Miko Peled an Israeli writer and a peace activist, the author of The General’s Son – Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (2012). Born in Jerusalem in 1961 into a well known Israeli family, his grandfather, Dr. Avraham Katsnelson was a Zionist leader and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His father, Matti Peled, was a young officer in the war of 1948 and a general in the war of 1967 when Israel conquered and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, and Sinai.
On September 4, 1997, a tragedy struck the family of Miko Peled: His beloved niece Smadar (13) was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. That tragedy propelled Peled onto a journey of discovery. It pushed him to re-examine many of his beliefs he had grown up with as the son and grandson of leading figures in Israel’s political military elite. The General’s Son is his first book and it illustrates his journey to explore Palestine, its people and their stories, as well as how he came to struggle for human rights and a just lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
It’s worth mentioning that Miko’s sister and mother of deceased Smadar, Nurit Peled-Elhanan, is a well known academic focusing on linguistics and the Israeli system of education.
Miko Peled’s vision is a secular democratic state in which Israelis and Palestinians will live as equal citizens: “As an Israeli that was raised on the Zionist ideal of a Jewish state, I know how hard it is for many Jews and Palestinians to let go of the dream of having a state that is exclusively ‘our own’.”
“For the good of both nations, the Separation Wall must come down, the Israeli control over the lives of Palestinians must be defied so that a secular democracy where all Israelis and Palestinian live as equals be established in our shared homeland,” he says.
Miko Peled came to Prague upon the invitation of a Czech grassroots initiative Not In Our Name! – Initiative for a Just Peace in the Middle East, ISM Czech Republic and the local Palestinian community. It was the first time Miko Peled gave lectures in the Czech Republic.