Miko Peled’s Bio

Miko Peled is the founder and President of Palestine House of Freedom, in Washington, DC. Born in Jerusalem in 1961, he is the author of “The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.” For close to three decades Miko has been a public speaker, and human rights activist focusing on Palestine. He is considered by many to be one of the clearest voices calling for justice in Palestine, and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights for all, on all historic Palestine. Educated in Jerusalem, Japan and the United States, Peled is also a professional martial artist. For 23 years, Peled ran a martial arts school that was dedicated to teaching leadership skills and non-violent conflict resolution through martial arts.

Peled has been working along with other, mostly Palestinian activists towards the dismantling the apartheid regime in Palestine and transforming Palestine into a single democratic state with equal rights for all.

Driven by the death of his 12-year-old niece Smadar in 1997, Peled embarked on a journey to explore Palestine, its people and their narratives. Miko’s first book is titled “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.” This autobiographical work takes the reader into the history of Zionism and the apartheid regime in Palestine through his family’s story. His grandparents immigrated to Palestine in the early 20th century. Peled’s maternal grandfather, Avraham Katznelson was a signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His father, Matti Peled was a general in the Israeli army and pioneered an Israeli Palestinian dialogue for a two-state solution in the 1970’s which led him to meeting Yasser Arafat among other leading Palestinian leaders.

Miko grew up in Jerusalem, a racially divided multi-ethnic city. Having lived in the sphere of the privileged occupier Miko, like other Israelis, had never met Palestinians until he came to United States. Chapter 7 of The General’s Son begins with the words, “My journey into Palestine began in San Diego in the year 2000. I was 39 years old.”

In 2016 Miko published his second book, “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five,” which documents the story of The Holy Land Foundation and the persecution and prosecution of five innocent Palestinian Muslim Americans.

In 2023 he established “Palestine House of Freedom,” or “Dar Alhurriya,” in Arabic. In mid 2024 the organization found its home in Washington, DC on Capitol Hill.