8 | DECEMBER 9 • 2021 

essay
Peace, Innovation 
and the Synergy 
Between Them
T

wenty-five years ago, 
the Peres Center for 
Peace was established 
and since then it has complet-
ed amazing work, which is 
unfortunately 
not known to 
the public. 
I would like to 
take this oppor-
tunity to high-
light the Center’s 
accomplish-
ments, and to 
answer the questions of many of 
my friends in the field of peace 
activism as to why the Center 
doesn’t promote political views 
or policy recommendations to 
end the conflict. The answer is 
that while Shimon Peres dedi-
cated his career to promoting a 
political solution to the conflict, 
the Peres Center was established 
to complement the political 
approach not to replace it, as I 
will explain below. 
Many think that we turned 
our focus to innovation because 
peace was too hard and too 
controversial. The truth is very 
different; we never stopped pro-
moting peace and the 
addition of innovation 
to the mission of the 
Center was not meant 
to replace the efforts 
to promote peace but 
rather to enhance 
them. 
In 1996, Peres 
founded the Peres 
Center for Peace as 
a nonprofit NGO in order to 
advance his vision for a peace-

ful and prosperous future for 
Israel and across the Middle 
East. Finding himself in the 
unfamiliar position of being 
out of elected office, Peres 
sought to answer the question 
of how he could promote peace 
with other means. 
Thinking innovatively as 
usual, and as a lesson learned 
from his work on the Oslo 
Accords in 1993 and from the 
assassination of Prime Minister 
Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, Peres 
came to realize that peace 
could not be achieved solely 
from the top down and that 
political efforts must be com-
plemented with a bottom-up 
approach that promotes per-
son-to-person connections to 
build passionate constituencies 
for the political peace. 
Seeking to promote peace 
in an apolitical manner, the 
Peres Center began connecting 
Arabs and Jews, Israelis and 
Palestinians, on the ground, 
building relationships between 
would-be strangers based on 
common interests and shared 
challenges. Through a variety of 
immersive programs 
aimed at breaking 
down the existing 
barriers to peace, 
the Peres Center 
developed unique 
methodologies that 
today remain a 
world-class example 
of impact-focused 
peace and capacity 
building. 
During its 25 years of exis-

tence, the Peres Center con-
ducted projects in the fields of 
medicine, education, business 
and the environment. The Peres 
Center brought more than 
13,000 Palestinian children for 
lifesaving treatment in Israeli 
hospitals; trained hundreds 
of Palestinian physicians in 
Israeli hospitals, where they 
specialized in medical fields 
that they could not learn in 
Gaza or the West Bank; enabled 
thousands of youth, Israelis and 
Palestinian, Arab and Jews to 
connect through “Education for 
peace” programs developed and 
managed by the Peres Center 
using sports, art and innova-
tion; constructed a network of 
young people from across the 
Middle East and North Africa 
to study journalism and inno-
vation together; led projects 
to identify obstacles for the 
Palestinian economy and how 
to overcome them by business 
relations between Palestinians 
and Israelis; and is now help-
ing to develop the innovation 
ecosystem in Palestine and to 
connect the geographic and 
demographic periphery in Israel 
with the high-tech sector. 

START-UP NATION
Shimon Peres is indeed well-
known all over the world pri-
marily as a result of his Nobel 
prize-winning work in the 
pursuit of peace, but his legacy 

is not complete without rec-
ognizing his role as one of the 
founding fathers of the Start-
Up Nation. During his prolific 
career in government, he pro-
moted Israel’s transition from 
an agricultural and centralized 
economy to a technological and 
economic powerhouse. 
 Throughout his career, he 
pushed Israel to be at the fore-
front of science and technology. 
In developing Israel’s defense 
infrastructure, in saving Israel 
from hyperinflation and in 
peacemaking, Peres’ mind was 
constantly innovation-orient-
ed. Throughout his career, he 
pushed Israel to be at the fore-
front of science and technology. 
He always said that though our 
nation was too small to offer a 
significant market or industry 
to the global economy, we could 
export our ideas to the world. 
After seven years as presi-
dent and 70 years serving the 
Israeli people in government, 
Peres took office at the Peres 
Center for Peace for the first 
time in 2014. That year, the 
Center expanded into “The 
Peres Center for Peace and 
Innovation.
” Innovation was 
always a clear part of Peres’ 
vision for peace, and he strongly 
believed in the synergy between 
peace and innovation. He 
believed that peace is made 
possible not only through inno-
vative diplomacy, but that inno-

Nadav Tamir

PURELY COMMENTARY
The Peres Center for 
Peace and Innovation 
in Jaffa

Shimon Peres

ELZA FIÚZA/WIKIPEDIA

