Aziz Abu Sara (left) and Maoz Inon in Jaffa, Israel in January. His new book, The Future is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy LandDocuments her peace activism that emerged from trauma and loss. Abu Sara’s brother died from injuries sustained in Israeli custody and Inon’s parents were killed by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023.
Maya Levin for NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Maya Levin for NPR
TEL AVIV, Israel – The war in Gaza has tightened the situation in the Middle East and around the world. But the two men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, say that after the war started in 2023, they became like brothers. It’s a brotherhood born of trauma and is described in his upcoming book, The Future is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land.
Aziz Abu Sara and Maoz Inon lived parallel lives. Both ran travel agencies and believed that travel and education could bring societies closer. They first met over tea a decade ago in Jerusalem, where Abu Sara, a Palestinian, was born, and kept in touch over the years on Facebook.
The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 changed everything.
Inon’s parents, Bilha and Yakovi Inon, were among the more than 1,100 killed in that attack. Militants killed him at his home in Netiv Hasara, near Israel’s border with Gaza.
Destroyed property is seen in Kibbutz Netiv Hasara near the Gaza border on November 17, 2023. Maoz Inon’s parents were killed along with others in the kibbutz.
Leo Correa/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Leo Correa/AP
Inon was in northern Israel that day. Subsequently, he says that it was Abu Sarah who came forward and saved him from “falling into shock, pain, drowning in this ocean of sorrow and suffering.”
“I lost my parents on October 7, but I gained a brother,” Inon told NPR. “And to me, it’s not a partnership, it’s not a friendship, it’s a brotherhood.”
Abu Sara had recovered from trauma years earlier and had dedicated himself to peace. As a 10-year-old boy, he lost his 19-year-old brother Taysir to Israeli forces. Tayseer Abu Sara was arrested during the First Intifada in 1990 and beaten in custody. He died of his injuries a few weeks after being released.
Abu Sara recalled, “For the rest of my youth, the idea of revenge consumed and haunted me.” in an essay he wrote in 2016.
Maoz Inon (center), whose parents were killed in a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, stands with Yaakov Godo (left), 74, who lost his son in the attack, outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on November 7, 2023, in a protest calling for the Israeli Prime Minister to resign and government action for the return of the hostages.
Ahmed Gharbali/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Ahmed Gharbali/AFP via Getty Images
His perspective changed after he enrolled in a Hebrew language class so he could qualify for higher education. There he met Jews who had moved to Israel – and, as he describes it, their walls began to crumble. He started a socially conscious travel agency, Mejdi ToursAnd since then has dedicated his life to tearing down other people’s walls.
After Abu Sara reached Inon in 2023, Inon decided to focus less on his own travel business and became a full-time activist promoting peace and co-existence with Palestinians. He and Abu Sara now go on speaking tours together. He met with Pope Francis in 2024, met with Pope Leo this year and carried the Olympic torch in Italy in January ahead of this year’s Winter Games.
Through all this, they boast of their ambitious goal of creating Israeli-Palestinian peace within the next five years. It took so long for Egypt and Israel to sign a peace deal after fighting each other in the 1973 war. Similarities are visible today between Inon and Abu Sara.
In his book, he takes readers on a journey through Israel and the West Bank through the past, present, and an imagined future. They visit the kibbutz where Inon’s parents were killed, and Jaffa, an ancient port that remains a mixed neighborhood of Israelis and Palestinians and is part of Tel Aviv.
Pope Francis welcomes Maoz Enon and Aziz Abu Sara in Verona, Italy in 2024.
Vatican Pool/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Vatican Pool/Getty Images
The Middle East is a place of conflicting narratives and language can be a minefield.
“We don’t really debate language that much,” Abu Sara says, calling it pointless when people are dying. “We don’t censor each other.”
In fact, their word choices mirror each other. Inon has decided to use the same language as Abu Sara when they talk together. If Abu Sara says that his brother was killed, Inon says that his parents were killed. If one uses the word “murder”, the other does the same. “We are creating a model of equality,” says Inon.
Both men know they are up against tough positions on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide as the region tries to recover from the devastating war in Gaza that killed more than 72,000 Palestinians.
Abu Sara believes that a small percentage of workers can make a difference. He has seen hundreds of Israelis protecting Palestinians from settler violence in the West Bank during the olive harvest season, and young, right-wing Jews celebrating Jerusalem Day – which commemorates the 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem.
“For my family, for my friends, for the people in Jerusalem — suddenly they don’t see these young Jewish people shouting, ‘Death to Arabs.’ They also saw the Jewish man (who) was saying (to the settlers), ‘No, you will not be able to enter this shop.'”
Aziz Abu Sara and Maoz Inon sit together in Old Jaffa, a mixed Israeli and Palestinian area of Tel Aviv, on January 11. “I lost my parents on October 7, but I won a brother,” says Inon of Abu Sara. “And to me, it’s not a partnership, it’s not a friendship, it’s a brotherhood.”
Maya Levin for NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Maya Levin for NPR
Abu Sara says she is seeing young Palestinians and more women joining peace protests. He says, “That gives me hope, because that’s where we’ll get the leaders of the future, is those young people finally realizing that we can’t wait until some politician signs a deal. We’re going to build them – and if they don’t, we’re going to replace them.”
He wants to see not just hundreds but thousands of workers supporting these grassroots efforts.
Inon says it has to happen now – the region cannot wait for a new generation or more people to die.
“It’s too late for Aziz’s brother, Taseer,” he says. “It’s too late for my parents. But it’s not too late for the other 14 million Israelis and Palestinians who live in the region. And we’re doing everything we can to save as many lives as possible.”
