Under the title "Hope instead of hate", an event with two representatives of the Israeli-Palestinian organization "Combatants for Peace" took place in Landau on the evening of 15 July 2024. The cooperation project between the Peace Academy, the Protestant church district of Landau and the Peace and Environment Office of the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate proved to be a great success: almost one hundred participants made their way to the Landau festival hall. The evening began with a welcome from Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, Managing Director of the Peace Academy, and an introduction to the topic of the Middle East conflict by Dr. Steffen Hagemann from the Department of Political Science at RPTU in Kaiserslautern. Afterwards, the representatives of "Combatants for Peace", Osama Illiwat and Rotem Levin, reported on their path towards hatred, war and violence - and above all on their path away from it. These were extremely personal, very open reports that many of the participants found very moving. Andreas Kuntz, the pastor of St. John's Church in Landau, led the audience discussion, suggesting what lessons could be learned from the lecture for the heated discussion climate in Germany. The ensuing discussion illustrated how difficult it can be to consistently adopt a perspective of reconciliation that recognizes injustice as such and must begin to engage not only with the perspective, but also with the history and suffering of others. It was an evening that touched some and left many very thoughtful, but at the same time - as one participant put it - "flashed a glimmer of hope" and challenged us all to rethink the way we deal with (political) conflicts.