Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series

The Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series, made possible with a generous gift from Mary Catherine Bunting, hosts speakers and events that contribute to raising awareness about peace and justice issues.

"Partnering for an End to War and a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine: An Evening with Combatants for Peace"

Keynote talk: Thursday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m.
4th Floor Program Room of the Andrew White Student Center

Click here to register on the Bridge!

Combatants for Peace (CfP) is committed to joint nonviolence and uses civil resistance, education, and other creative means of activism to transform systems of oppression and build a free and peaceful future from the ground up. Launched in 2006, they are the only movement worldwide founded by former fighters on both sides of an active conflict. As a result, they were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 and 2018. Delivering the keynote talk will be 2 activists: Elie Avidor and Aziz Abu Sarah.

Elie Avidor is an Israeli engineer and former combatant who grew up in Haifa. He fought and was wounded during the Yom Kippur war at Mt. Hermon. He is a member of CfP’s bi-national activists leadership team and now focuses on helping Palestinian shepherd communities resist Israeli ethnic cleansing and settler violence in the Jordan Valley using “protective presence.” 

Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian peacebuilder, author and mission-focused entrepreneur whose brother was killed by Israeli soldiers. His journey from revenge to peacebuilding has led him to implement mission-focused initiatives in Palestine, Israel and 60 other countries. Along with Maoz Inon and Combatants for Peace more broadly, Aziz is leading a movement calling for peace and reconciliation, rejecting vicious cycles of violence. Aziz has been named among the “500 Most Influential Muslims in the World” by the Royal Strategic Studies Centre in Jordan each year since 2010 for his work in cultural education and conflict resolution. He is a National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow. Harnessing the transformative power of travel, in 2009 Aziz co-founded MEJDI Tours, a leader of responsible travel pioneering the Dual Narrative™ method and innovative approaches to use travel as a peacemaking tool. He is co-founder of InterAct International, a non profit advancing sustainability, education, and cross cultural connections. Aziz has authored two books; Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler’s Guide to World Peace (2020) and Strangers, Neighbors, Friends: Muslim-Christian-Jewish Reflections on Compassion and Peace (2018). He has served as Executive Director at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, as the Chairman for the Parents Circle–Family Forum, and as a board member of Combatants for Peace. He was also recognized by former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for his work in peacebuilding.

Film screening: There is Another Way
Thursday, Nov. 14, at 12:15 pm
Loyola Notre Dame Library Ridley Auditorium (L045)

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There is Another Way, directed by Stephen Apkon of Reconsider, builds on the award-winning film Disturbing the Peace (2016), which features Combatants for Peace members and documents “Israelis and Palestinians, born into conflict, sworn to be enemies, who laid down their weapons and challenged their fate—knowing that no one is free unless everyone is free.” The screening, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a Q&A with the film director and two activists.

"Singing into the Wound: An Evening of Poetry & Conversation with Brian Turner"

Brian Turner
Thursday, October 24
4th Floor Program Room of the Andrew White Student Center

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Brian Turner is an award-winning poet and memoirist. His keynote talk will explore conflict, love, and resilience through storytelling and verse. Turner is the author of five collections of poetry, including Here, Bullet, a first-person account of his experience as a soldier during the Iraq War, for which he received the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, and Harper’s Magazine, among other journals, and he was featured in the documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was nominated for an Academy Award.  A Guggenheim Fellow, Turner has received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets’ Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation.