Ask us anything! No subject is too taboo, and no question is off limits. Our panel will be there to engage honestly with whatever you bring. Meet the speakers;

Avner Wishnitzer was born and raised in Kibbutz Kvutsat Shiller. Between 1994 and 1998 he served as a combatant in the elite unit Sayeret Matkal. In late 2003 he was part of a group of soldiers and officers in that unit who publicly refused to serve in the occupied territories. Avner is a co-founder of Combatants for Peace. In 2010 he was awarded the Goldberg IEE Prize for Peace in the Middle East, together with CFP co-founder Bassam Aramin. He is a professor of Ottoman History and resides with his family in Jerusalem.

Jamil Qassas was born in 1971 to a family displaced from the village of Al-Qubeiba in 1948, where his grandfather was killed. He grew up in a refugee camp near Bethlehem under military occupation, experiencing violence, imprisonment, and the loss of his younger brother during the First Intifada.

Jamil later joined Combatants for Peace after attending the Joint Memorial Ceremony. Today, he is an active member, working nonviolently alongside Israelis and Palestinians for justice, peace, and equality.

Rana Salman is the co-Executive Director of Combatants for Peace. She was born in Jerusalem and raised in Bethlehem, into a Palestinian Christian family originally from Haifa. Her family was displaced during the 1948 Nakba, a trauma that deeply shaped her identity. Growing up, Rana was surrounded by stories of loss, and displacement; narratives that carried both pain and purpose, and ultimately fueled her lifelong commitment to justice, nonviolence, and peacebuilding.

Nimrod Ben Zeev is a historian of the modern Middle East, with a focus on Palestine/Israel, and an assistant professor in the Department of Labor Studies at Tel Aviv University. He is a member of the organizing committee for our Nakba Day Ceremony.

Please register below to receive joining instructions and please come prepared with questions for our speakers.