Bassam Aramin became involved in the Palestinian struggle as a boy growing up in the ancient city of Hebron. At 17, he was caught planning an attack on Israeli troops, and spent seven years in Israeli occupation jails. In 2005, he co-founded Combatants for Peace, an organisation of former Israeli and Palestinian combatants leading a non-violent struggle against the occupation. Since then, Bassam has not once picked up a weapon – not even when, two years later, his ten-year-old daughter Abir was gunned down and killed.

Rami Elhanan is an Israeli Jewish nonviolent activist that has recently been spotlighted. Rami Elhanan is a former Israeli soldier who served in the three following wars: the War of Attrition in 1969, the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and in Lebanon in 1982. After having lost his 14-year-old daughter in a suicide bombing in 1997, he became a member of the organization The Parents Circle-Families Forum that promotes solidarity between Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost close relatives in the conflict. In September 2010, he became a crew member on the boat for peace and justice called the Irene. He was joined by other Jewish activists.