Maoz Inon, 49, was a businessman for years. However all the pieces modified on October 7, 2023, when his mother and father have 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 targeted 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 speak about what a yr 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 individuals.
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 your complete worldwide neighborhood received’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 another. And in order that’s what we’re doing collectively, the Palestinian-Israeli peace motion, to create an identification that’s primarily based on equality, shared acknowledgement, recognition, reconciliation, therapeutic, safety and security. And it’s attainable.
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 you need to love strangers as a result of you’re a stranger. That’s what Judaism means to me.
And now it’s grow to be 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 individuals. It wasn’t about erasing the Palestinian individuals. It wasn’t about displacing the Palestinian individuals.
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 moving into, spreading everywhere in the physique. It would actually kill the state of Israel.
And it’s already killing us. It killed my mother and father. We can not treatment it by ourselves. We should have assist.
In case your greatest pal is drunk, you received’t give him the automobile. The worldwide neighborhood and those that think about themselves greatest mates 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 1,000,000 casualties. And that’s the place we’re going. That is my worst nightmare.
And that’s what I’m telling the very best mates of Israel, largely Germany and the US. In case you are such good mates of Israel and pro-Israel, you need to realise that with the intention to obtain safety and security to the individuals of Israel, we should obtain safety and security for the individuals of Palestine.
It goes each methods.
There are two individuals on this land. Between the river to the ocean, seven million Palestinians, seven million Israelis. Nobody goes wherever. However we should study to reside collectively.
And if we can not do it by ourselves, you need to assist us.
Al Jazeera: How do you are feeling concerning the authorities that represents Israel, having seen what’s occurred in Gaza?
Inon: The Israeli authorities is first accountable for the loss of life of my mother and father. They betrayed my mother and father. They promised them safety and security, they usually 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 mother and father. I’ve determined to forgive Hamas. I forgive the Israeli authorities for all the pieces they’re, what they’ve finished and what they’re doing now.
However I received’t overlook.
Al Jazeera: Lastly, it does appear that the ball is now in Israel’s courtroom when it comes to launching a restricted operation into Lebanon, persevering with with strikes on Gaza and whether or not they may retaliate with Iran. What do you need to say to the Israeli authorities, virtually, that may finish this?
Inon: Those that consider that bombs will carry quiet, that partitions will carry defence, and that conflict will carry safety are naive as a result of that has failed all all through human historical past.
The one option 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 is no such thing as a level in chatting with them.
However there’s a level in constructing another. 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 least a million individuals. If we act, we are able to make this conflict the final conflict.