The parents of Israeli tourism entrepreneur and peace activist Maoz Inon were both killed during the October 7 massacre. Despite the horrors Inon endured, that did not stop his aspirations for peace. On Saturday, he participated in a peace conference hosted by Pope Francis in Italy, alongside Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian man whose brother was killed in an IDF strike 34 years ago when he was 10.
Inon, 49, believes in tourism as a means to promote dialogue and peace. He established the Fauzi Azar guesthouse in Nazareth nearly 20 years ago and also the Abraham Hostel chain. On Saturday, he took to the stage at Verona's famous Arena and embraced Abu Sarah, 44, at the conference attended by 12,000 people, hosted by the Pope. Together, they prayed for peace, and the three received tremendous applause and long standing ovations. The videos of their embrace went viral on social media and Italian news outlets.
"Just watch and, seeing the embrace of these two, everyone pray in their hearts to the Lord for peace and make a decision to do something to end wars," Pope Francis said. Inon added: "We are both entrepreneurs and we believe that peace is the greatest undertaking to be achieved. There can be no peace without an economy of peace, an economy that does not kill. An economy that does not produce war, but is instead based on justice. But how can young people be entrepreneurs of peace when the places of formation are influenced by technocratic paradigms and the culture of profit at any cost?"
Aziz said on stage that suffering and anger are like nuclear energy, they can "either be turned into a tool for destruction or into electricity that creates a great light." He said it took him nine years to overcome the emotions of vengeance that arose after his older brother was shot by IDF soldiers. He also recounted losing dozens of his friends, hundreds from the same family, in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Inon told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that there is "a thin line between justice and revenge. Every death justifies another death in a vicious cycle of bloodshed and that cycle must be broken."
"I was born over 40 years ago on a kibbutz and lived my whole life near the Gaza border. On October 7, my parents were among the first casualties in the Hamas attack, and I also lost friends who were killed or captured," Inon recounted. "I was completely broken and immersed in an ocean of pain and blood. Three days after the attack, I had a dream where I saw a whole world covered in suffering and wounded bodies."
"Blood was soaked in blood. I cried in my dream for all of humanity. But those tears washed away the blood and cleaned the ground, and the earth began to shine again, and then I saw a path, a path to peace. And to heal myself, I chose this path, the path of peace and reconciliation, just like Aziz did. While others call for war and revenge, Aziz and I push for reconciliation and peace," he added.
At the peace conference, the Pope also signed a joint statement with Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, Israeli and a Palestinian women peace movements. The joint statement is a call to Jewish, Arab, Israeli and Palestinian mothers to stop the conflict and reach a diplomatic agreement to end the bloodshed, said Women Wage Peace, the Israeli women peace movement.