This article is the product of a conversation between two young voices from the Holy Land, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who chose not to repeat what is expected of them, but to imagine what could exist beyond the current reality. What follows are two honest perspectives rooted in personal experience, followed by a shared reflection on what a peaceful future might require.
Both of our perspectives come from different lived experiences, yet they converge on the same truth that peace will not be born from power but from responsibility. One voice speaks from a distance, longing to rediscover a homeland through reconciliation rather than revenge. The other speaks from within the conflict, shaped by its pain and complexity, yet still believing in the possibility of coexistence.
An Israeli perspective
Despite being an Israeli who grew up in a region shaped by pain and division, I have come to believe that peace is not an illusion. But it cannot be achieved overnight. It requires patience, courage, and above all, long-term change in mindset that may take a generation or more to develop.
I believe in a future in which two nations live side by side, each with its own identity and dignity. Before speaking about a two-state solution, though, it is necessary to confront the obstacles that stand in its way. Mistrust, trauma and decades of failed negotiations have shaped the relationship between the two peoples, and leadership on both sides has too often prioritised short-term survival over long-term vision.
Over the years Israel has taken meaningful steps toward peace through negotiations and painful compromises, but these efforts repeatedly collapsed under the pressure of violence, extremism and a lack of trust. Lasting peace will require leadership on both sides that rejects extremism and places the well-being of civilians before politics.
Education is at the heart of this change. A generation raised to fear or deny the other cannot create co-existence. Both Israeli and Palestinian societies will need to invest in learning that promotes empathy, complexity and a recognition of shared humanity instead of hostility. At the same time, opportunities must replace despair through access to education, culture, jobs and community life, so that people feel they are building a future worth protecting.
Peace is not a declaration but a process. It will take shape when a child in Gaza and a child in Tel Aviv grow up learning not how to fear one another, but how to understand one another. When that happens, a two-state reality will become not only possible, but sustainable.
A Palestinian perspective
I have been tasked with giving my personal solution to co-existence and a peaceful future in the Holy Land. My name is Elias. To give you a small introduction on myself, I am Italo-Palestinian and have lived an international life. I have only been to my homeland once, and I was so small that all I remember now are short glimpses of my town and vague faces of family members.
I find it important to clarify where my thoughts and perspectives have come from as the author of this section. Up until three years ago, my knowledge of Palestine and Israel mostly came through family discussions, news on the TV in the background, and, of course, social media. The conflict in Gaza is what pushed me to a deeper understanding of my own people and my own land. Since then, I have given much attention to expanding my knowledge of the Holy Land and the peoples who inhabit it.
Given the current political reality, it seems quite blatant that Palestine cannot exist bordering Israel and vice versa. The two identities have been through a long history of division, and with every passing moment seem to become further polarised in their understandings of each other. Radicalisation and extremism from both ends inflate this division, causing true and long-lasting peace to become increasingly distant. We are tumbling together in a downward spiral. Instead of trying to climb out, we fall together, grappling and pushing the other below us, losing sight of all else.
I truly believe that hate, violence, death, and discrimination are not the values of Israelis or Palestinians. I am not foolish; I realise that the future of our lands is in the hands of our leaders — leaders who on both sides have shown not to have the safety and goals of their people as a priority — who have led us to perceive the other as so radically different that co-existence seems as distant as the North Star. This is where the concept of hope comes into play: hope that we, the people of the Holy Land, can and will prioritise love, peace, and life. The leaders to come must represent our peoples’ need to put aside our differences.
I currently study evolution in university, and my pursuit of this knowledge has helped me realise that life always moves towards efficiency and perfection. Towns have evolved into city-states, then kingdoms, and now nation-states. Following these same steps, I suppose an even greater form of unity is next, in the line of evolution. We must take the first step towards this unity, putting aside the limits created by our current concept of identity — identity which is the root of our claim to the land, and the root of our division.
It is very possible that peace will never be attained. In doing so, it would still play an effective role in mankind’s evolution, by demonstrating the detrimental pain and suffering we chose to bring onto our peoples, caused by division and our inability to change…and forgive. The course of the future is solely reliant on our actions, be they loving or hateful.
A shared conclusion
Peace will not begin at a negotiating table. It will begin when both societies choose hope instead of grievance and life instead of struggle. When dignity replaces hatred and responsibility replaces victimhood — on both sides — a shared future becomes possible. Real peace is created through everyday choices, through recognising each other’s humanity and through the small moments in which people choose understanding instead of division. Only then can the future grow larger than the past.
