Speakers seek to advance Middle East peace process

Some people think Miko Peled and Nader Elbanna were born to be enemies.

But Peled, a Jerusalem-born Jew, and Elbanna, a Palestinian refugee raised in Jordan, are coming to Newport Beach on Friday with a message of peace. The pair, who are members of the San Diego-based group Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue, will share their stories of overcoming immense tragedy and prejudice to work together for attainable goals.

“We made a choice to not be enemies, to refuse to hate and to see the human being above everything else,” said Peled, 45, who came to the United States in 1987 to study martial arts. “Where there is a will to work together, there is a way to do it.”

Temple Isaiah will host the event, Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue for Peace, as part of its monthly speaker series in the hopes of better understanding the conflict in the Middle East by exposing new perspectives to their congregation and the community.

“In order to achieve a solution to a problem, you have to hear the other person’s point of view,” Rabbi Marc Rubenstein said. “Until we better understand the problems and the causes of the problems, we can’t come up with any solutions.”

Being open to change and cooperation is exactly what brought the two San Diego residents together five years ago. For Peled — son of the late Israeli General Matti Peled, who left the military to initiate a peace process — joining the discussion group helped him cope when the current wave of violence began in 2000, three years after his niece was killed by a suicide bomber.

A former soldier in the Jordanian army, Elbanna, 60, came to the group following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, hoping to find a place free of the discrimination he encountered elsewhere.

Also, since moving to the United States in 1990, he realized little by little the common traits he shared with American Jews and wanted to use those similarities to build friendships.

“To create harmony, I believe somebody like me can make a difference by challenging his fear, talking with an open mind and listening to others,” Elbanna said, a little nervous, but excited about speaking in a temple for the first time. “So maybe we can find some answers with this dialogue.”

In addition to forging conversation between American Jews and Palestinians, Peled and Elbanna are busy trying to produce hope for the future through a variety of projects. Last year, the peace partners worked with the international nonprofit Wheelchair Foundation to send more than 1,000 wheelchairs to the Holy Land, which were distributed equally among Israeli and Palestinian children.

More recently, following a trip the pair made to their homelands, Peled and Elbanna started mounting support for Hand in Hand, an organization that has built three schools in Israel where Israeli and Palestinian children learn each other’s languages and cultures, and are taught by two teachers, one of each nationality.

“We want kids to grow up knowing that it is completely normal that there are two people living on the same land,” Peled said. “You’ve got to fix things that make a difference in people’s daily lives.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue for Peace

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday, following a short service

WHERE: Temple Isaiah, 2401 Irvine Ave., Newport Beach

COST: Free

INFO: www.templeisaiah oc.org or (949) 903-0770