Earlier this week marked the one year anniversary of the horrendous October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. The suffering, pain, and death on that day and in the year since are unimaginable for any of us who were not directly impacted. We hear the numbers – over 1200 Israelis killed on that day and around 250 taken hostage followed by an estimated 42,000 people killed in Gaza to date. We see almost daily news footage of apocalyptic scenes of destruction and displacement in Gaza, northern Israel, and more recently in Lebanon. Government officials and political pundits make speeches and spout opinions with no end to the death and destruction in sight.
Where are there any signs of hope amid all this suffering and despair? I want to lift up the voices of peace by people who are living through the current horrors in Israel and Gaza. The Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon is a voice of authority because of his lived experience. Both his parents died in the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. Within days of his parents’ murder, he called for a cease fire to end the fighting and return the Israeli hostages. Throughout the past year to the present day, he continues to be speak out and organize for peace even as the violence escalates. Thousands of other Israelis and Palestinians have joined that movement to protest the futility of war and advocate for genuine dialogue and negotiation. Far from being an unrealistic utopian fantasy, the call for dialogue and negotiation is the most realistic way forward to defuse the cycle of violence that is engulfing the region. Maoz Inon made the following observation in response to those who see war as the only “realistic” solution, “Those who believe in war, they are naive, because they have been failing again and again and again.” In this way, Maoz and the thousands of others in the Israeli-Gaza peace movement are the contemporary heirs of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement who called for an end to the war in Vietnam at a time when that war was escalating. The first video posted below features an interview with Maoz Inon on the first anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks. Please take the time to watch it and reflect on his words of peace in light of his lived experience of deep pain and loss. The second video is a brief clip of Dr. King from 1964 during the campaign in St. Augustine, FL when he reaffirmed his commitment to nonviolence and love in the face of hatred and violence.