On Thursday, May 2, 2024 (9:00pm Jerusalem | 2:00pm New York) Combatants for Peace and American Friends of Combatants hosted a conversation on moving from pain to liberation and healing collective trauma. This virtual event was led by Dr. Gabor Maté, retired physician, internationally renowned speaker, and bestselling author. The discussion was moderated by Sami Awad, Palestinian peace activist, and founder and former executive director of Holy Land Trust. 

Gabor Maté is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of five books published in nearly 40 languages, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. For his ground-breaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver. His most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture is a New York Times and international bestseller. 

Sami Awad is a Palestinian nonviolence activist and the Co-Director of Nonviolence International. He was the Founder and the former Executive Director of Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem. Sami was born in the United States to Palestinian parents; his father (originally from Jerusalem) became a refugee at the age of nine after his father was killed in the 1948 war leaving behind his wife and seven children. Sami’s mother is from the Gaza Strip where he still has members of his family living there. Growing up in a violent situation, at a young age Sami was influenced by the teaching of his uncle Mubarak Awad, the Palestinian activist who promoted and engaged in nonviolent resistance to the occupation during the first Intifadah. Sami holds a Doctoral Degree in Divinity from the Chicago Theological Seminary, a master's degree in international relations from the American University in Washington D.C., and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas.