[1][2][3] Known previously as Jonathan Kis-Lev,[4] his graffiti work, political installations, community-based projects and public artworks have granted him the title the “Israeli Banksy.”[5][6][7] Kiss became involved in peace activities from a young age.

Later, traumatized by his three years in Israel's mandatory military service, Kiss began spraying pro-peace and anti-war catchphrases.

[9] Kiss thought extensively and sketched hundreds of images trying to depict peace in the Middle East and an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict.

"[9] Kiss wished to create an iconic image, one that could "be reproduced on shirts and stickers, and could be immediately identified as a peace sign specifically to Palestinians and Israelis.

[14][15][16] Kiss, realizing the caricature's importance as a national symbol and personification of the Palestinian people,[16] wished to examine the possibility of incorporating it into his art.

Srulik is generally depicted as a young man "Zionist, pioneer, farmer"[15] wearing an Israeli hat, Biblical sandals, and dark khaki shorts.

Kiss drew the typical Israeli "Tembel" hat and the curl and ears as they would appear from the back, as well as the white shirt and dark pants, along with the biblical sandals.

"[16] Kiss wished to paint the mural both in the Palestinian territories as well as within Israel, for the message of peace needed to be directed at both sides of the conflict.

[9] Israeli illustrator and Bezalel Arts Academy professor Michel Kichka wrote:I, too, have seen this large-scale graffiti [...] It is doubtful whether such a painting could have been created in the lives of Al-Ali and Dosh.

'"[27] Art scholar Stav Shacham noted that "putting these two characters together, hugging, walking together on a path that we cannot see just yet, but there is a lot of optimism here."

"[28] The painting was mentioned in numerous articles[29][1][24] and considered "subversive" to the commonplace Zionist narrative which may tend to ignore the existence of the Palestinian people as a national identity.

[30][9] In an article in The Forward titled "The Lessons They Didn't Teach Me on Birthright", Talya Zax wrote about the mural, describing the "two children with their backs turned to the viewer, standing with their arms around each other.

"[15] Zax went on to describe the usual pro-Israel advocacy that tourists are subjected to when visiting Israel, without being shown "a single sign of resistance or rebellion against that narrative.

"[15] Yet, according to Zax, The Peace Kids mural was a positive deviation from the ethno-centric narrative, and revealed the problems Israel wishes to swipe under the carpet.

"[15] The artwork highlighted the development of the artist's oeuvre beyond merely entertaining and decorative street art, featuring his criticism at the state of the stagnant peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The international magazine, a project of the War Prevention Initiative, aims at closing the gap between the insights of peace science and the working knowledge that policy makers and practitioners use in their day-to-day operations.