Mar 05, 2026
3 min read
Ernesto Kahan talks about his own experiences in the air strikes due to the war between Israel and Iran, in the article "In Shelter, waiting for the future"
Ernesto Kahn, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize representing the International Association of Physicians Against Nuclear War, Director of the World Organization of Authors and Honorary Academician of the Royal European Academy of Physicians (), shared with the academic community the essay "In Shelter, Expecting the Future," in which he describes his experience in the Iran-Israel war.Kahn also shared the essay "Proposals for the Future of Humanity," in which he advocates the abolition of money and the implementation of a utopia that creates a world religion.The student is one of the promoters of the World Peace Forum, where he met with the University of Barcelona, the Barcelona City Council, the Red Cross, the Catalonia Culture Foundation, the Promotion of Work and the Royal Artic Circle of Barcelona to organize the World Peace Forum Barcelona 2023.
In the shelter, waiting for the future
I am writing this from a refuge in Israel.It is not a metaphor.It is not a literary device.That is the physical place where I am now, sitting next to my neighbors who had run down the stairs a few minutes ago as sirens blared, signaling a missile being launched from Iran.
There's something about the sound of an alarm that's impossible to describe until you've experienced it.This is net geal lujd: it is in biological order. It lichem beweecht foar de gedachte.Pick up the phone, look around, lock the door, mentally count children, friends and elders.
There are no political speeches.Breathing is held.A girl asks how long it will take to get home.No one knows what to answer.A man tries to continue reading the news, although his hands are shaking a little.
From the outside, war is often seen as a strategic debate or a clash of ideas.From the inside - from social life - war is something else: it is a brutal disruption of the daily routine, a permanent awareness of weakness.This message is not intended to speak on behalf of the government or the military, just my view of daily life in Israel.
The war seen by those who did not shoot
Most of the people taking refuge with me today do not participate in military or political decisions.They are ordinary citizens: doctors, teachers, students, immigrants who come to seek safety, families who build their homes here.
However, we are all involuntarily part of the struggle.Every missile aimed at a city reminds us that behind the words war or geopolitics, millions of citizens try to live a normal life.Fear is not abstract.It has a schedule, a voice, and an emotional impact.It changes the way you sleep, plans for the next day, even imagines the future.However, something surprising happens: life insists.
One person tells a joke.Another shares food.The child manages to laugh.In the midst of danger, civil society has demonstrated a quiet resilience that rarely makes international headlines.
Between fear and hope
Living in constant danger causes moral fatigue.Not just fear, but a deep question: until when?
Many citizens of the Middle East - Israelis, Iranians, Palestinians, Lebanese and other peoples - do not want endless wars or leadership based on religious fanaticism or the destruction of others.Most strive for something simple and revolutionary at the same time: a life in peace.This refuge makes it clear that political or religious extremism ultimately harms the civilian population it claims to represent.
Communities that live side by side deserve leaders, not eternal enemies.History shows that no region is condemned to prolonged conflict.Europe experienced terrible wars before choosing cooperation and tolerance as the basis of their future.Perhaps the Middle East is approaching a similar moment.
Imagine the next day
While we wait for the warning to pass, I believe that all wars make a collective moral decision.Will we continue to accept endless cycles of violence?Or will this suffering finally give way to a new, more tolerant Middle East, where religious and cultural diversity is not a threat, but a shared treasure?
A peaceful future will require that regimes that fuel hatred, terror and fanaticism lose influence in the face of civil societies that demand dignity, development and coexistence.
The people of this region were not born to live in shelters.They were born to create open cities, full universities, vibrant markets, interaction between neighbors who do not fear each other.
When the door opens
The siren stops.For a few seconds, no one moves.Then someone slowly opens the door.We return to the surface with a warning from someone who doesn't yet know if the danger is over.Leaving the shelter never feels like a military victory.It feels like one chance to continue living.
I write this from Israel, from personal experience, with fear but with hope.Because here, among the underground, the alarms and the missiles, there remains a deep belief: the future of the Middle East cannot be built with constant fear, but with tolerance, mutual respect and the right of all people to live in peace.
And perhaps - when this war is over - we will remember those days as the time when civil society began to demand, with unmistakable voices, a new beginning for the region.
