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The war in Gaza has deepened divisions in the Middle East, but two men, a Palestinian and an Israeli, say that it's brought them closer together and even more convinced that the future is peace. That's the title of their new book. NPR's Michele Kelemen met with the authors.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli Maoz Inon lived parallel lives before the war. They both ran travel businesses and both suffered traumas in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now, Inon says, they're inviting readers to walk in their shoes.
MAOZ INON: Because both Aziz and I are experienced tour guide and pretty good storytellers - I would be not modest by saying so - we are inviting the readers to join us on an eight days shared journey across the Holy Land.
KELEMEN: The book begins in an Israeli kibbutz near Gaza, where Inon's parents were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attack in 2023. Inon says Abu Sarah reached out to him at a time when he felt he was sinking into an abyss.
INON: He stood with me in the hardest time that anyone can imagine can come. And I lost my parents on October the 7, but I won a brother.
KELEMEN: In Jerusalem, they visit Aziz Abu Sarah's house, where there's still a picture hanging of his older brother who died after being beaten in Israeli custody more than 35 years ago. Abu Sarah reads one passage from the book about his birthplace.
AZIZ ABU SARAH: (Reading) Jerusalem is my home, and it's my first love. My connection to it is rooted in my soul. But no place has ever broken my heart like Jerusalem.
KELEMEN: In their book, they take turns telling their stories. And while many Palestinians describe the war in Gaza as a genocide - which Israel denies - Abu Sarah says they do not engage in debates over language.
ABU SARAH: We can sit and argue about language while people dying, or we can go and do some work to stop it. Whether - if you don't think it's a genocide, that's fine. If I think it's a genocide, that's fine. Are we going to be able to stop whatever we might not agree to what we call it instead of just debating the name?
KELEMEN: So the language changes in the book, depending on who's writing. Maoz Inon says they also try to stay on equal levels with their language, especially when they talk about their own personal trauma.
INON: So if Aziz says, I lost my brother. I lost my parents. Aziz say, my brother was killed. My parents were killed. My brother was murdered. My parents were murdered. We are modeling equality.
KELEMEN: Palestinian Abu Sarah says they don't shy away from difficult topics, but also want to give readers some inspiration to work for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.
ABU SARAH: It's personal. It's vulnerable. But it also doesn't end with here's how bad it is, but rather, here's our connection and here's how we want to move forward.
KELEMEN: They know they face hardened positions on all sides in the Middle East, but Maoz Inon says public opinion can change.
INON: We believe that a journey has the potential to transform oneself and the public. And this book is a journey. It's a shared journey that is transforming despair into hope, fear into recognition, revenge into reconciliation.
KELEMEN: Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah are bringing that message on their U.S. book tour, even as the Middle East is in new turmoil with the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEAN ANGUS WATSON'S "THE WOODS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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