Back in 2005, before I opened Fauzi Azar Inn in Nazareth, I gathered my family to share a simple 10-slide presentation. It showcased my vision—how a guesthouse could unlock business potential while strengthening the local community. One slide featured a photo of an old Arab mansion I’d found online, an image of what the dream could one day look like.

When I finished, the room was silent. My parents exchanged a look and then said the words that changed everything: “Maoz, if you’re going for this—we’re with you.”

They became my first partners, my first supporters, and together we turned the dream into reality.

That same spirit still drives me today. As many of you know, my beloved parents, Yaccovi and Bilha, were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7th. Since that tragic day, I have taken on a new mission: to do everything I can to help achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians—so that others will not suffer the same fate as my family.

This week is the second anniversary of October 7th. War has continued to rage, the suffering in Gaza is unimaginable, and the extremist government in Israel pursues policies that harm both Palestinians and Israelis, including the remaining hostages. It has been easy to feel hopeless. But now, more than ever, and on the cusp of a potential peace plan, our work as peace-builders is urgent. Hope is not something we wait to find—it is something we create through action.

As my good friend and partner Aziz Abu Sarah says: “If you must divide us, don’t divide us between Israelis and Palestinians. The only division is between those who believe in justice, peace, and equality—and those who don’t, yet.”

To advance this vision, Aziz and I have launched InterAct, a nonprofit organization with a bold mission: to achieve peace by 2030. InterAct builds trust, fosters dialogue, and creates shared spaces where Israelis and Palestinians can meet as equals. Over the past two years, we have come to realize that our message is like water for those in the desert—vital, life-giving, and desperately needed. We aspire to share this sustenance with all those seeking hope and change.

Last year, Aziz and I opened the 2024 TED Convention with our healing conversation. Since then, we have shared our message with millions through the media and with thousands in person—including world leaders such as the late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV. These milestones remind us that the world is listening, and that change is within reach.

As part of this journey, I plan to send updates on our efforts every few weeks. You can also visit the InterAct website to see upcoming events. If I’m in your neighborhood, I’d love to meet you.

When I first shared my dream of opening a guesthouse, my parents stood beside me and gave me the courage to begin. Today, as I pursue the even greater dream of peace, I ask you to stand beside me in the same way. Help me amplify our message—share our story with your friends, your communities, and your networks. The more voices join, the stronger and more unstoppable our call for peace becomes.

Here’s how you can help:

Forward this article to those you know. Forward this email to those you know and ask them to join the mailing list Invite us to speak with the media, in webinars or at public events. Share our TED talk on social media

With love and peace—by 2030,
Maoz Inon

::Interact

::Abraham Hostels

More about Maoz Inon

Born on a kibbutz in the Negev Desert, Maoz spent a year backpacking around the world when he was 22, and it was then that he discovered the power of the hostel to bring all kinds of people together and stimulate an area’s local economy.  At 28, he embarked on the Israel Trail and was inspired to bring this world of the independent backpacker to his home country.

In 2005 Maoz opened his first hostel and the first guest house in Nazareth, Fauzi Azar Inn.  He received international praise for bringing a new model for travel to Israel and sparking Nazareth’s resurgence as a destination for travelers.  In 2000 the Lonely Planet called Nazareth a city to “avoid,” while in 2011 former British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to visit Nazareth and the Fauzi Azar while in Israel, a sign of the city’s much-improved status among foreigners.

Following Fauzi, Maoz and his American friend David Landis went on to develop the Jesus Trail, a walking trail through the northern region of Israel.  The project was intended to stimulate and support the local economy in smaller, out-of-the-way Israeli towns and also bridge cultural gaps by trekking through currently and historically significant sites for Christians, Jews & Muslims.  This project was also noted by international media as a positive development for Israeli tourism.

In 2006 Maoz met Yaron Burgin, who was staying as a guest at Fauzi Azar.  After talking and brainstorming, the two proceeded to create ILH – Israel Hostels, a network of Israeli hostels with high standards of cleanliness, true backpackers’ vibes, affordable prices and “more than a bed to sleep in.”

It became clear that Jerusalem needed an ILH-style hostel, and Maoz teamed up with Gal, Dror, Nitzan, and Yaron, to create it.  The five opened their dream hostel in the city center of Jerusalem, and Maoz saw his dream for Israel and the Middle East realized one step further.

The post My parents were killed on October 7. I am not giving up on peace for the Middle East appeared first on Green Prophet.

Meet Andreas Weil, founder of EcoOcean, Israel’s leading marine conservation organization which has reached hundreds of thousands and brought the concept of Blue Flag beaches to Israel.

Under the blue, sparkling surface of the Mediterranean Sea lies an aquatic world teeming with life, history, and untold stories. For Andreas Weil, founder of the marine protection NGO EcoOcean, this vast marine expanse is more than just a sea; it represents a lifelong passion and mission. Growing up in Sweden, Weil has always had a passion for the environment. Weil explained his reasons for coming to Israel as “I’m going to have fun and do good for the country.”

He began his time in Israel studying Environmental Studies at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. He began to discover his purpose and his reason for being.

When Weil settled in Israel, he noticed a stark contrast between his homeland of Sweden and his new home of Israel. While Sweden was one of the first countries to expand, promote, and participate in green initiatives and recycling, Israel was lagging. There was no awareness, education, or environmental culture in the country. This troubled Weil. He saw that Israelis viewed the environment and climate change as a secondary issue. They disregarded the environment.

What troubled him also was the state of the Mediterranean Sea and the beautiful beaches of Israel being covered in trash. One point of emphasis Weil found was that Israelis did not take responsibility for the garbage that was in their seas. So, he decided to put down the facts. His initial research focussed on where the trash was coming from. He found that 80% of the garbage in the oceans was not from Gaza, Jordan, or any other country, as many had thought. It was from Israel. When framed this way, the Israelis realized that if they were to stop putting trash in the ocean, they would be 80% cleaner. Weil envisioned a new Israel, one where everyone was educated on the environment and the dangers of climate change.

Building EcoOcean

EcoOcean was born out of this vision to research, gather facts, and educate everyone. Central to EcoOcean’s success is the Mediterranean Explorer, the only privately operated marine research vessel in the region. Today, the level of research has increased, not without thanks to the Mediterranean Explorer and Weil himself. Armed with his ship and equipment, Weil set sail to find facts to bring back to Israel. The goal of the boat is to investigate water quality, marine life, trash, and other issues within the Mediterranean. With the information they collect, EcoOcean is not only well equipped to inform the public but also the government.

Discoveries are a commonality on board. While most are focused on climate research, they also have made discoveries outside the realm. One recent discovery made by the ship and its team is a sea sponge that possesses properties that could lead to a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Education is at the core of EcoOcean’s strategy. Starting with 10,000 students and evolving 20 years later to over 20,000, Weil and EcoOcean’s mission is to provide education to all on the topic of the environment and the looming climate threat. Weil has accomplished this with the help of others, starting with only two workers and evolving into a team of 18 full-time staff members and 25 freelance teachers.

They have a learning center called Seakura, located in Mikhmoret. Their center is only the start of it. They send their team of teachers to schools across Israel to provide constant, sustained education to the youth. Teachings focus on sustainability, climate change, and environmental ethics. Additionally, EcoOcean and its educators offer hands-on experiences, such as beach cleanups, that forge a strong, authentic connection to the issue at hand. “You are responsible as a citizen not only to pay taxes,” Weil says. “You’re supposed to clean and take care of your gift.” Israel.

EcoOcean doesn’t stop at education. It also works closely with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, local municipalities, and other NGOs to influence Israel’s environmental policies. One notable example of cooperation between EcoOcean and the Ministry is their “Disposable Dishes-Not in my Sea!” campaign, which educated the public on using reusable utensils, cups, and other kitchenware on the beach. The result was a visible reduction in single-use plastics on Israel’s sparkling, sandy beaches. As mentioned earlier, the Mediterranean Explorer is used to collect research for submission to the Israeli government. The abundance of information provided allows Israeli officials to identify and address clear problems.

Read related: This is the only government-funded sea turtle hospital in the world 

Environmental Unity in a Divided Region

Despite regional war and political tension, Weil sees marine conservation as a unifying force. EcoOcean and Weil are committed to providing the same level of education for all Israeli citizens. He says that “The environment does not have boundaries” and that, to have widespread change, the country needs “An Israel where people feel as one.” Nothing changes without cooperation.

You need a resilient population. He strongly believes in Tikkun Olam, the concept of repairing the world. Repairs can be done through education and information.

Looking ahead, Weil and EcoOcean’s ambitions are as expansive as the sea itself. He wants EcoOcean to one day reach 100,000 young people annually. Additionally, he aims to expand volunteer programs and enhance scientific contributions through blue ocean-based, tech, and climate research. Most of all, he wants all Israeli children to have access to marine education.

“If they approach us, we never want to say no,” he says. “We just need funding to say yes to everyone.”Weil’s vision extends far beyond Israel’s shores. “The environment and the threat of climate change can be the catalyst for Middle East peace,” he believes. “We are all part of the problem. We are all part of the solution. We can all fix it if we work together.”

Andreas Weil’s legacy is not about a single shoreline, beach, or sea. It is about a shift in attitude and consciousness. EcoOcean is a national leader in driving change, and its next goal is expansion to a broader area. “I want to go on a trip one day and hear everyone say, ‘I’d never throw trash in the ocean.'” This is when he believes he will have achieved his goals.

Until then, EcoOcean will continue to sail-chart a course for cleaner seas, educating citizens and working towards a future where the Mediterranean is a shared, thriving, and clean sea for all.

::EcoOcean 

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A team of pollution-weary Palestinians and Israelis are injecting environmental education into East Jerusalem schools, teaching young Palestinians new “green” habits.  They’re achieving cooperation in a region where even garbage is a political flashpoint.

The idea sprouted four years ago as a part of the Kidron Valley clean-up strategy. A planned sewage treatment plant was mothballed after political squabbling, but a team of Israelis and Palestinians are trying to resurrect the project.

They see a wider environmental mandate, with education at the top of their agenda, and launched green programs at ten schools with lessons in recycling and rainwater harvesting. Al Afaq Boys School and the Sur Baher Girls School, the first to participate, eagerly adopted environmentalism.

“In traditional Palestinian culture, no one threw anything out, they’d reuse it. With new technology it became easier to throw away,” said Khaled Abu Khaff, a manager at Only Green, the first enviro-education center in East Jerusalem and a volunteer at Al Afaq.

Plastic litter covers the approach to Al Afaq, but stops at the school gates.  Interior grounds are litter-free. The campus boasts solar panels and rainwater harvesting barrels.  Student Mohammed helped build a sculpture of Earth from recycled materials, proudly displayed at the school entrance. He says the projects taught him new ideas, “I’ve learned to save and take care of the things.”

Sur Baher students learn to make soap and toothpaste from natural ingredients, and science teacher Zoubaida Salman teaches them to build simple electrical circuits, too. They run an organic garden and maintain rainwater harvesting barrels, donated by US-based Water Resources Action Project. The barrels supplied 50% of the school’s water needs in 2011 and 2012.

Ideally, the students would take the behavior home, but when asked, only a few admit they have.

Israeli lawyers and project leaders Richard Laster and Dani Livney work to identify others open to localized green initiatives, which are funded in partnership with Only Green, Friends of the Earth Middle East, and Water Resources Action Project.

“We saw that there was much that needed doing. Alot of garbage; not much planning, if at all; and sewage,” Livney told The Christian Science Monitor.  “We felt the place to start would be environmental education, to change people’s mindsets.”

Teachers try to involve parents in activities, such as collecting home trash for reuse in school crafts. “At the beginning of the course the parents say, ‘You want us to collect trash?’” said teacher Hazar Khatteb. “But now they understand.”

In 2009, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel reported that the Jerusalem municipality provided 15,000 people in Sur Baher and neighboring Umm Tuba with only 104 trash bins. Regional waste collection and recycling is in its infancy.

Back at Al Afaq, the boys plan to turn a courtyard into a lab for recycling, rainwater harvesting and solar and wind energy projects, financed by a $15,000 donation from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and US Consulate in Jerusalem.  They hoped to start a program for visits by other Arab schoolchildren last April, but some of their equipment was vandalized in December, delaying the plan.

That vandalism could be evidence of community resentment from some who say inequity between East and West Jerusalem is a more important issue than environmental stewardship.  Abu Khaff says people complain about poor roads, not trash.

He said, “This type of [environmental] knowledge is not the top priority, but step by step we are changing that.”

Image of Old Jerusalem from Shutterstock

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If you are paddling a canoe down one of rivers that flows through Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, you might want to hold onto your oars. Some of these rivers are full of sewage effluent, agriculture runoff, wastewater from animal farms and industrial byproducts.

The Kishon River, which flows from the Palestinian city of Jenin through the Haifa Bay, is one of the most polluted of them all. Oil refinery waste dumped into the Kishon is thought responsible for giving Israeli divers cancer. Recent conservation efforts on Israel’s part have greatly improved the river’s condition. But upstream it’s a different story.

Upstream, where the 70-kilometer river starts in Jenin, Palestinians rely on the river to carry away partly and poorly treated sewage. Open cesspits further downstream siphon into the river from the West Bank side, while heavy loads of fertilizers run off with every rain.

Wildlife has returned to the Kishon following conservation efforts, but the situation is still grim near the West Bank end of the waterway.

Michal Sagive, Israel coordinator for the Good Water Neighbors project, is heading a venture to help turn the brown Kishon River green. The ambitious eco-peace project was developed by the NGO Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), and authorities on both sides are ready to dive into the idea.

FoEME has proposed the creation of a cross-border eco-park between the communities of Gilboa in Israel and Jenin in the West Bank, “accessed by both sides in a way that both sides can spend time together,” Sagive tells ISRAEL21c.

Separate public parks are currently planned for each side of the fence, with the eventual aim that the two parks will join as one.

Complete with leisure activity areas, the park would encompass water rehabilitation systems that will clean the river on the Israeli side, and provide treated water to the Palestinian side.

Partially treated sewage from the Palestinian Authority, currently retreated as it passes through Israel, could go through a restorative wetland to aid the biodegradation of human waste, resulting in clean “gray water” that could be returned to the Palestinian Authority for crop irrigation. Or, in a more cost-effective but less perfect plan, the water would simply be treated by the Israelis and returned via a pipe.

Master plans have been drafted, and financing is being sought. Sagive says the project could be completed in a year’s time once the money comes through.

A catalyst for other green efforts

Savige relates that the Kishon was at one time Israel’s most polluted river, “mainly because of the dangerous material dumped downstream [by Israel] in the Haifa industrial zone. It was a big scandal when some divers from the army dived there for training and one after the other starting suffering from cancer.”

Since that scandal, a significant amount of money has been put into the Kishon by the Israeli government in cooperation with the Kishon River Authority. Fish and aquatic plants are returning to the once-dead waters, and $56.5 million is being invested in efforts to dredge and treat the refinery residues from the river and to develop a 148-acre recreational center along the Kishon banks.

“The situation is much better now,” says Sagive. “But that’s downstream. No one is doing anything upstream. What we are trying to do there is to advance a plan for rehabilitating a seven-kilometer segment of the stream, the segment that starts in Jenin and crosses the Green Line.”

The West Bank city of Jenin and the Gilboa Regional Council in Israel have committed to supporting the idea, intended to be first in a string of joint projects.

Water is a life force, and in the Middle East it is certainly an important element for peacemaking.

(This article is reprinted with permission by ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org)
Above image via FOEME

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