Episode 122

Hope Is Something You Create with Palestinian Peacemaker Aziz Abu Sarah

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A Vision for Peace

Aziz Abu Sarah is a peace builder, cultural educator, entrepreneur, author and international speaker. He’s also a Palestinian man who lost his brother to the Israeli soldiers and who is currently working with his Israeli partner, Maoz Inon, to imagine a new vision forward for both of their people. 

Aziz is a National Geographic Explorer and a TED Fellow who co-founded Mejdi Tours, a travel company that takes people to places like Palestine/Israel, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and more, and presents multiple narratives about those places.

His recent efforts with Maoz Inon include a Ted Talk titled A Palestinian And Israeli, Face To Face, and meeting Pope Francis ahead of the G7 Summit.

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What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • What it's like to meet with Pope Francis

  • How Aziz stays engaged in the face of pain and loss

  • A Palestinian and an Israeli joining forces

  • Aziz tells the story of losing his brother and becoming a peacemaker

  • What it's like living under the Israeli apartheid structure

  • What Aziz wants people to see when they see Palestinians

  • The power of poetry in Palestinian culture

  • Mejdi Tours and the Dual Narrative method

  • Seeing beyond tourism stereotypes in Egypt

  • The asymmetry between Palestine and Israel

  • The crux of Aziz's peacemaking approach

  • Moving beyond pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli labels

  • Fighting fear with hope

  • What the peacemaking vision in Palestine and Israel looks like

  • How you can get involved in the peacemaking process

  • Why Aziz thinks hope is an action

“Our existence is the biggest threat to extremism, the biggest threat to those who believe the language of bombs is the only language that should be heard. Our existence shows an alternative.”

— Aziz Abu Sarah

Fighting Fear With Hope

Check out our full interview on YouTube →

A Traveler’s Guide to World Peace

In 2020, Aziz wrote a book titled Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler's Guide to World Peace. This book presents the case that travel has the power to heal divides, increase tolerance and make the world a more peaceful place.

In this book, Aziz relates his experiences of creating cross-cultural connections in places like Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Russia, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Readers are given a road map for engaging with the "other" through socially conscious travel and are given practical peace-building tips applicable wherever one goes—near or far.

Get your copy here.

Featured on the Show

Aziz Abu Sarah

“Even when you feel there is nothing you can do, sharing our stories is making a difference.”

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