In The Media
Recently, a delegation of peacebuilders visited Athens, as part of a program supported by the European Union. Its core objective is to challenge the narrative that there is no political solution to the Middle East conflict…Like others in the delegation, Khatib frequently invokes the term “trauma” to describe the situation in his homeland. He is not alone. What emerges is a portrait of two deeply traumatized societies locked in mutual hostility. “There is a complete blindness of one side to another,” said Bar-Yacoov. “We need to break that.” Khatib agreed with the analysis and offered a path forward: “We need collective liberation.”
Dr. Maynard Seider's article Searching for Signs of Peace After October 7th: Combatants for Peace recounts his journey to Israel and Palestine, where he engaged with former combatants from both sides who have committed to nonviolent activism. Through visits to sites deeply affected by conflict—Bethlehem, Hebron, the Gaza border, and Masafer Yatta—he witnessed the dire economic and humanitarian conditions, as well as the resilience of those advocating for a just peace. The testimonies of Israeli and Palestinian members of Combatants for Peace highlighted their transformation from armed fighters to peace activists, emphasizing the concept of Sumud (steadfastness) in their struggle. Despite the heightened tensions following October 7th, the movement continues its mission, taking joint action and fostering hope through co-resistance, solidarity, and grassroots action to end the occupation and co-create another way.
In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we talk with Sulaiman Khatib and Chen Alon from Combatants for Peace, along with filmmaker Stephen Apkon, director of There Is Another Way, a powerful new documentary about their movement currently touring the world to spark new conversations about a lasting peace in Israel-Palestine. Former fighters from opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sulaiman and Chen share their personal transformations and the deep commitment to nonviolence that drives their work. They discuss the challenges of breaking cycles of violence, the power of storytelling, and how nonviolence is not just a strategy but a daily choice. This conversation will leave you thinking about what it truly means to choose peace, even when it seems impossible.
Given the brutality of the recent conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, it has become increasingly difficult to imagine a durable peace. Yet, that remains the aim of a remarkable grassroots organization called Combatants for Peace.
The organization, which has been nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, is made up of Israelis and Palestinians who once embraced violence but have since turned to peace and dialogue as the only solution to healing the wounds of both communities.
Several of the members of Combatants for Peace were invited to UN Headquarters at the end of January by the UN Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions, including Mai Shahin and Elik Elhanan.
Oscar winner James Cameron has signed on to executive produce “There Is Another Way,” a 67-minute documentary about a grassroots group of Palestinians and Israelis working together through non-violent means to build a social infrastructure to end conflict and occupation. The doc, which has screened at numerous film festivals worldwide, will open theatrically in San Francisco and San Rafael, Calif. on March 13.
“There Is Another Way,” directed by Stephen Apkon, follows Combatants for Peace, a community of former enemy combatants based in Palestine and Israel who are working together during an ongoing armed conflict to promote peace through generous listening and empathy.
Two former combatants on opposing sides of the decades-old conflict between Palestinians and Israel have come to together to discuss how Israeli Jews and Palestinians can live side by side in peace. Given the brutality of the recent conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, it has become increasingly difficult to imagine a durable peace. Yet, that remains the aim of a remarkable grassroots organization called Combatants for Peace. The organization, which has been nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, is made up of Israelis and Palestinians who once embraced violence but have since turned to peace and dialogue as the only solution to healing the wounds of both communities.
What would you do if you lost a loved one to war, violence, or oppression? How does one recognize shared humanity with others in a time of tragedy and anger? Combatants for Peace (CfP), has taken on the challenge of nonviolent activism and acknowledging mutual humanity in the face of immense pain. Combatants for Peace was founded by Israeli and Palestinian former combatants who laid down their weapons to seek a peaceful, equitable future side-by-side. Committed to a third way, CfP prioritizes the needs, rights, and safety of all people living in Israel-Palestine and dedicates their energy to co-resisting the occupation and transforming oppression through nonviolence.
We sat down with Rana Salman, Co-Director of Combatants for Peace, and Ameera, Palestinian Co-Director at Tomorrow’s Women Leadership Programs for Young Palestinian and Israeli Women, two thoughtful and impressive women who are on the frontlines of efforts to raise awareness about the occupation and create a vision for peace. In this special episode, filmed in Beit Jala in Area C of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), in one of the few areas where Palestinians and Israelis can meet, Elana and Fakhira spoke with Rana and Ameera about their work, their experiences, their challenges to be involved in peace-building efforts, their beliefs about nonviolence, women’s contributions to peace, and their vision for a better future.
Growing up in East Jerusalem during the Second Intifada, Mai Shahin’s childhood wasn’t easy. She was stopped and held by soldiers on her way to school. She saw home raids and increased separation. Even after she joined peace protests during those early years, she saw violent clashes with the military in the streets, and support for violent resistance was growing. But a job working as a translator showed Mai a challenging world, the world of Combatants for Peace. Founded by former armed combatants, Combatants for Peace calls for a different approach. Learn more in our latest interview with Mai Shahin.
The Freedom School of Faith is a pilot programme run jointly by three activist organisations: Combatants for Peace, Ir Amim and Breaking the Silence. These NGOs have run programs for non-religious Israelis since 2019, aiming to teach young participants about the occupation – which they won’t learn about elsewhere – and give them the tools and community to take action. But this is their first time engaging with the religious community, which tends to be underrepresented in anti-occupation activism frameworks.
Christiane Amanpour speaks with May Pundak, co-director of A Land for All, and Rana Salman, co-director of Combatants For Peace, on working for a better future between Israelis and Palestinians.
Since October 7, Israeli settlers have targeted the al-Auja stream in a Palestinian town in the West Bank, blocking locals from their source of water. A group of Israelis and Palestinians from Combatants for Peace marching at the site are determined to 'sanctify life' over dispossession and war.
Our guests this week are Rana Salman and Eszter Koranyi. They are the Palestinian and Israeli Executive Directors of Combatants for Peace, an organization of Palestinians and Israelis working in solidarity to end the occupation and all forms of oppression, guided by the values of nonviolent resistance, and showing themselves and the world there is another way possible.
They share their personal stories of discovering the power of nonviolence to enact lasting change, about the costs of committing to nonviolence in a world that seeks easy answers, and about the possibility of mutual flourishing in the region—even right now.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, many Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech and held an alternative event on Capitol Hill to promote peace. The panel discussion featured Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah, Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers who have both lost family members to violence. Inon’s parents were killed in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. When Abu Sarah was a child, his teenage brother was arrested and held in Israeli prison for a year and died shortly after his release from internal injuries he suffered while being tortured in prison. Both Inon and Abu Sarah join Democracy Now! to talk about how they are hoping to use these tragedies to foster peace in Israel-Palestine. Aziz is an AFCFP board member.
Formed 18 years ago, the group Combatants for Peace began bringing together former combatants from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide – emphasizing the all-too-rare-approaches of dialogue, understanding, and community building. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with participants (including an Israeli military veteran and a former member of Hamas) who now seek purpose through cooperation.
After years of ignoring the conflict last week, the G7 released a communique which included unprecedented new language prioritising civil society peacebuilding as a critical component of any diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, write Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah (AFCFP Board Member).
How did October 7th impact activists in Israel and Palestine? dis:orient talked to a Palestinian and an Israeli member of the binational organization Combatants for Peace about education, solidarity, and continuing work amidst the war in Gaza.
There are Israelis and Palestinians who reach across the divides to mourn together and declare that war between their two peoples is not the inevitable cost of securing a Jewish state or creating a Palestinian one.
Maoz Inon, whose parents were killed on October 7, and Aziz Abu Sarah, who lost his brother in the second Intifada, addressed Pope Francis in front of a crowd of 13,000.
Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, virtually addressed Combatants For Peace's joint Nakba remembrance ceremony on Wednesday, saying "I know the Nakba never ended.”
“You can’t kill anybody in the name of my child,” was one of the first things Robi Damelin said when Israeli army officers arrived at her door to inform her of the killing of her son, David, in March 2002.
Israelis and Palestinians joining together for any reason during these days of war is rare. Some did for a memorial ceremony honoring victims from all sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Hear from NPR’s Daniel Estrin.
As Israel commemorates Memorial Day in the midst of seven months of war, FRANCE 24's Nadia Massih is joined by our correspondent Irris Makler and our guests from Combatants for Peace: Co-Directors Eszter Koranyi in Jerusalem and Rana Salman in Bethlehem.
“Many people have woken up to the reality that this conflict cannot go on,” said a director of one Israeli peace-building group, referring to the decades of violence.
‘No matter how many people you lose,’ said a Palestinian who has seen 61 relatives killed in Gaza, ‘The feeling is the same.’ Ahmed Alhelou of Jericho is among the speakers at Israel’s joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony. Israel won’t let him enter the country from the occupied West Bank, so he gave his remarks via video.
Controversial Memorial Day commemoration, filmed in advance this year, will be virtual to avoid having all-Israeli crowd, with West Bank Palestinians barred from Israel since Oct. 7
Since Israelis' lives were engulfed in horror on October 7, a catastrophe that has yet to end for Palestinians in Gaza, we bereaved families from both sides of the conflict are coming together to remember the innocent children whose only crime was being Palestinian or Israeli.
Voices on both sides that call for peace with justice are arguably displaying more courage and better leadership than that shown so far by Israel’s government or the militarists of Hamas.
CfP activist and staff member, Carly Rosenthal, from the pro-peace, anti-occupation NGO Combatants for Peace, spoke to Haaretz Podcast about CfP’s 19-year-old tradition of offering an alternative memorial ceremony to the government-sponsored event, which allows "Israelis and Palestinians to mourn together, to grieve for their loved ones that they've lost throughout the conflict."
On May 12, Yom Hazikaron eve, this year as every year for the past 18, the Joint Memorial Service will take place commemorating Israelis and Palestinians who died due to the decades-old conflict in which we are embroiled.