Maoz Inon, 49, has been a businessman for years. But everything changed on October 7, 2023, when his parents were killed during Hamas attacks on Israel.
Since then, Inon has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s war on Gaza, founding several tourism initiatives focused on peacebuilding.
The Israeli entrepreneur and activist shared with Tel Aviv Tribune his views on the war, the Israeli government and the future of what he calls the Palestinian-Israeli peace movement. His story has been edited for length and clarity.
Tel Aviv Tribune: Can you tell us about what a year of war in Gaza has been like as an Israeli?
Maoz Inon: I was among the first to call for stopping the war before it even started. And I cried publicly for all the lives lost. What we see now is not Judaism. This is not Zionism. It’s a change. It’s a mutation that has taken over.
And it is a mutation that creates destruction within Judaism and the Jewish people.
We don’t need your prayers. We don’t need your thoughts. We don’t even need you to cross your fingers for us, that’s what (United States) President (Joe) Biden is doing.
We need your action. If the international community as a whole does not act now, we will see a re-creation of a world war. We are going to face a million victims between the river and the sea.
We must therefore offer an alternative. So this is what we are doing together, the Palestinian-Israeli peace movement, to create an identity based on equality, shared recognition, reconciliation, healing, security and safety. And it is possible.
Tel Aviv Tribune: Mutation – can you explain to us what you mean by that?
Inon: Judaism is about caring for others. It’s the idea that you should like strangers because you are a stranger. This is what Judaism means to me.
And now it has become a mutation around Jewish supremacy. It is about practicing revenge, which is completely contrary to Judaism.
And Zionism was about building a homeland for the Jewish people. It was not about erasing the Palestinian people. It was not about displacing the Palestinian people.
They are therefore doing the exact opposite of Judaism and Zionism.
This is what I call a mutation, and it is killing our society from the inside. It’s like a cancer that takes hold and spreads throughout the body. This would literally kill the State of Israel.
And it’s already killing us. It killed my parents. We cannot cure it by ourselves. We must have support.
If your best friend is drunk, you won’t give him the car. The international community and those who consider themselves Israel’s best friends are doing just that. They are leading Israel to destruction.
Tel Aviv Tribune: From the beginning, you have been a very anti-war voice. Did what you feared come true?
Inon: No, my fear is that this is only the beginning and that we will face a million victims. And that’s where we’re going. It’s my worst nightmare.
And this is what I say to Israel’s best friends, mainly Germany and the United States. If you are such good friends of Israel and pro-Israel, you must understand that to ensure the security and safety of the Israeli people, we must ensure the security and safety of the Palestinian people.
It goes both ways.
There are two people on this ground. Between the river and the sea, seven million Palestinians, seven million Israelis. Nobody is going anywhere. But we must learn to live together.
And if we can’t do it ourselves, you have to help us.
Tel Aviv Tribune: What do you think of the government that represents Israel, after seeing what happened in Gaza?
Inon: The Israeli government is primarily responsible for the death of my parents. They betrayed my parents. They promised them security and safety, and they totally failed. And now they are waging a war of revenge.
But to create a future, we must forgive the past and the present. So I made the decision to forgive those who killed my parents. I decided to forgive Hamas. I forgive the Israeli government for everything it is, what it has done and what it is doing now.
But I won’t forget.
Tel Aviv Tribune: Finally, it appears that the ball is now in Israel’s court regarding launching a limited operation in Lebanon, continuing strikes on Gaza and the possibility of retaliating against Iran. What do you want to say to the Israeli government, concretely, to put an end to this situation?
Inon: Those who believe that bombs will bring calm, that walls will bring defense, and that war will bring security are naive because this has failed throughout human history.
The only way to ensure security and safety is through dialogue, conflict resolution and peace.
But the Israeli government doesn’t care. They care about Jewish supremacy between the river and the sea.
They don’t listen to God. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about the Palestinians.
They don’t care about anything but themselves. So there’s no point in talking to them.
But it is useful to build an alternative. We don’t need your advice. We don’t need your prayers. We need your action. And now is the time to act before it is too late for at least a million people. If we act, we can make this war the last.