This special edition of PeaceCast features four interviews recorded at Peace Now’s massive “Two States – One Hope” demonstration marking fifty years of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and calling on Israel’s government to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians. Interviewed are Peace Now co-founder Tzali Reshef, former Israeli ambassador to France and veteran Israeli diplomat Daniel Shek, Haaretz’s senior columnist Chemi Shalev and Peace Now’s director of external relations Anat Ben Nun.

Israeli-American storyteller and peace activist Noa Baum, whose show A Land Twice Promised has won praise throughout the US, has now published a book under the same title. APN’s Stephanie Breitsman and Ori Nir spoke with Noa about the power of storytelling, about empathy and compassion, about changing hearts and minds, and about hope. 

Why did ten American rabbis, ten US evangelical pastors and ten American Muslim Imams fly together to the Gulf Emirate of Abu-Dhabi? And is there a justified security rationale for the extremely tight Israeli restrictions on Palestinians’ movement into and out of the Gaza Strip?

These are two of many fascinating questions discussed in this short episode of PeaceCast, which features two interviews. A conversation with Sari Bashi of Human Rights Watch about restrictions on movement of people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip, and a talk with Rabbi Laurie Rice of Nashville on an extraordinary gathering of Jewish Muslim and Christian clergy in the United Arab Emirates.