Lior Reuven Amihai

Lior is a 27 year old Israeli student from Jerusalem, and a participant on the Olive Tree Program at London City University where he is in his second year of International Politics and Sociology. Lior was born in Panama to a diplomatic family who moved around a lot and he spent some of his growing up in Japan, hence he says he has a deep understanding and empathy for cultural differences. He is very committed to the Scout movement and lost two of his scout friends in the conflict. He tells the poignant story of a 14 year old seeing his father cry for the first time and discovering it was about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. He dates his passion to politics to that crucible event. He served in the army and says that “No people deserve to live under occupation,” and at the same time, “no Israeli should be (forever) destined to participate in compulsive 3 years of military service, risking his life.” The Conflict must be resolved, he says. Lior has worked with Seeds of Peace and with Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue groups and in London, continues to serve the Israeli Scout youth and participate in the Rene Cassin Activist Enrichment Program which teaches the Jewish human rights tradition. Lior writes that he spent 15 hours preparing his application, which is a singular sign of dedication.