July 2022: For the Francophones, here is the link to the very short interview (in French) of our Chair Mehra on the Swiss radio channel RTS. It is always important for us to give visibility to the work of B8 of Hope and more importantly, the work of the Palestinian and Israeli civil society change-makers on the ground. They are courageous and hard working – violence always makes the news – they rarely do.

In the interview Mehra mentions the work of Taghyeer-Movement, as they are currently involved in a non-violence action to prevent the demolitions in Massafar Yatta (in the Southern Hebron Hills), the march of Women Wage Peace and their Palestinian partners Women of the Sun, on the occasion of President Biden’s presence in Jerusalem asking him to encourage the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to return to the table of negotiation and include the civil society and, in particular the role of women. Mehra also mentions the work of The Road to Recovery: Israeli volunteer drivers transporting Palestinian patients from check-points to hospital. Finally as an example of a youth-focused initiative, Mehra speaks about MEET – Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow which brings Israeli and Palestinian high-schoolers together in the framework of a 3-year program to learn about entrepreneurship in high-tech and social impact applications.

All of our B8 of Hope grantees were in her heart and mind, but only a few minutes were available so she needed to be selective). And of course all the initiative we support face many challenges (given the tensions on the ground) – yet their courage motivates B8 of Hope to support them and to believe in their work as ordinary citizens. We believe in the bottom-up approach.

Check out this amazing podcast of Peace Talks with Huda Abuarquob, regional director of one of our main partners: The Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP).

Check out the conversation between Mehra and Rem on the Keeping Democracy Alive’s podcast.