Liel Maghen

Liel is a 27 year old from Tel Aviv and is studying Environmental Studies at the Arava Institute. He grew up in Ra’anana Israel and retains close ties to his family in Italy. In High School he worked as a counselor with the Israeli Scouts Movement and went on to be an environmental activist, living for a year in an eco-village and working on an organic date farm, and now studying permaculture at Arava. He served in the Israeli army as part of a combat unit first ,then later in administration and finally in service, tutoring teenagers with learning disabilities. On a recent Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue program in Germany, Liel realized the power of meeting Arabs at a person to person level, and that “true personal connection is better than a thousand political agreements.” He has been involved with “Combatants for Peace” and facilitated Israeli-Palestinian sharing circles and organized Arabic learning groups. He describes himself as an “educator” and a committed peace activist who believes that “the peace process starts long before any official agreements” at the local and personal level and he aims to continue his studies focusing on political science in the years ahead.