More from Dr. Nava Sonnenschein’s speech at the award ceremony:

“Thank you for granting me the Shared Society award. 

We have no other possible future in our country, other than living together on this piece of land while realizing equality, human rights and national rights, while providing mutual respect in all its forms to the two peoples living here. Especially during such a difficult time, having reached this low point, of losing our way and losing our humanity. A country that commits genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and then denies it. It is unbearable that this has become routine. We have lost the ability to feel empathy for others. During this time especially it is critical to emphasize that we have no other options. We cannot not lose hope for peace or for a shared life between the two peoples living here. And we cannot do so alone. We must work together, Jews and Palestinians, citizens of Israel who wish to build a better future for both sides.

In 1979, we established Wahat al-Salam Neve Shalom, an egalitarian binational Jewish-Arab community. We were only four families with two dreams maybe three—establishing a shared community and a school system. Today the village is home to more than 100 families. We said that this wasn’t enough, and since then we invited tens of thousands of Jews and Arabs that didn’t have the opportunity to live in a shared community like ours to experience in-depth dialogue at the School for Peace. Dialogue that challenges unequal power relations, that respects the identity of the other, that develops critical thinking. All this in our workshops and diverse programs for change. We have always worked as a team. We trained over a thousand dialogue facilitators in our courses, in our university courses and change agent courses for professionals from fields related to the conflict: urban planners, leaders in mixed cities, mental health professionals, environmentalists, lawyers, media professionals, artists and future politicians, and more. Today many of them lead organizations promoting peace, human rights, and shared society.

Even in difficult times, we decided never to give up.

I would like to thank all the women and men from the village, the School for Peace staff and the facilitators who together made the School for Peace a reality. I would also like to thank my family, who supported me throughout the journey.

It is easy today to fall into despair, but the truth is, we have no such option. Now is the time to build a state for all its citizens alongside a neighboring Palestinian state, and to end the occupation and end this terrible war. Now is the time for us to work together, Jews and Arabs who believe in this path, both politically and socially.

When Shahira Shalaby called to let me know about the award, my initial response was “Now?? Now is not the time!” But I became convinced that there is an important message here, all the more during this dark time, so thank you.”

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