Content Archives
At UCLA, a few demonstrators are genuinely promoting peace
[Zahra Sakkejha] and about 25 members of the LA support group for Standing Together, an Israeli social movement of Jews and Arabs demanding political and social equality and reconciliation, constituted a small, third group at UCLA protests…
Israelis and Palestinians discuss difficult path to peace
Peace activists share why it is so hard to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a campus event.
Vast Majority of Arabs and Jews in Mixed Workplaces Report Good Relations
[A] survey found that 83% of Arab workers and 72% of Jewish workers reported the state of relations between Arabs and Jews at their workplace to be good or very good.
Academics nominate Arava Institute for Nobel Prize
The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES)… has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a group of academics, citing their ‘groundbreaking work in the fields of dialogue and diplomacy, climate engagement, education, and research.
Zero-Sum Thinking: How Philanthropy Can Stoke Division
Grant makers are not the primary drivers of toxic polarization. Nor do they intentionally operate as conflict entrepreneurs. But despite our best intentions, we are human and susceptible to habits and behaviors that stoke and fuel toxic polarization.
Letter to Concerned Students: 10 Ways to Side With Humanity
As a passionate Muslim and a passionate Jew, we have come together to humbly share a path forward for how to transcend the construct of “us vs. them” and side with humanity instead.
Activist helps keep the peace
Israel’s Arab citizens have not taken up Hamas calls to join the fray. Heart of a Nation Board Member Mohammad Darawashe was instrumental in dousing the flames.
Rage as an Obstacle to Progress
Cultural change tends to have a pendulum-style rhythm, and we are now at the dawn of another collective phase. This mode of collectivism embeds us in communities—but they’re not friendly communities; they’re angry ones.
Heart of a Nation hosts emerging change-makers in Washington, DC
For the past two and a half months, with the help of an American professor, Robert Vogel, teens from a number of Jewish and Palestinian communities in Israel were encouraged to write about their identities and process their feelings. Heart of a Nation had the privilege of hosting six of these remarkable students.
Reinterpreting Conflict Video Competition
International high school and college-level students are invited to participate in a social media storytelling contest surrounding October 7 and the ongoing war.
Civil society key to peace-building
Emerging voices are making the case that the failure of political leadership means that a top-down resolution of affairs… will not be possible to achieve without the greater engagement of civil society…
It’s easy to miss that the Middle East has changed
As we watch the horrors of another war in the Middle East, it is easy to get gloomy and depressed... But that misses an important shift that has taken place in recent times, one that provides some cause for optimism about the future…
Time for Arab and Jewish Communities of Israel to Come Together
Failure to capitalize on this transformative moment would have far-reaching consequences… Israel risks squandering this chance, a mistake with potentially grave consequences for us all.
Activists Are Still Quietly Working for Peace
Many peace groups have been struggling since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which have hardened the positions of many Israelis and Palestinians. But some activists, including those in Combatants for Peace, have quietly started to resume their work.
Choose Life Over Revenge
All the world’s babies are children of a single nation. They have a common language, a common past, common dreams.
Can Israelis and Palestinians Start Anew?
The trauma of this war has wiped away compassion for the other. We need courageous voices, reaching between sides, to emerge.
Global democracy is on the ballot
More than 60 countries, with some 4 billion people, are set to stage national elections in 2024. That means roughly half the planet could go to the polls in what could be the greatest rolling spectacle of democracy in human history.
Splitting the world into good and evil — and making decisions we regret
‘I think that in our souls, or our minds, or whatever you call it, there is something very complex, some ability to contain ambiguity, not to be swept with only one emotion. To be able to inhale the complexity of existing,’
A New Jewish-Arab Partnership Is Building in Israel
One of our slogans is, "There is no movement without friction.” If we want to get things moving, obviously there will be differences of opinion about us. Standing Together is a stream of thoughts, from which we derive our actions.
Palestinian Israeli peace activists speak out
We are blessed and cursed by not having a mother tongue,' said Amira Mohammed, one of the two Palestinian Israeli hosts of the new podcast Unapologetic: The Third Narrative.