[On February 17, 2026, the Muslim Political Action Committee and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy co-sponsored a panel discussion on “Tolerance and Peaceful Coexistence in the Holy Land–Past, Present, and Future” moderated by Radwan Masmoudi. The following are our takeaways from the discussion and is not an attempt at a transcript. To see the entire program click here.]
Salam Al Marayati, Executive Director of MPAC. Religious coexistence must be practiced locally before it is promoted globally, including in the United States. All Abrahamic faiths worship the same God and share a duty to bear witness to truth and stand for justice, even when it challenges one’s own community.
Peter Beinart–Editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. The foundation of Judaism is that all human beings are created in the image of God. When the orthodox Jewish social critic Yeshayahu Leibowitz was asked whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, he replied no because no state has a right to exist, only human beings have a right to exist. States have a conditional right to exist: They may protect human life and create conditions for human flourishing or they can destroy human life. They must be judged in terms of their impact on the human being, when you elevate the state above the human being you move towards idolatry. The test whether you are a Jew in good standing is not whether you observe Jewish law or respect the God-given integrity of the individual, but whether you support this state. If a state kills 100,000 people in Gaza, creates more child amputees per capita than any other place on earth, destroys 80% of the homes and 70% of the farmland, then something is fundamentally wrong with that state and we are required to re-imagine the state so it can better respect all the lives and the dignity of the people under its control.
A second principle is the centrality of the story of the experience of bondage in Egypt. There is a repeated refrain that you shall not oppress the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. The lesson of the story is that even when there is no human power that respects the humanity of people who are different, God does. The principle should be that wherever Jews and Palestinians live, they must live under the same law, with equal rights and equal dignity, not that people who are not members of the dominant tribe are guests at best. Unfortunately, the most powerful Jewish institutions in America now prefer an authoritarian American government that unconditionally supports Israel over a democratic government committed to the rule of law that would expect a similar commitment from the Israeli state.
Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos–Orthodox Christian nun and scholar. She moved from New York to a convent at the Mount of Olives in 1969, from where she could see the Old City walls, the tombs revered by Jews, the Western Wall, and the Al-Aqsa compound and Dome of the Rock. After two years, she was asked to run a girls school at Bethany, with mostly Muslim students, where she saw how Muslims and Christians could work and live together in peace. After being forced to leave in 2006, she began to make biennial pilgrimages to the Holy Land. She visited the site where the gospels say a Jewish man badly beaten was aided not by the priests or the religious leaders, but by a Samaritan man. She takes the lesson to be that we should not let our religious identity be a barrier to aiding our neighbor in a time of want. Both Muslims and Christians who have endured suffering exemplify the attitude Christ encouraged in the beatitudes in that even when the Israelis have taken away their loved ones or their property or their livelihood, they are rarely bitter or call for revenge, but humbly declare, “Our lives are in the hands of God.” Even more remarkably, they don’t dwell on their concerns, but ask, “How are you? How is your sister?”
Religious leaders have duty to provide a vision of how we can work together for peace. We all realize that the political solution lies in the hands of the United States, to end the occupation. Then we can talk about one or two states. The problem is not only the Israeli lobby groups, but the Evangelical Christians. Christians must speak out that Christian Zionism is not the way to peace. Christianity and Islam share the fundamental principles of Judaism that can contribute to peace.
Mustafa Akyol–CATO Institute. In 1748, a Hasidic rabbi migrated from Poland to Hebron and in a letter to his brother described his astonishment at how the Jewish community was permitted to close a public courtyard for their observance of the Sabbath. Beyond that the local gentiles loved the Jews and shared in their celebrations such as circumcisions. Itzhaq Sarfati asked his co-religionists in Germany why do they stay in that “accursed land” when they could be free to follow their religion under the Ottomans? Until the 20th century this was a land in which Jews, Christians and Muslims did live in peace (though not complete civil equality). Islam started as an anti-idolatrous movement that always viewed Jews and Christians as fellow-monotheists and allowed then keep their places of worship. In the seventh century Caliph Umar not only allowed the Christians to maintain the Church of the Holy Sepulcher but declined an invitation to pray there out of concern that future Muslim might take that an excuse to turn it into a mosque. It was in 20th century under the influence of modern nationalism that Attaturk turned the church/mosque of Ayat Sophia into a museum. Learning that the Christians had turned the Temple Mount into a dump, Umar and his companions cleaned it with their own hands and subsequently allow the Jews to return. It became and remained until the dark twentieth century a multi-religious city. People in the 19th century could not have foreseen the horrific ethnic violence that would come with the rise of nationalism. The idea of equating nations to their dominant ethnic group came to the Middle East. There is no perfect solution, but one can bring peace by reconciling people. Third parties can do this only by respecting both peoples. “From the river to the sea both people should be free and every child should be safe.”
Questions. Can laws resolve the situation without a change of hearts and is peace possible without justice?
Akyol: You need both political and social reconciliation but which comes first depends on the situation. In Bosnia-Herzogovenia the political solution was not perfect, but it gave Bosnians a safe home in which they could live. Pragmatism is sometimes needed to achieve a solution we can live with. Seeing the conflict as a strictly colonial issue is a dead end because the Israelis don’t.
Beinart. In this world justice is imperfect, but the closer you get to justice the better for peace. You need political leaders who can make difficult compromises. That is why you must allow the Palestinians to elect their own leaders. Nelson Mandalla was able to bring his people the right to vote even when he knew it would not completely resolve economic grievances. Israel has not had to make any compromises because of the unconditional foreign support.
Stephanopoulos, Netanyahui and Trump are two sides of the same coin, representing neither religion nor ideology but self.
Question. What in the Jewish community or outside of it contributed most to the shift of Jewish thought from supporting civil rights to defending an ethnocentric state?
Beinart. We must distinguish American Jews as a whole from the Jewish establishment. There is still a strong sense among ordinary Jewish-American voters that ethno-nationalism in the United States is very dangerous. Support for civil rights was a project that included completing establishing Jews in America as first-class citizens. In the late sixties and early seventies, the civil rights movement succeeded. The project of the institutions was completed and those who remained in the major Jewish institutions were more tribal. At the same time, the 1957 war was perceived as a near-death experience, mid-20th century and the global left began to move away from Israel and the most powerful Jewish institutions are no longer funded by an increasingly small base of millionaires and billionaires. They embraced support from anti-Semites who supported Israel. They foolishly thought that a movement that supports anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-LBGTQ people wouldn’t eventually turn on the Jews.
Question. How do you foresee the conflict in Palestine affecting the 2026 elections.
Stephanopoulos. She is hopeful.
Akyol. Americans seem to have never heard the stories of people evicted from their houses in which they lived for generations. Those who justified October 7 didn’t help the Palestinian cause. Principles must be applied consistently.
Beinart. It is an opportunity for both parties because of the gap between the people in both parties and their leadership. People on the left can criticize from a structural analysis but those on the right, rightly upset by what they see in Gaza, make worrying statements like “That’s what Jews do. They don’t have the respect or life we Christians do.”
Question. What is the distinction between religious motivation for peaceful coexistence and the Abraham Accords?
Stephanopoulos. Abraham Accords don’t seem to have been inspired by the Abrahamic faith.
Akyol. Israel making peace with Arab countries is not the problem. Ignoring the Palestinians is the problem. You cannot peacefully dominate another people.
Question: Is criticism from the Christian right making a dent in the Christian Zionist movement.
Stephanopoulos. People are asking how can the precepts of Christianity justify what Israel is doing?
Beinart. These countries have a common aversion to democracy. They see Israel as a protector against Iran, but more against their own people. The Accords are bad for religious tolerance because they associate religious tolerance with oppression both in the Arab world and in Israel. The road to inter-religious tolerance goes through the road of the rights of the individual.
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
Minaret of Freedom Institute
www.minaret.org
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