June 24, 2026
ADNAN JABER
<p>Ambassador of the Future</p><p>This is Inheritance of Peace and I’m Amy Shimshon-Santo. Today we meet with Adnan Jaber, a distinguished technology expert, polyglot, and peace builder who recently presented at the Global Nobel Peace Summit. Born and raised in Jerusalem, he credits his love for bringing people together to his mother, and his fascination with technology to his father. He explains his commitment to peacemaking as a natural “survival instinct” in response to the conditions he has experienced. For Jaber, peace is both “the safest path” and also “one of the most dangerous.” I’m excited to welcome you into our discussion about his life and inheritance of peace.</p><p>Adnan Jaber (AJ): Recording in progress.</p><p>Amy Shimshon-Santo (Dr. A): Recording in progress. Life in progress. Communication in progress.</p><p>AJ: I feel this is going to be poetic.</p><p>Dr. A: Knowing you, and knowing me, it probably will be. And then we’ll go dance. By the way, that video of you dancing at your wedding! Goodness gracious. </p><p>AJ: Thank you, I really enjoyed that time.</p><p>Dr. A: That was amazing.</p><p>AJ: I was very happy.</p><p>Dr. A: You deserve to be. Alright, my dear, the first question today is, Who are you?</p><p>AJ: Who am I, Adnan Jaber. I’m a human. Curious person, loving, a lover, <a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/PJCYGGHwooY?si=VaS-HIVub6Ogq8QQ">proud husband of Michal Greenfield.</a> An innovator, technologist, who loves to bring people together. Help them find what they have in common. An explorer. Born and raised in Jerusalem, now living in Los Angeles. What else would you like to know about me?</p><p><p>“I’m a human. A curious person, loving, a lover, proud husband of Michal Greenfield. I’m an innovator and technologist who loves to bring people together and help them find what they have in common.”</p></p><p>Dr. A: Lots. My next question is about, not just who you are and how you self-define, but what do you get to do with your life force?</p><p>AJ: What do I get to do with my life force? And when you shared with me life force, you meant, what am I living for? What am I using my life for? If I get it right…</p><p>Dr. A: I think that’s a great way to get it.</p><p>AJ: Okay. Where do I want to go with my life force? I’ll share it with a story, how about that?</p><p>Dr. A: Beautiful.</p><p>AJ: So, I come from a Muslim family. In Islam, my teacher in the school taught me… I should say, “My teacher’s Islam taught me” because every Muslim has a different way of looking at it as well. I don’t want to overgeneralize things. My teacher taught me that life started as Adam and Eve. They came from heaven. They came to Earth. This is how humanity started. And then heaven and hell is how it’s gonna end. If you pray five times a day, if you fast Ramadan, and if you behave like a good person, that’s how you’re gonna go to heaven. If you don’t, you’re gonna go to hell. That became kind of the meaning of my life as a young Muslim boy. Everything I did was to go to heaven.</p><p>Later I got into an exchange program to study in the U.S. in Washington D.C. I visited The <a target="_blank" href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/">Museum of Natural History</a>, the Smithsonian Museum, and there I saw the bones of evolution. Evolution of plants first. And then I saw the evolution of animals. How the bones changed over time. Then I saw human evolution. How the skull changed from the ape to the human. That shocked me because it contradicted the story of Adam and Eve. Humanity started this way. I started having questions. I started doubting the religion and its perfection. I still appreciate its traditions and its goals to bring people together and do healing. But I was questioning the meaning of life, and what do we live for? I started doubting heaven and hell, the way it’s been described. I don’t know if there’s gonna be heaven and hell. That was a very scary moment for me. I was 19 years old. I started asking questions of sheikhs, priests, rabbis. I didn’t get the answers that were stronger than what I saw in the museum.</p><p>I became very curious, but also very afraid. What am I living for? What’s the meaning of my life? Some suicidal thoughts even came to my life. I didn’t get the answers from the religious leaders. So later, I went to Google and I searched, “what do we live for?”</p><p>Dr. A: You did not.</p><p>AJ: There wasn’t AI at the time. I opened the first article, and it started talking about suicide. And it said, “Don’t think about committing suicide. Think about all the people who love you, and how you’re gonna hurt them. This is a very selfish decision. Even if you think you’re gonna be freeing yourself, you’re gonna be hurting a lot of other people. And then it said, if you want to know the meaning of life, look at the babies. The moment they are born they start to touch everything to put in their mouth to taste. They are curious. They want to explore, and that’s our natural drive. To survive and to explore. That moved me, somehow. I really liked it. It explained a lot of things that were happening in my mind and in my body.</p><p>Then I started seeking that — to explore more. To do what I am made to do. And I wanted to know <a target="_blank" href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/">what’s bigger than a galaxy</a>? What’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.britannica.com/science/quark">smaller than an atom</a>? What makes us love more? What makes us live a happier life? And to know the answers for these questions, we need to bring people together because together they can explore further. Many minds are smarter than one mind. That has become kind of the mission of my life. It’s to bring people together to explore further and more. That’s why I said in my identity, a curious person.</p><p><p>“I wanted to know what’s bigger than a galaxy? What’s smaller than an atom? What makes us love more? What makes us live a happier life? To know the answers for these questions, we need to bring people together because together they can explore further. Many minds are smarter than one mind. That has become the mission of my life.”</p></p><p>Dr. A: Yes.</p><p>AJ: Yeah, it became my identity today. Yeah, so I was 19. Today I’m 31. I’ve been on that journey since then. So that’s my life force, I guess.</p><p>Dr. A: Beautiful. And it’s amazing how choosing a story went right to the heart of that question.</p><p>AJ: Yeah.</p><p>Dr. A: Fantastic.</p><p>AJ: It wasn’t easy to go through this journey. To be very doubtful of your beliefs.</p><p>Dr. A: Especially at 19. You are already legally an adult. You didn’t have science classes on evolution when you were young?</p><p>AJ: I had science classes.</p><p>Dr. A: You didn’t feel and see viscerally the evidence of all of that.</p><p>AJ: They didn’t even talk much about the evolution thing. They talked about other things. But they didn’t try to challenge the religious aspects very much.</p><p>Dr. A: Sounds like a breakthrough.</p><p>AJ: It is. Nothing happened in one day, or in one sitting. Asking priests and sheikhs. Trying to find meaning in my life. It took almost one or two years in the process.</p><p>Dr. A: It’s still very fast. And I love that you’re a tech guy, “and so, I asked Google.” And there was no AI yet.</p><p>AJ: There’s a lot of responsibility on the tech companies. And now AI is there. Actually, I asked ChatGPT two days ago, “what’s the question you get the most from people?” It told me, “We don’t have specific analysis about every conversation, but, generally, the question is, “What’s the meaning of life?” That’s the question ChatGPT has the most.</p><p>Dr. A: So you have an AI presence. Right?</p><p>AJ: I have an AI clone.</p><p>Dr. A: Don’t you have a regional problem solving AI?</p><p>AJ: I have one too. Yeah.</p><p>AS: Do you want to say what that is about?</p><p>AJ: It’s a custom GPT. It’s an AI that I uploaded some documents to and gave it some custom instructions. I created other custom GPTs, one for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.allmep.org/">ALLMEP</a>, and another for Aziz Abu-Sarah and Maoz Inon (Authors of <a target="_blank" href="https://thefutureispeace.com/">The Future Is Peace</a>).</p><p>Dr. A: Great book.</p><p>AJ: This book has a lot of great answers. <a target="_blank" href="https://chatgpt.com/g/g-676defd0891081918859b39e8aab3872-adnan-jaber">Anyone can ask any question, get the immediate answer. </a>Yeah. We need to meet people where they are as well. Not everyone is able to go to do academic research to find the answer for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to understand the different solutions out there and everything. Not everyone has the time. People need to be able to receive answers in their own language, in their own accent, at their own time.</p><p>Dr. A: Yeah. Well, that leads to our next question, which is “What lands are you connected to?”</p><p>AJ: I’m connected to the land of Palestine Israel, and to the United States of America.</p><p>Dr. A: Do you want to say anything about your relationship to those connections or the land?</p><p>AJ: I’m born and raised in Jerusalem to a Muslim, Palestinian, Arab family. But, you know, Jerusalem is under the authority of Israel, a Jewish country. So I lived both realities in the same place, as a Palestinian and as an Israeli because I had an Israeli ID. I don’t have an Israeli passport. Which is another problem to talk about.</p><p>Dr. A: You do not have, or you do have?</p><p>Adnan Jaber: I don’t have any passport. I’m a stateless person. I’m a 31 year old stateless person.</p><p>Dr. A: Hmm.</p><p>AJ: My parents don’t have the Israeli passport, but they were born and raised also in Jerusalem. Before 1967. Before Israel announced East Jerusalem as parts of its territory, back then people had Jordanian passports. So I got a Jordanian passport, but I didn’t have Jordanian nationality, or a Jordanian ID. Living in Jerusalem, in Israel. Working in Israel, I wanted an Israeli passport.</p><p>Dr. A: Right.</p><p>AJ: Also, I wanted the right to vote, to feel protected in that country. So I applied to get it. In the application, they asked me to revoke my Jordanian passport, and I did. But the process to get the Israeli passport is really hard. It takes years. So many interviews. Long periods to wait between each interview and the other, like six months to one year. So I was almost three years in this process. My last interview was supposed to be on October 11th, 2023. But October 7th happened right before that. The Ministry of Interior in Israel told me, “We’ll see you after the war.”</p><p>Dr. A: The war goes on and on.</p><p>AJ: The war goes on and on. I was visiting L.A. during that time, so Michal and I stayed in L.A. and continued to live in L.A. I have a green card. Married to Michal. Hopefully, inshallah, in one year, I’ll get the American passport.</p><p>Dr. A: Wonderful.</p><p>AJ: Yeah.</p><p>Dr. A: Stateless person, but not a landless person.</p><p>AJ: Yeah, many lands.</p><p>Dr. A: No passport.</p><p>AJ: No nationality. No passport.</p><p>Dr. A: Well, that’s interesting, environmentally. </p><p>AJ: I’m connected to the people too!</p><p>Dr. A: Yeah.</p><p>AJ: The land and the people. I have a lot of Palestinian friends and family. A lot of Israeli friends. I speak Arabic and Hebrew and English. Yeah, there’s a bug in the system.</p><p>Dr. A: There’s many. There’s more than a bug. There’s a break. There is a fracture.</p><p>AJ: Yeah.</p><p>Dr. A: There is a big break. I have so many more questions about that stuff. We could riff on that for a while because my mom is from Jerusalem and her family were stateless for 28 years.</p><p>AJ: Hmm.</p><p>Dr. A: When they got to the Middle East, at the turn of the century, they were stateless for 28 years. When my great-great-grandfather died, my great-great-grandmother had to complain about getting citizenship because you could only apply for citizenship through the husband. The man was the only one who could apply. A woman did not have that right. I’ve found these papers. They’re in Arabic, Hebrew, and English because of the British Mandate. Colonial rule. It’s just wild to me. Isn’t citizenship key to any democracy? Doesn’t it exist to protect everyone? It’s horrible that you are from there, and experience that same fucked up circumstance so many years later.</p><p>AJ: So you understand.</p><p>Dr. A: Yes, dear.</p><p>AJ: I’m not protected by anyone, so my freedom of speech has been limited all my life. Politics, joining or supporting any political party, is a really big question in my head. Doing anything publicly is a real danger for me. Administrative detention in Israel is a serious thing. I.C.E. here in the U.S. is a serious threat, and in the Palestine Territories freedom of speech is not safe.</p><p>Dr. A: Yet, I see you so courageously and peacefully and calmly and elegantly navigating through all these different spaces. I’ve watched you listen, and I’ve listened to you speak.</p><p>AJ: What can we say? I also come from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a capital. I’m a city boy. We learned how to talk. My father is a salesman.</p><p>Dr. A: Well, that served you well.</p><p><p>“My freedom of speech has been limited all my life. Politics, joining or supporting any political party, is a really big question in my head. Doing anything publicly is a real danger for me. Administrative detention in Israel is a serious thing. I.C.E. here in the U.S. is a serious threat, and in the Palestine Territories freedom of speech is not safe.”</p></p><p>AJ: I’m really looking forward to getting my American citizenship. Yes, I’ll get the protection that I need and all of that. But I love the United States of America despite all of its problems. Still, it’s the melting pot. The most diverse place. I love the values that the U.S. stands for, and it should stand for. So, yeah, I look forward to that.</p><p>Dr. A: How was it for you to come from the Middle East to the U.S.? Come from Jerusalem and see so many different kinds of people from all over? I know people visit Jerusalem that way, too.</p><p>AJ: I see a lot of internationals in Jerusalem. Coming to the U.S., I got to see more Arabs. Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese. I never saw these people in Jerusalem. It was shocking because I have a lot in common with these people. They live near me, and I never got to see them. But in the U.S., I got to see them. Egyptians, too. Because its not easy to come to Jerusalem, as you know. It’s really hard. I got to see a lot of African people too, in the U.S. And Indians. That was eye-opening. Yeah, the U.S. is another place.</p><p>Dr. A: Yeah, and you’re a very important part of it here. I’ve been following your presence since we met initially through <a target="_blank" href="https://www.standing-together.org/en">Standing Together.</a> Then, in your tech and communications, your approach moved me. I always felt, Wow, that guy is amazing. Is there anything else you want to say about connection to land? To be from someplace, and yet be so far away from everyone around you, and then to be able to encounter people from your own region of birth here in the U.S.</p><p>AJ: Yeah. I think you got it. If I have more thoughts on it, I’ll share it with you.</p><p>Dr. A: Yes, sir. Alright. So, we’re going to turn now to the inheritance of peace. We’ve talked about this a little bit as aspirational peace. Back in the day, I saw you posting videos saying, “There’s a third way.” I thought, What is going on in the mind of this man? What is the aspirational insight of this human being? I’m very curious to hear what your inheritance of peace is. Why does it call to you? How does it call to you? And what do you do about it?</p><p>AJ: I’ll share with you how I got into this world, and why I’m still choosing that. This is my classic story that I keep telling. So enjoy it. Born and raised in Jerusalem to an Arab, Muslim, Palestinian family. I didn’t have one single Jewish friend for 22 years of my life, even though I lived in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jews. I see Jews every day on the train, on the bus, whenever I move around in Jerusalem. Why didn’t I have a single Jewish friend? Because I didn’t speak Hebrew, and those neighbors didn’t speak Arabic. There was a big lack of trust and misunderstanding. And all I hear about the Jews is not from them, but either from my community or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/">Al Jazeera</a>, and it was usually not the good things. Unfortunately, in the media, what bleeds leads. That’s how it works.</p><p>My father has an electronics shop. He sells electronics. I was the luckiest kid to play the newest PlayStation games as they came out. That later got me to study technology and software engineering. I studied in the West Bank at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.aaup.edu/">Arab American University in Jenin</a>. I finished my degree. I came back to Jerusalem. I wanted to work in tech, just like I’d studied. All the tech jobs are in Tel Aviv and in Haifa. Every time I get to an interview. I go there, and it’s usually a guy with a kippa sitting behind the table. I sit in front of him. He’s sweating and I’m sweating, usually. There’s some mistrust. Some fear. We don’t speak each other’s languages. We both were speaking broken English. Yeah, it was hard to land a job.</p><p></p><p>Later, one day on Facebook, I saw an advertisement called <a target="_blank" href="https://tech2peace.com/">Tech2Peace</a> that brings Palestinians and Israelis to come learn tech and dialogue with each other. I was interested in tech. I needed the experience. I needed the connections and the jobs, but I was afraid of the peace. Why afraid of peace? As someone who studied in the West Bank, and lived there, and East Jerusalem… For many Palestinians, “peace” can mean accepting the status quo, which is the military occupation of the Palestinian territories. That is unacceptable. A lot of people boycott these peace-building programs for that reason. But I need to understand my neighbors. I need a job. I need to go to this program. I hide the fact from my family and friends that I was going to a peace program. I take the Egged bus, the Israeli national bus. For the first time in my life, I use that bus. I take it to Be’er Sheva, and then to Yeruham. It’s a Jewish town in the desert where the program was happening. The program was for 10 days. Every day, for three hours, we were learning something in tech. And every day, for three hours, we were engaging in dialogue. In dialogue, we were doing activities like empathetic listening, where we listen to understand and not to respond. We get to share our narratives and hear the other people’s narratives, and really understand. After 10 days, I realize it’s not just black or white. There are good people on both sides. There are afraid and angry people on both sides. And I made my first Jewish friend. I go back to Jerusalem. Visiting West Jerusalem. Going to Tel Aviv and Haifa. I feel less fear. More confidence. More understanding of the people around me. And I know better how to talk to them.</p><p>Later, I joined the alumni group of <a target="_blank" href="https://tech2peace.com/">Tech2Peace</a>, and they started sharing about other peace building programs. Apparently, there are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.allmep.org/">200 peace building programs</a> under the umbrella of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.allmep.org/">The Alliance for Middle East Peace.</a> There are programs that are doing peace through art, through religion, through dance, music, sports, environment. All kinds. So, <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nJhzZ3BBUFc_fe-9RpL6HA_cCxs32iAX168OH7WiYzY/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p">I joined 25 of these programs. </a>I did a lot of dialogue in my life.</p><p>Dr. A: Wow.</p><p>AJ: It was great! I really enjoyed these programs. It was a great opportunity to meet different people, and get to learn about them, and get to share with them. I know myself better through these kinds of trips. I realized that normalization…I know now how to talk about it better. We don’t want to normalize occupation, human rights abuses, violence towards the Palestinians and towards the Israelis. </p><p></p><p>What we want to normalize is dialogue, understanding, working with each other because this is the way to make a better future. I realized that there are seven million Palestinians and seven million Jews between the river and the sea, and nobody is going anywhere. Especially after October 7th, we learned this lesson the hard way. Nobody is going anywhere. So, we need to build that trust together. This is how it’s going to move on.</p><p><p>“What we want to normalize is dialogue, understanding, working with each other because this is the way to make a better future.”</p></p><p>Blanket boycotts don’t work. If we boycott all of Israelis just because they are Israelis, it’s not helpful, it’s counterproductive. I still believe in boycott, divestment, and sanctions, Palestinians’ right for resistance in nonviolent ways. And there are things to boycott, like politicians and groups that want to nuclear attack Gaza, bomb Gaza, or want to kill Palestinians, or expel them out of their lands. That sounds horrible to me, those people need to be boycotted. </p><p>Initiatives that work to build trust between Palestinians and Israelis, those are the ones that need to be supported. And we also know about some groups that hide. They bring Palestinians only to tokenize them. To support their pro-Israel, anti-Palestine, points rather than actually caring about peace building. Those need to be supervised and dealt with care. Yeah, we need to be careful of these. So I learned those lessons. </p><p>Later, I became a board member at Tech2Peace. I landed a job in tech. I worked. I had a startup in tech, a journey. I found the love of my life, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.michalgreenfield.com/">Michal Greenfield</a>, who’s a Jewish-American person who traveled and lived in Israel. I met her in one of the <a target="_blank" href="https://tech2peace.com/">Tech2Peace</a> seminars. I fell in love. She’s the most beautiful thing that has happened in my life.</p><p>Dr. A: You guys are very cute.</p><p>AJ: Thank you. Of course, there were challenges, family drama, reactions. “How are you dating a Jewish person? What will people say about us? What are your children gonna be like? Leave Her. Even if you’re okay with that, think about your brother, your sister. They are in danger because of you.” There’s a lot of responsibility.</p><p>Dr. A: What kind of danger?</p><p>AJ: Some people might come and burn my father’s shop — whether it’s extremist Palestinians or extremist Israelis. The Kahanist groups used to kill mixed couples and attack their houses. There are extremists that really don’t like these stories. My father was saying, “Who’s gonna marry your sister?” There’s this social pressure. My sister got married to the most handsome man and beautiful man. She has two children coming up. The man she married lives in<a target="_blank" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sheikh-Jarrah"> Sheikh Jarrah</a>, and he’s one of the four houses that were under eviction during the Sheikh Jarrah protests.</p><p>Dr. A: Oh, wow.</p><p>AJ: Anyway. What else? So, there’s a lot of challenges regarding partnering with a Jewish person. But later my mom got to meet Michal. She saw how humble and sweet she is. How much she loves me and how much I love her. They bonded. It takes time for these things to happen. Michal’s father supported from day one. Michal’s mother, it took her a lot of time. My father took a lot of time, until the wedding happened. When they saw that there’s a whole community that loves us and supports us. Then they started to move on. But it’s not easy.</p><p>Now, why am I choosing peace as a strategy? Not only is it the only way. Like I said, there are seven million Palestinians and seven million Jews between the River Sea. Nobody’s going anywhere. We need to build trust. That’s the strongest argument, but also it’s the moral thing to do. The right thing to do. If you want peace and justice, we need to act with peace and justice.</p><p><p>“Why am I choosing peace as a strategy? Not only is it the only way. Like I said, there are seven million Palestinians and seven million Jews between the River Sea. Nobody’s going anywhere. We need to build trust. That’s the strongest argument, but also it’s the moral thing to do. The right thing to do. If you want peace and justice, we need to act with peace and justice.”</p></p><p>It’s the environmental effect we create around us. Violence begets violence. That’s how the world works. We are social animals, and we are affected by the environment around us. Look at children. It doesn’t matter what the points you’re trying to make for them, they don’t understand points. They just imitate what you do. It’s our natural thing. So, for these reasons, I choose to do what I’m doing.</p><p>Dr. A: I love that. These things have come up, like what you’ve had to go through in your own relationship for example. Just for one. You know, in the United States, we have this history of legalization, of making it illegal to marry someone from a different culture. Racist laws preventing intermarriage were overturned around the time I was born with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1966/395">Loving v. Virginia</a> (1967). In my case, I fell in love with someone who was not Jewish, and who was African-descended. The U.S. is a very racialized country. So, we went through our own series of hilarious in retrospect, but very painful at the time, dramas. </p><p>People somehow think that if you choose to love someone who’s not of your own culture, your whole world will somehow collapse. It’s fear. What I found is that quite the opposite happens. Now, you know your culture. You have your people, and you have to learn about someone else’s reality. So you’re actually able to learn twice as much. You’re on your way towards becoming a world citizen in a way that most people never challenge themselves to endeavor. Everything else just kind of falls away. You realize it’s all held up by things we don’t need.</p><p>AJ: I like what you shared. It brought many thoughts to my head. I have three comments. The first is that interfaith marriage is illegal in Israel. I wasn’t able to marry Michal there, so I married her in the U.S. The second is, what our children are going to be like. That’s the fear my parents had. I think they will be ambassadors.</p><p>Dr. A: Yes.</p><p>AJ: They will learn Arabic, Hebrew, and English. They will visit the synagogue, the mosque, and the church. They will understand everybody. They’ll be friends with everybody. Haifa, the mixed city, (has a lot of interfaith) is the safest place in Israel. And the most dangerous place, the biggest strikes and war, came from the place that has the highest walls, which is Gaza. So let that sit for a second. People who have equal rights and citizenship and meet with each other and understand each other the most. Palestinians and Israelis and Jews live together in Haifa, and it’s the safest place for the Jews and for the Palestinians. While in Gaza, it’s the opposite, and the areas around Gaza.</p><p><p>“Interfaith marriage is illegal in Israel. What are our children going to be like? I think they will be ambassadors. They will learn Arabic, Hebrew, and English. They will visit the synagogue, the mosque, and the church. They will understand everybody. They’ll be friends with everybody.”</p></p><p>Dr. A: Yeah. I agree with you 100%. You are already an ambassador. Both of you are, really.</p><p>And I’m sure that your children will be, too. From what I’ve seen in my little life, it had the reverse effect. It opened my life up and it didn’t close it off. I would never want to go back to thinking I could only exist, or be in good relationship with my ancestors, if I only was able to approach the world as if everything had to be in one particular way.</p><p>AJ: Hmm.</p><p>Dr. A: I think it helped me fall in love with culture and faith, and be curious, and make friends. In your own time, I hope that’s what you experience too. This kind of openness where you get to speak from your deep knowledge, from your whole life, and also be heard everywhere, and make friends everywhere, and feel safe everywhere.</p><p>AJ: Thank you, I hope so. We’re working on it.</p><p>Dr. A: You’re doing a great job.</p><p>AJ: Yeah.</p><p>Dr. A: Alright. Well, are there any last things you would like to share before we sign off?</p><p>AJ: I want to thank you for sharing your stories also, and your parents and grandparents, and reflecting on what I’ve shared with you too. Thank you for your curiosity. You always try to support me and say good things about me. I really appreciate you. People like you are the ones who give me this confidence and give me this sense of safety to speak up more.</p><p>Dr. A: I’ve watched you, and you’re doing such a fantastic job. I really feel you as an aspirational soul. I’m so glad that our paths crossed. And I desire all the very best for you. I just have total trust in you, and I want everyone to get behind you, because I’ve watched the way you move in different kinds of settings. I think you come from real deep experience and knowledge. And yet, you’re not letting the way things are limit your imagination.</p><p>AJ: Thank you. I wanted to add to one of your questions about inheritance of peace. Why am I choosing to go that path, too? It’s also the safest path. It’s one of the most dangerous paths to take, because I’m attacked by everybody — the extremists on both sides, and all of that. And for me, it’s also the safest. Because if I choose any of the other paths I’ll be dead. I’ll be in jail. I’ll be somewhere else, because it’s not working, especially in Jerusalem. I think you understand my point.</p><p>Dr. A: I do. It’s interesting, because my mother was born in Jerusalem in 1932. She was born a Jewish person. She did not have a passport, but, at the time, it would have been issued by the British Mandate Palestine. She raised me, talking to me about her childhood playing with Jewish and Arab children when she was little. She loved that. She raised me in this whole other reality of storytelling. In her particular experience, it’s so different from what has happened.</p><p>AJ: Yeah. Every time you share, you bring the thoughts back to me. Yeah, I shared what I shared just earlier with you to say that building relationships with people like you, you are now my community, my extended family.</p><p>Dr. A: Àṣẹ.</p><p>AJ: This has become my survival instinct. It’s a natural outcome for me, as a Jerusalemite, to survive in the circumstances I lived in. I’m thankful that this has become my way. I think I’m lucky, because a lot of people, unfortunately, tend to go to other paths for their own sake. But I’m grateful that this has been the choice for me.</p><p>Dr. A: Yeah. I agree. I think it’s the only path. For me, I also think it’s the only path. Everyone who comes on this podcast has chosen that path. And, yeah, if we limit our imaginations to the point of thinking that something that doesn’t work is the only way, we’re basically passing that down to the next generation as an unlivable condition of life. So I think the only choice is to choose the better option even if it doesn’t feel within reach. I’m twice your age and I’ve seen some things change. Not everything changes, not everything sticks. But my hope is that we see more and more change, and it wouldn’t happen if we don’t lean into what might appear impossible, which could become possible.</p><p>AJ: Yeah, very well said. I would like to add that, Yes, if I’m choosing the path of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness. I do all of these things, but I don’t forget. We also need to learn from the lessons of the past. We need to acknowledge the reality. The power imbalance and to work to achieve a higher level of equality and safety for all.</p><p><p>“I’m choosing the path of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness. I do all of these things, but I don’t forget. We also need to learn from the lessons of the past. We need to acknowledge the reality. The power imbalance and to work to achieve a higher level of equality and safety for all.”</p></p><p>Dr. A: Absolutely. Well, I just want to honor all that you’re holding and carrying, and the fact that even just to be able to say, I can communicate in different languages and I will let each conversation inform me. Most people haven’t done that. So, you are our ambassador, my dear. You already are. Ambassador of the Future.</p><p>Adnan Jaber: Inshallah. I hope it’ll be a good one.</p><p>Dr. A: Yeah.</p><p>Adnan Jaber: Thank you, Amy.</p><p>Dr. A: Thank you, Adnan.</p><p>AJ: I think the person who I am today has to do a lot with my mother and her kindness, and her love of socializing with people and getting to know them. And the other reason is the community that I’ve been surrounded by. People like you, like I mentioned. I wanted to share this point now. October 7th has deepened the trauma on both sides. A lot of people have lost trust on the other side. I just wanted to say that a moment of breakdown is a moment of breakthrough. In the midst of this devastation that we have seen in the aftermath of October 7th, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.timeisnow.co.il/english">Its Time Coalition</a> has emerged. The biggest Arab / Jewish, Palestinian / Israeli bilateral summit has emerged. 7,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv and 5,000 people gathered the year after in Jerusalem. That was the biggest gathering ever in the history of Israel and Palestine, and that happened after October 7th. So, there is momentum here today. We need to catch it, support it, and go with it. It’s Time Coalition, I encourage people to look at it.</p><p></p><p><strong>Resources</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJCYGGHwooY">The Skin Deep</a> {The AND}</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.allmep.org/allmep-resources/peacetech-forum-vision-becoming-a-reality-marking-new-chapter-in-collaboration-for-the-field/">Peace Tech Forum</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nJhzZ3BBUFc_fe-9RpL6HA_cCxs32iAX168OH7WiYzY/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p">Adnan’s Journey with Tech2Peace</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hessiejones/2024/12/24/can-innovation-unify-across-divides-three-israeli-palestinian-initiatives-say-peace-is-possible/">“Can Innovation Unify Across Divides?: Three Israeli-Palestinian Initiatives Show Peace Is Possible,” Forbes</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://medium.com/life-collective/life-meets-muhammad-rajai-and-adnan-founders-of-yalla-reyada-955a914d3c7d">“Life+ Meets: Muhammad, Rajai, and Adnan, founders of Yalla Reyada”</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.radical-pragmatist.com/p/the-voice-behind-the-machine-a-palestinians?r=44e7j1&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true">“The Voice Behind the Machine: A Palestinian’s AI Solution to a Long-Standing Dispute”</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.aaup.edu/">Arab American University</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.allmep.org/">Alliance for Middle East Peace</a></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.allmep.org/allmep-resources/jerusalem-peoples-peace-summit-its-time-brings-together-5000-participants-in-call-to-end-war-embrace-peacebuilding/">Its Time Coalition</a></p><p></p><p><strong>Biographies</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.weforum.org/people/adnan-jaber/"><strong>Adnan Jaber</strong></a> is a curious, hopeful human from Jerusalem, now living in Los Angeles. On a mission to bring people together through tech, AI, dialogue, and entrepreneurship. As a lecturer at UCLA, Adnan teaches “Design Entrepreneurship for Peace and Impact,” empowering students to harness technology for social good. He has been part of the executive board at Tech2Peace for six years, contributing to the collaborative team efforts that transformed the organization from its early stages with very limited funding into a multimillion-dollar initiative that fosters tech and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. Adnan founded the PeaceTech Affinity Group with ALLMEP, uniting 20 CEOs focused on peacebuilding by engaging Palestinians and Israelis through tech education, entrepreneurship, job placement, and dialogue within a shared high-tech ecosystem. Adnan is currently a Member at OpenAI Forum, and Member at Council on Tech and Social Cohesion. Ex-director and host at Beitna channel that makes stories about wonderful Palestinians and Israelis showing the humanity on each side. A fellow at the Beerman Foundation and an awardee of Billions Acts of Peace, Adnan recently presented the Youth AI Policy at the Global Nobel Peace Summit, emphasizing the urgent need for AI training and AI ethics, continuing his journey to unite communities through technology..</p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amyshimshon.com"><strong>Dr. Amy Shimshon-Santo</strong></a> is a writer, editor, and educator who believes that creativity is a powerful tool for personal and social transformation. </p><p></p><p>This interview has been slightly edited and condensed for clarity. Subscribe to Inheritance of Peace with Amy Shimshon-Santo on<a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-interview/id1624946521"> Apple Podcasts</a> or on substack at<a target="_blank" href="https://amyshimshonsanto.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips"> Warm Blooded Mammal With Hair.</a> Theme music for this program is by<a target="_blank" href="http://www.avila.santo.com/"> Avila Santo.</a> This series highlights everyday people from across the generations and various walks of life —poets, researchers, shepherds, healers — who discuss our Inheritance of Peace as foundational for a just society.</p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Warm Blooded Mammal With Hair at <a href="https://amyshimshonsanto.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">amyshimshonsanto.substack.com/subscribe</a>
