Building Connections and Community in London

London has become an important place of learning, connection, and community for B8 of Hope. During one visit in the fall of 2025, Mehra Rimer met with partners working in conflict transformation and attended a fundraising dinner for Parents Circle UK Friends. She and David Rimer also co-hosted a gathering that brought together people with roots in Palestine, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Eastern Europe, and beyond.

At the heart of the evening were Mor and Mahmoud, an Israeli and a Palestinian who each lost loved ones to the conflict and now work together for a different future. Their deeply personal testimonies brought the human stakes of peacebuilding into the room and showed how shared grief can become the basis for joint commitment rather than further separation.

B8 of Hope later returned to London in June 2026 for an intensive week with Solutions Not Sides, a UK educational organization that uses Israel and Palestine as a case study to help students respond more constructively to conflict and polarization. The team took part in training and observed the program in two secondary schools, witnessing the impact of its methodology and of the Palestinian and Israeli speakers who shared their stories directly with students. The experience offered valuable lessons for strengthening B8 of Hope’s own educational work in Switzerland.

The week concluded with another dinner bringing together Jewish and Arab, Israeli, Palestinian, Iranian, and other Londoners, alongside Solutions Not Sides speakers and London-based B8 of Hope Next Gen members. Like the community that has grown around B8 of Hope in Geneva, this emerging London network is diverse, curious, and united by a belief that polarization outside the conflict zone does nothing to help those living within it. It is still a work in progress—but it is an encouraging beginning.