In 'The Future is Peace,' tourism paves a way forward for Israelis and Palestinians

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day

Episode: In 'The Future is Peace,' tourism paves a way forward for Israelis and Palestinians
Host: Alyssa Nadworny (NPR)
Guests: Aziz Abu Sara (Palestinian peace activist & tour operator), Maoz Inon (Israeli peace activist & hostel founder)
Aired: May 13, 2026
Total Length: ~13 min (main content from 00:02 to 12:44)

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the new book, The Future is Peace, co-authored by Palestinian Aziz Abu Sara and Israeli Maoz Inon. Amid personal loss and ongoing conflict, both authors—who lost family members to violence on the “other side”—argue that travel and shared human experiences can foster understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. The discussion focuses on how tourism, cultural exchanges, historical empathy, and personal transformation can become tools for peacemaking and shared futures.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Trauma Turned to Peace Work

• Both authors experienced deep loss—Inon’s parents were killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack; Abu Sara’s brother was killed by Israeli forces as a child ([01:49]-[04:54]).
• Rather than seeking revenge, both men chose forgiveness and understanding.

Quote:
“It was not just a message on messenger. It was a hand. Hand reaching out and saving me from drowning.” – Maoz Inon ([04:23])

2. The Power of Travel as Bridge-Building

• Both found that travel is a potent way to dissolve ignorance and fear—Inon opened a hostel in Nazareth, Abu Sara runs tours with both Israeli and Palestinian guides ([05:33]-[07:05]).
• The act of journeying together physically through contested spaces leads to alliances and friendships that transcend conflict.

Quote:
“Ignorance is leading to fear, and fear is leading to hate. And hate is the reality we are all living within. So we decided to use tourism as a way to open gates.” – Maoz Inon ([05:58])

3. Small Acts as Seeds of Peace

• Simple, everyday interactions—like Israelis offering their vote symbolically to Palestinians, or a Palestinian guide officiating a Jewish wedding—challenge entrenched identities and animosities ([07:05]-[07:58]).

Quote:
“[W]e see each other as a partner, as an ally, instead of as an enemy.” – Aziz Abu Sara ([07:57])

4. The Ostracism Faced by Peacemakers

• Both authors describe alienation from their own communities for reaching out to “the enemy” ([07:58]-[09:21]).
• Inon describes being called a traitor, and Abu Sara details similar backlash amid ongoing suffering.

5. Facing Historical Narratives: Holocaust and Nakba

• Genuine peace work requires mutual recognition of each other’s historical traumas: Israelis must acknowledge the Nakba; Palestinians the Holocaust ([09:21]-[10:55]).

Quote:
“It was not easy. People cried throughout the day… But it also led to the Israelis coming to us after and saying, you took a very brave step, saying, we want to learn about your history.” – Aziz Abu Sara ([10:00])

• Both authors advocate “learning history” together as an antidote to denial and erasure.

6. Envisioning a Shared Future

• The authors acknowledge that historical narratives may never fully agree, but insist peace is possible if both sides focus on building a new future ([10:55]-[11:33]).

Quote:
“We don’t necessarily need to agree on the past nor on the present. They are two different realities... but they are meeting in the future.” – Maoz Inon ([11:05])

7. Hope, Precedent, and Action

• Historical examples (Northern Ireland, South Africa, Egypt-Israel) prove that seemingly intractable conflicts can end ([11:33]-[12:34]).
• Abu Sara and Inon co-founded “Interact” to promote these ideas and push for actionable peace through shared narratives and travel.

Quote:
“In every one of those conflicts. If you went to people a month before an agreement has been signed and you ask, do you think it will work? And they’ll say exactly what we hear today, it’s impossible. And yet every one of them has been solved.” – Aziz Abu Sara ([11:58])

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Grief and Peace Visioning:
  “I could see all of humanity crying with me… tears washed away the blood from the earth, purifying the ground. And on that ground, I could see a path. The path to peace and reconciliation.”
  – Maoz Inon reading from the book ([03:18])

• On Forgiveness and Human Connection:
  “This division of us versus them is a ridiculous one...”
  – Aziz Abu Sara ([04:54])

• On Breaking Social Barriers:
  “Reaching out and partnering with Palestinians was considered a betray by many of my friends, colleagues, sometimes even family members…” – Maoz Inon ([08:11])

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Key Segment Timestamps

• [01:49] Introduction of both peace activists/authors, and genesis of partnership
• [02:53] Maoz Inon describes parental loss and how his partnership with Aziz Abu Sara began
• [04:41] Abu Sara recounts his brother’s death and meeting his first Israeli ally
• [05:33] Both authors discuss using tourism and travel to build empathy
• [07:05] Abu Sara gives examples of “small acts” of peacemaking among guides
• [08:11] Inon on the personal cost of reaching across divides
• [09:21] Discussion on historical memory: Holocaust for Palestinians, Nakba for Israelis
• [10:55] Vision for future: can peace be real?
• [11:33] Examples from global conflict resolution history

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Takeaways

• The Future is Peace posits that travel and shared experience can fundamentally alter perspectives and breed lasting empathy.
• Both authors argue for concrete actions—however small—and honest engagement with painful histories.
• Their partnership, forged in trauma and sustained against social pressure, models the potential for grassroots peace efforts amid bitter conflict.
• The episode balances realism (acknowledging ongoing violence and resistance) with hope, challenging listeners to look beyond the narratives of victimhood and enmity.

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For Readers and Listeners:
The book and the episode offer a vision of peace grounded in practical steps — personal connection, honest dialogue, and courage to defy communal divisions — and suggest that, with perseverance, a new shared narrative is possible for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Transcript

[A]

Hi, I'm Alyssa Nadworny, and you're listening to Book of the Day. Sometimes a book comes along that makes you question how you think about things. For me, the book was the Future Is Peace. It's written by two peace activists, one Palestinian and the other Israeli. Aziz Abusara and Maoz Inon experienced the killing of close family members during the Gaza war, and they both still want peace. How might this happen? The pair suggests through travel and understanding. They spoke with Here and Now host Indira Lakshmanan.

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[A]

How can we resolve the bitter, bloody conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and build bridges to a peaceful Middle east for all its people? That's a dream that Palestinian Aziz Abu Sara and Israeli Maoz Inon have each been working on independently for years. Neither of them is a diplomat or a politician. Both of them work in the travel industry. Both also suffered the horrific loss of close family members killed by the other side. Despite those tragedies, the two men have dedicated their adult lives to bringing Israelis and Palestinians together through tourism to build understanding and a peaceful future. And after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, the pair took an eight day journey across the Holy Land to explore Jews, Muslims and Christians contrasting narratives over the disputed territory. They write about it in their new book, the Future Is Peace. Aziz Abu Sara and Maoz Inon join me in the studio now. Thank you both so much for being here.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you.

[D]

Thank you for having us.

[A]

Maoz, we learn right at the beginning that your parents were murdered in the Hamas attacks of October. Sevent Kibbutz was stormed. They were shot. Their home was burned to the ground. Their bodies were burned beyond recognition. With such a loss, it would have been understandable if you had been angry or called for revenge. But lying in bed, as you mourned, you had a very different reaction. Can you please read to us what you wrote on page 12?

[C]

Yes, of course. I could not tell if I was awake or dreaming. But through my tears, I. I could see all of humanity crying with me. Our bodies were wounded and broken from the wall. The ground was stained, rayed with blood. But as our tears fell down our faces and onto our bodies, they healed our wounds and made us whole again. Then our tears washed away the blood from the earth, purifying the ground. And on that ground, I could see a path. The path to peace and reconciliation. I woke up shaking in the dark. I reached for my phone and saw that I had a message. Maoz, I'm so sorry to hear about your parents.

[A]

Thank you for sharing that. And I know it's still hard to talk about your parents death. Tell me how that message that Aziz sent you through the darkness really was the beginning of an incredible partnership.

[C]

Yes. It was not just a message on messenger. It was a hand. Hand reaching out and saving me from drowning. And what I can only say now is yes, I lost not only my parents. I lost childhood friends. But I want Aziz. I want Aziz as a brother.

[A]

And Aziz, when you were a child, your beloved big brother was killed by Israeli forces. You were understandably angry, but you eventually decided to forgive your brother's killers, even though they never asked for your forgiveness.

[D]

It took me a few years after Taysir died. All I wanted to do is vengeance. But then, eight years later, I went to study Hebrew. And it was in that Hebrew class I met my Israeli teacher, who was a Jewish woman, who was the first person from the other side who smiled at me, who treated me as equal to the other students, who recognized me as a human being and recognized my Palestinian identity and talked about it. And at that point, I realized that this division of us versus them is a ridiculous one. That it's not Israelis versus Palestinians, but it's rather those of us who believe in justice, equality and peace versus those who don't.

[A]

Yet, well, years before you two met, you had both chosen travel as a way to build understanding across cultural divides. Maoz, you opened a hostel in Nazareth, the largest Palestinian city. And Aziz, you run tours through the Holy Land guided by both Israelis and Palestinians. Talk about how the physical act of journeying can foster closer ties and greater understanding.

[C]

Yes. It started for me with my own personal journeys that I took with my wife Shlomit. We traveled twice around the world, and the second time was the summer of 2014. We found ourselves staying with a family, indigenous family, in Ecuador. We learned about their lifestyle, their culture, heritage, food. And suddenly we realized that we know so much about indigenous communities all over the world, but we don't have even one Palestinian friend back home. We lived within walls, walls of ignorance. And ignorance is leading to fear, and fear is leading to hate. And hate is the reality we are all living within. So we decided to use tourism as a way to open gates.

[A]

Now, Aziz, you also were running these tours led by Israelis and Palestinians together, to give not a single narrative of Holy Land, but contrasting or complementary narratives. And you write in the book that the small exchanges that come from having Israelis and Palestinians work on equal footing have become major acts of peacemaking. Give us an example or two of these small acts.

[D]

Yeah. One of them, for example, in one of the elections, Israeli elections, some of our tour guides came to their Palestinian co guides and said, you don't have the right to vote in Israel, but Israeli policies affect your daily life. We will give you our vote. Wow. One of our tour guides, an Israeli Jewish man getting married to his fiance, an Israeli Jewish woman, and they were looking for a rabbi to officiate the wedding. Then the two of them realized our closest friend is not a rabbi, is a Palestinian tour guide. And they asked the Palestinian tour guide to officiate a Jewish wedding for two Israeli Jews. These are the stories that you never hear about that shows that the moment we get to know each other, work with each other, live in this kind of different reality, it changes everything. And we see each other as a partner, as an ally, instead of as an enemy.

[A]

And Maoz, you talk about the cost of peacemaking in the book, and you say that in reaching out to the Palestinian community, you risk alienating yourself from your Jewish Israeli friends and neighbors. Can you talk more about that?

[C]

Yes. Reaching out and partnering with Palestinians was considered a betray by many of my friends, colleagues, sometimes even family members who say to me publicly, they are the enemy. Normative life of Jewish Israelis. We are segregated in our education system, in our universities. I shared also in the book that in my primary school there was a written on the wall with the Jewish people. People without land came to a land without people. The Palestinian Akba, the Palestinian catastrophe of 48, is totally erased.

[D]

I want to add just something to what Maoz said. I think betrayal in a time where there's so much pain, it's very easy for people to see any work together as betrayal. And I understand that with the suffering going in Gaza, I get similar responses to what Maoz gets. How could you do this? And the answer is, together we challenge injustices. Maoza and I are not just talking about peace. We want actions to bring that peace. And that action is partially through learning history.

[A]

Well, I want to focus in on that because the two of you write in this book about the importance of understanding one another's narratives. On the one side, how the Palestinians need to understand and believe in the fact of the Holocaust, that 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis during World War II, and Israelis need to understand the Nakba, the mass displacement, dispossession of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab Israeli War, and the establishment of the state of Israel. So, Aziz, let's start with you. You write that your own father asked if the Holocaust really happened.

[D]

Yeah, my dad came to a peace meeting in which he asked if the Holocaust happened. And it was then that Ram El Hanan, an Israeli who's lost his daughter in a suicide bombing, whose father was in Auschwitz, stood up and told my dad that he would love to bring him to the Holocaust Museum with his dad. And he said, no pressure. You don't need to agree, you don't need to believe. Just come and listen. My dad agreed. But 70 other Palestinians in that gathering also agreed. It was not easy. People cried throughout the day. There were very hard questions and. But it also led to the Israelis coming to us after and saying, you took a very brave step, saying, we want to learn about your history. We want to do the same. Take us to a village that was destroyed in 1948, and we took them with Palestinians from that village. And the same was not easy. But we must have those conversations if we want to have real peace.

[A]

And Malz, what about you? Do you worry that too many Israelis, including people you grew up with, ignore or deny the. The Nakba for a fact.

[C]

They are ignoring the Nakba. And what we are offering in our shared work and in the future is peace. That we don't necessarily need to agree on the past nor on the present. They are two different realities. And they don't meet in the past and in the present, but they are meeting in the future. And this is why most of our book is focused on shaping and creating this future and reminding us all that we have the agency to change.

[A]

Well, let me ask you both a quite difficult question. It's great to talk about peace, but is it possible and not a pipe dream?

[C]

History proves that all conflicts end in the end. It doesn't matter if those conflicts took days, weeks, months, years, decades or centuries. History is with us. There are only two relevant questions, when will it happen and how many life will be lost?

[D]

I worked in many conflict zones, and Mouse and I have been also doing our own work. We founded Interact, a joint organization to bring that peace. And one of the things we've been focusing on is learning from other places. Here's what the people Northern Ireland did. Here's what the people in South Africa did. Here is history from Egypt and Israel and how they managed to do a peace agreement in every one of those conflicts. If you went to people a month before an agreement has been signed and you ask, do you think it will work? And they'll say exactly what we hear today, it's impossible. And yet every one of them has been solved.

[A]

That's Aziz Abu Sara, and we're also speaking with Mao Zinon. They're the authors of the Future's A Shared Journey across the Holy Land. Thank you both so much for coming in.

[D]

Thank you. Thank you for having us.

[A]

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