Former Israeli-Palestinian combatants bringing peace mission to Santa Rosa synagogue

Two former fighters on opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will describe their citizen-driven peace campaign at a public program on Sunday at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa.

Yoni Kallai, a former Israeli military combat officer, and Ismael Assad, a Palestinian resistance fighter wounded and imprisoned during the violence, are representatives of a group, Combatants for Peace, founded 15 years ago by warfighters who abandoned their arms in favor of nonviolent activism.

“I work for peace because I understand that if I give up on peace it won’t happen,” Kallai, 36, said in an email from the group that calls itself an egalitarian, binational grassroots organization.

“I also recognize that the best way to get something is to take action and lead by example,” he said.

The group, which last year received nearly $520,000 from American, Israeli and European donors, said it is committed to a two-state solution of the conflict dating back to the mid-20th century or any agreement that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live in “freedom, security, democracy and dignity in their homeland.”

Formed in 2005 at the end of the Palestinian uprising known as the second intifada, the group was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 and 2018 and featured in a 2016 documentary film, “Disturbing The Peace.”

In its 2019 annual report, the group said it organized lectures for more than 1,000 people in the U.S. and for about 4,000 in Israel and Palestine, and met with more than a dozen members of Congress.

It now has about 100 active members in Israel and Palestine and more than 45,000 followers on social media.

Rabbi Stephanie Kramer of Congregation Shomrei Torah said she met Sulaiman Khatib, a co-founder of Combatants for Peace, during a trip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank two years ago and invited him to visit the progressive Reform congregation last year.

“I find it important to bring in other narratives to the congregation so that people can have more knowledge,” she said.

Kallai, who served in the Israeli army for five years, grew up in Jerusalem during the 1990s and experienced the loss of two schoolmates to a terrorist attack when he was 15.

Assad, who was shot by an Israeli bullet in the face and lost his eyesight for three months, joined the resistance and was arrested multiple times and imprisoned on and off for seven years.

In studies while jailed, he realized violence was not bringing Palestinians closer to freedom.

“I work for peace and love because it is the only way to save our planet Mother Earth, and I know what war, suffering and pain are,” Assad said via email.

The program, sponsored by Shomrei Torah’s Social Action Committee, is free and starts at 3 p.m. Sunday.

For information, call 578-5519 or go to www.cstsr.org.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner