Maoz Inon, 49, was a businessman for years. However every part modified on October 7, 2023, when his dad and mom had been killed throughout Hamas’s assaults on Israel.
Since then, Inon has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s conflict on Gaza, founding a number of tourism initiatives centered on peace-building.
The Israeli entrepreneur and activist shared with Al Jazeera his views on the conflict, the Israeli authorities and the way forward for what he calls the Palestinian-Israeli peace motion. His account has been edited for size and readability.
Al Jazeera: Are you able to discuss what a 12 months with the Gaza conflict has been like as an Israeli?
Maoz Inon: I used to be among the many first ones to name to cease the conflict even earlier than we began. And I used to be crying publicly for all of the life that was misplaced. What we see now, it’s not Judaism. It’s not Zionism. It’s a mutation. It’s a mutation that took over.
And it’s a mutation that’s creating destruction inside Judaism and Jewish folks.
We don’t want your prayers. We don’t want your ideas. We don’t even want you to cross our fingers for us, which is what [United States] President [Joe] Biden is doing.
We want your motion. If all the worldwide neighborhood gained’t take motion now, we’re going to witness a re-creation of world conflict. We’re going to face a million casualties between the river and the ocean.
So we should supply an alternate. And in order that’s what we’re doing collectively, the Palestinian-Israeli peace motion, to create an identification that’s based mostly on equality, shared acknowledgement, recognition, reconciliation, therapeutic, safety and security. And it’s doable.
Al Jazeera: The mutation – are you able to elaborate on what you imply by that?
Inon: Judaism is about caring for others. It’s the concept that you need to love strangers as a result of you’re a stranger. That’s what Judaism means to me.
And now it’s turn into a mutation about Jewish supremacy. It’s about practising revenge, which is totally in opposition to Judaism.
And Zionism was about constructing a homeland for the Jewish folks. It wasn’t about erasing the Palestinian folks. It wasn’t about displacing the Palestinian folks.
So they’re doing precisely the alternative of Judaism and Zionism.
That is what I’m calling a mutation, and it’s killing our society from the within. It’s like a most cancers that’s getting in, spreading all around the physique. It is going to actually kill the state of Israel.
And it’s already killing us. It killed my dad and mom. We can’t remedy it by ourselves. We will need to have assist.
In case your finest pal is drunk, you gained’t give him the automotive. The worldwide neighborhood and people who think about themselves finest pals of Israel, that’s precisely what they’re doing. They’re bringing Israel to destruction.
Al Jazeera: You’ve been a really antiwar voice from the beginning. Has what you feared come true?
Inon: No, my worry is that it’s solely the start and we’re going to face one million casualties. And that’s the place we’re going. That is my worst nightmare.
And that’s what I’m telling the most effective pals of Israel, principally Germany and the US. In case you are such good pals of Israel and pro-Israel, you will need to realise that with the intention to obtain safety and security to the folks of Israel, we should obtain safety and security for the folks of Palestine.
It goes each methods.
There are two folks on this land. Between the river to the ocean, seven million Palestinians, seven million Israelis. Nobody goes anyplace. However we should study to reside collectively.
And if we can’t do it by ourselves, you will need to assist us.
Al Jazeera: How do you are feeling in regards to the authorities that represents Israel, having seen what’s occurred in Gaza?
Inon: The Israeli authorities is first accountable for the dying of my dad and mom. They betrayed my dad and mom. They promised them safety and security, and so they completely failed. And now they’re waging a conflict of revenge.
However with the intention to create a future, we should forgive the previous and the current. So I took a call to forgive those that killed my dad and mom. I’ve determined to forgive Hamas. I forgive the Israeli authorities for every part they’re, what they’ve performed and what they’re doing now.
However I gained’t overlook.
Al Jazeera: Lastly, it does appear that the ball is now in Israel’s court docket when it comes to launching a restricted operation into Lebanon, persevering with with strikes on Gaza and whether or not they’ll retaliate with Iran. What do you wish to say to the Israeli authorities, virtually, that may finish this?
Inon: Those that imagine that bombs will deliver quiet, that partitions will deliver defence, and that conflict will deliver safety are naive as a result of that has failed all all through human historical past.
The one solution to obtain safety and security is thru dialogue, battle decision and peace.
However the Israeli authorities doesn’t care about this. They care about Jewish supremacy between the river to the ocean.
They aren’t listening to God. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about Palestinians.
They don’t care about something however themselves. So there isn’t a level in talking to them.
However there’s a level in constructing an alternate. We don’t want your recommendation. We don’t want your prayers. We want your motion. And now it’s time to behave earlier than it’s going to be too late for at the very least a million folks. If we act, we will make this conflict the final conflict.
