What hope is there for peace between Israelis and Palestinians?

Even those who are the most proactive in working to bring the two peoples together often express the view that they are not very hopeful. The politics of the countries hardly inspire confidence, they often appear dysfunctional. However, the people living there often show amazing grace towards each other, and this does inspire hope.

John Howard has lived in the West Bank and travelled widely in Israel and, to a lesser extent, in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. He lived in Bethlehem from 2016 to 2018 working as a Methodist Mission Partner at the Jerusalem Liaison Office of the World Methodist Council. As a result of his experience he published the book “Hope in Israel Palestine: Stories of Hope; Prospects for Peace” in 2021.

He begins by outlining the situation today, largely through stories of his experiences, of people he met and projects he visited.

This is followed by two chapters looking at how we arrived at this situation. He then asks the question “did it have to be this way – or might the history of the last one hundred years have led to a different situation today?”

This leads to a description of people and places that inspire him with hope for the future. He looks at the very real obstacles to establishing peace founded on justice and suggests ways that these might be addressed.

This book is largely aimed at the international community rather than Israelis or Palestinians and he addresses the question of “What is it that Internationals can do to help movement towards a solution?”

He ends by reaffirming his hope that peace can be found and that it need not be too far away.

Buy the Kindle edition from Amazon for £7.22 or buy the physical book by sending a cheque for £12.00 payable to J Howard to

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