The book opens with a chilling story. On October 7, 2023, "the earth opened up beneath us and swallowed us whole. Our parents, Yakovi and Bilha Inon, were dead". In the days that followed, their children – Maoz Inon and his siblings – made it publicly known that they were not seeking revenge. Yakovi and Bilha Inon, aged 75 and 78 respectively, had lived for decades in the village of Netiv HaAsara, less than 500 metres from the separation wall with the Gaza Strip, and were burned alive by Hamas militants. "We did not want our tragedy and pain to be hijacked to justify another war, a war that would bring both Israelis and Palestinians to the edge of chaos," writes Inon in "The Future is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land", a book co-authored with Aziz Abu Sarah.
"The Future is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land", a book co-authored by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. © Crown Publishing Group
In 1989, during the First Intifada, Tayseer Abu Sarah, a young Palestinian from East Jerusalem, threw stones at Israeli soldiers. He was arrested and held for nearly a year in an Israeli prison. He died a few months after his release as a result of the torture inflicted during his detention. His younger brother Aziz Abu Sarah was 10 years old at the time. A tourism entrepreneur, he had met Inon at a professional event. The day after October 7, he sent him a brief message on Facebook: “Maoz, I’m so sorry to hear about your parents.” “His words were more than a message of condolence; they shone a light into the darkness,” writes Inon. United by the loss of their loved ones and a shared vision of Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, a duo of peacemakers that was anything but naive was born. In an in-depth interview, FRANCE 24 delved into the meaning behind their commitment. FRANCE 24: How does one overcome the segregation between Israelis and Palestinians? Maoz Inon: I grew up in a kibbutz, one kilometre and a half from Gaza, and served for three years in the IDF. By the time I turned 30, I didn’t have even one Palestinian friend. I didn't know the differences between Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr or Ramadan. I realized that I was living within walls, a mental and physical wall of ignorance. And when there is ignorance, there is fear. When there is fear, there is hate. And when there is hate, we, mankind, can do horrible things to one another. I later chose to work in tourism because I love traveling. In 2005, I opened the first guesthouse ever in the old city of Nazareth, the largest Palestinian city within Israel. What I learned doing this is that the first step in reaching a shared future and a shared society is knowing the other side’s narrative by looking to the other in the eye, listening to their pain, acknowledging also their loss and their suffering.
