this moment, and all I can do is offer you my solidarity. I hate that you and your children have to go through this stupid and wasteful and tragic and maddening mess that you didn't choose to partake in. I wish I could wave a wand and whisk us into a future where war is obsolete and unthinkable, where we truly accept that we are one human family and where we've chosen as a collective to create real and lasting peace. I have to believe that we'll get there eventually.

In the meantime, you are not forgotten, wherever you are. I am not in your shoes, but please know that I and millions of mothers around the world are wrapping our arms around you and your children, praying desperately for an end to the violence and trauma.

Your children—all of our children—deserve so much better than this.

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Planet

Why the World Food Programme's 2020 Nobel Peace Prize is totally deserved

Upworthy/WFP/Facebook

Editor's Note: Over the past year Upworthy's parent company was a proud partner with the WFP using our platform to share stories of their fight against hunger around the world.

Out of 318 candidates, including youth climate activist Greta Thunberg and President Donald Trump, the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 has been awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."

Having written about the work of WFP for Upworthy, this news warmed my heart. From researching WFP's efforts to battle gender inequality with food security to reading their educational materials on how climate change impacts hunger and causes forced migration, I was blown away by the broad scope of what they do. As I dug in further and saw the various informational videos put together by my colleagues, the clearer it became that tackling hunger totally requires that kind of scope. Hunger is a multifaceted issue that impacts everything—including war and conflict—and our world will never be at peace if this most fundamental need is not being met for millions.

The World Food Programme is the largest organization addressing hunger and food insecurity in the world. According to the Nobel committee press release, "the WFP provided assistance to close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are victims of acute food insecurity and hunger" in 2019. The committee pointed out that there has been an increase in acute hunger in recent years, with most of that increase being caused by war and armed conflict.

And of course, the pandemic is only making things worse.

The Nobel committee says that they want this award "to turn the eyes of the world towards the millions of people who suffer from or face the threat of hunger." They also point to the need for supporting organizations like WFP financially, making the direct connection between hunger and conflict:

"The world is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the World Food Programme and other food assistance organisations do not receive the financial support they have requested.

The link between hunger and armed conflict is a vicious circle: war and conflict can cause food insecurity and hunger, just as hunger and food insecurity can cause latent conflicts to flare up and trigger the use of violence. We will never achieve the goal of zero hunger unless we also put an end to war and armed conflict.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to emphasise that providing assistance to increase food security not only prevents hunger, but can also help to improve prospects for stability and peace."

While every sincere effort to create peace deserves praise, peacemaking is a far more complex endeavor than signing pieces of paper. Addressing the root causes of war and conflict, understanding the connections between the various challenges facing humanity, and making sure people have what they need so they don't have to fight for survival are all necessary components of creating a peaceful world for all.

Congratulations to World Food Programme for this well-deserved honor. Hopefully this prestigious recognition will lead more people to explore the issues of hunger and food security and support programs and solutions that are proving to be successful.

Learn more about the work of the World Food Programme at wfp.org and wfpusa.org.

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