[PAA-Discuss] FW: small steps for peace in Mid-East

Sun Dec 12 16:14:30 EST 2010

Dear Lee,
Thanks very much for sending this report along..............the young Palestinian and Israeli student solidarity groups have worked throughout the years to promote this Nobel agenda that the ordinary people of the both sides have no agenda of their corrupt regimes.......and our task as the older generation also is to further bring transparency,accountability,and accuracy to the dilemma that we have politically dealt with from the other angles.

Our task should always remain intact with what is moral..............Right conduct has always been the Essenes of good politics..........  

"It is a heartening story of a Palestinian boy who lets kites fly free over 
the concrete wall round an Israeli settlement, with "salaam" written on them. 

When the wind changes, the kites come flying back with "shalom" written on 
them by the settlement children. 
Michael Morpurgo believes peace can only come from young Jews and young Arabs 
living together, learning together and showing respect to each other".
This is a fascinating story with the extraordinary insights,but as we expected of a children story book there is no political or strategic solution to the conflict that has persisted for 62 years.

Till 4 years ago i tirelessly promoted the Two State solution,conditioned by the return of all the lands to the Palestinians,except the 6% of of it that historically belonged to Israelis in 1947..............that is not a good socialist agenda...........therefore i put that behind.......... the agenda should be focused on the one state solution principally........to bring the international unity to the oppressed people of the world and on the top of it the workers that become meaningful in unity and not in seperation.............anything beside that wrapped in the distoration of the truth as you are clearly aware,is not your task or mine and not those of us that i know...........so Kudos to the establishment of the house of truths,to geniune hearts and minds, and to those who spent most of their lives to live sane and clean in a world that more than any thing else has produced the unkind and the selfish...........we become better human beings when we
 respect the truth and do not contribute to the inhumane agendas of those that we stood in fight for the most of out lives........happy and better days ahead Lee............
Thanks,
Zhaleh   

The historic ascent of humanity, taken as a whole, may be summarized as a succession of victories of consciousness over blind forces - in nature, in society, in man himself. 

Leon Trotsky

--- On Sat, 12/11/10, Lee Loe <leeloe at igc.org> wrote:

From: Lee Loe <leeloe at igc.org>
Subject: FW: small steps for peace in Mid-East
To: "'Zhaleh'" <zch6402 at yahoo.com>
Date: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 1:23 PM

Encouraging news. Lee

From: Lee Loe [mailto:leeloe at igc.org] 

Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 1:07 PM
To: 'Lee 
Loe'
Subject: small steps for peace in Mid-East

Small steps for peace still forged in Mid-East 

By Hugh Sykes 
BBC News 

A school in the Middle East and a new book by a British children's writer 
share a common vision of peace based on a new generation of Arab and Jewish 
children growing up together as friends. 

At a demonstration I went to last week against evictions of Palestinians from 
their homes in East Jerusalem there were more Jews chanting and holding up 
banners in support of the Palestinians than there were Arabs. 
The banners were in Hebrew and in English. That is a change. 
I remember going to an anti-occupation demonstration by a variety of peace 
activists in Tel Aviv a few years ago. 
They had slogans entirely in Hebrew, which meant I had to clumsily ask a 
number of people what their posters meant. 
“ There is much more contact now between Jews and Arabs who 
feel the same way about the occupation ” 

I wondered why some of them were not in a more international language, like 
English. 
"Ah," said one of the demonstrators, "I suppose you have a point." 
Then I asked her, "Who do you think you are actually talking to at demos like 
these?" 
After a long pause she said, "That's a very good question. I think we are 
just talking to ourselves." 
That has changed too. 
Playing together 
There is much more contact now between Jews and Arabs who feel the same way 
about the occupation, and a lot of it is under the radar, so to speak - barely 
reported. 

"We are successful," said Raida, a Palestinian teacher. "And that's why the 
government don't like us". 
Raida teaches English and History to a class of 11-year-olds. She looked 
round the room at the children gathered at small tables. 
"Two Jews at that table, one Arab," she told me. "Three Arabs, two Jews over 
there. And in the corner, two Jews and two Arabs." 
The school is in Wahdat al Salaam/Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace), a village 
where Arabs and Jews have lived together willingly as neighbours since it was 
established in 1970. 
"But the children are spontaneously genuinely mixing, are they?" I asked. 
"Yes, absolutely," Raida insisted. "They play together, they visit each 
other's homes, they go to the cinema together. They are friends." 
The day I visited, the children were making kites in honour of their special 
guest, the British author of numerous books for young people, Michael Morpurgo. 
He has just written a children's book about the Arab-Israeli conflict. 
Mutual respect 
It is a heartening story of a Palestinian boy who lets kites fly free over 
the concrete wall round an Israeli settlement, with "salaam" written on them. 

When the wind changes, the kites come flying back with "shalom" written on 
them by the settlement children. 
Michael Morpurgo believes peace can only come from young Jews and young Arabs 
living together, learning together and showing respect to each other. 
"It's not going to start from the other end," he told me, "we've seen that." 
He means it will never come from the top. 
But does the children's experience at Neve Shalom/Wahdat al Salaam endure? 
Raida the teacher said yes, absolutely it does - it is rooted in them, after 
11 years in an enlightened community like this. 
She tells a revealing story about one of her Jewish students going on to 
secondary school and daring to challenge the teacher who was telling the class 
there was nobody living in what is now Israel when the state was created in 
1948. 
"If a Jewish child can stand up to an inaccurate teacher like that in a 
Jewish school," Raida smiled, "there is some hope." 
Arab and Israeli 'brothers' 
Rami and Mazen believe in hope as well. 
“ Rami and Mazen are now close friends - they call each other 
brother ” 

They also visit schools, in Israel and in the occupied territories. 
Their message is that violence will never solve the conflict. 
They are very persuasive. 
Rami is a Jew, Mazen a Palestinian Arab and they know what violence is. 
Mazen's 62-year-old father was shot dead by an Israeli soldier. 
Rami's 14-year-old daughter was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber on a 
bus in Jerusalem. 
Rami and Mazen are now close friends - they call each other brother. 
They are members of the Parents Circle and Families Forum. 
It is not a psychological support group. It is a campaigning organisation 
with a very precise objective which is written on their smart business cards: 
"Bereaved families supporting peace, reconciliation and tolerance". 
Negotiation 
"Initiatives like these are essential 'baby steps'," Hind Kabawat told me. 
Hind is a Syrian lawyer who specialises in conflict resolution. 
In her fabulous, spacious, stone Damascus house - with a fountain in the 
courtyard and elaborately painted high ceilings - she proudly pointed to "the 
most important books on my shelf: the Bible, the Koran and the Sayings of 
Mahatma Gandhi". 
Does she believe Israel and the Palestinians are reconcilable? 
Does she believe - especially now, with talk of attacks on nuclear sites - 
that Israel and Iran can negotiate? 
"Of course," she said. "In Ireland, peace only came after the British 
negotiated with the IRA." 
Then she added: "Look at Europe. Millions of people died there in the Second 
World War. Millions! Did your parents or mine ever believe there would be peace 
in Europe?" she asked. 
"Well there is," she went on, "because they did believe in it. We have to 
have hope." 
How to listen to: From our own Correspondent 
Radio 4: Saturdays, 1130. Second weekly edition on Thursdays, 1100 (some 
weeks only) 
World Service: See 

Download the 

Listen on 

Story by story at the 
Story from BBC 
NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9273866.stm

Published: 
2010/12/11 11:23:01 GMT

© BBC MMX

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