Israel and Palestine: Youth for Peace

I don't want this thread to be a flamin one where two communities would try to look better than the other. This thread is all about HOPE and a POSSIBLE PEACE.

In a few words, who i am (first thread here) : an arab living in france. I m not a muslim as i dont believe in god. But i have a "muslim background" as my family is mainly in Algeria. I m head of IT in my company and i m married with a jew. Yes you ve read well. Arab. Jew. Married. We got a 2y old son who is half jew/half arab. And we're proud of it.

In another thread about muslim extremists and the way they might have been inspired by Hitler, i realised that few come here to talk about what is actually good in the middle-east conflict... I ve read a lot about how much the muslim want to get rid of the jews and also how the jews want to erdadicate the arabs... i m tired of all that cause there's nothing new, but more, there's no HOPE...

The day the Israel/Palestine conflict will end, it will be a great path to reconciliate Jews and muslims around the world... make them remember they're all semites, all cousins...

So as an arab, i choosed to put some light on Israelian Jew people... i mean i think it s a way to make you believe my honesty. I m not here to talk bad about a community...

So the facts, simple facts....
The shministim
december18th.org...

The Shministim are Israeli high school students who have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in an army that occupies the Palestinian Territories. December 18, 2008 marked the launch date of a global campaign to release them from jail. SHMINISIM 2010: A new Shministim letter has been drafted for 2010, and 88 Israeli young people have signed it. The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Netanyahu, slams the Occupation and asks, “Can military rule of a civilian population be considered anything other than a dictatorship?”

So we've got basically israelian youths ready to go to jail instead of doing their military duties... I m impressed.

But they are not alone :
www.ultimatepeace.org...

Youth in Israel is a very delicate matter because of the militarization of the society, their "lives" in the society begin later than in most countries....
www.euromedp.org...

Some quotes from this very good article for those who aint going to read it all :

Given the volatile situation facing Israel today, it is of vital importance for youths to be exposed to organisations espousing tolerance, mutual understanding and respect. Equally, our youth must know that there are partner organisations in neighbouring countries that are eager to promote a peaceful and sustainable dialogue. Our youths are presently being raised in an atmosphere of continued trauma and confusion. Many are eager to take an active part in changing the everyday reality they are living in and stopping the violence and injustices that they are witnessing; they yearn to make a difference. Others are too often filled with sadness and fear, scarred by loss, to open their minds to dialogue. Hence the dire need for youth to be exposed to the activities of organisations such as YIFC so that they will be mindful to the fact that only through mutual respect and understanding for human life and values can their reality change and become a brighter and more peaceful one. Our organisation was established in order to fill a vacuum which exists in Israeli society. There is currently no well functioning youth organisation that manages to design and execute projects on a medium or large scale. We therefore envisage the Young Israeli Forum for Cooperation as an organisation that will perform a crucial role in Israeli society – allowing young Israeli activists to truly contribute to Israeli society in particular and to the surrounding region in general. It is imperative for our youth to be empowered and believe in their ability to affect and own their own futures

If what makes a young person young in spirit is his open mind and freethinking, then maybe being a youth in Israel today is not being youth at all. Israeli society is in need of a wide process of demilitarisation in order for it to create space for these characters. In the past four years of Palestinian resistance and Israel’s re-occupation of the territories the obstacles that young people are facing are increasing. From early childhood a Jewish-Israeli is put into an educational process of creating a new generation of soldiers, and the situation of the Palestinian-Israeli citizen youth is even more complicated. They are educated in the same educational system that does not give them the space to create their identity neither personally nor culturally on a national level. But for both groups the conflict is everywhere, sometimes in the fear and absence of personal security, most of the time it exists in the constant racist buzzing arising from hearing people talking about Arabs and seeing violent graffiti on bus stops. However, this situation forces Israeli youth to make hard decisions. Most of the young people do not question what they were taught, but a small yet growing group of Israeli youth is, and their voice will eventually be stronger than the sirens of war.

What I feel about the situation of young people is that they are fed up of the entire situation, i.e. young people are tired of even thinking about the situation that seems like it will never end. This is due to the endless fighting and the feeling that there is no partner on the other side. It is not that people do not want peace, but they feel it is an impossible mission. I think that the main goal is to bring back hope and the aspiration to peace and to make it like something reachable. This could be achieved by showing examples of coexistence.

.....


you got my point : in my family, my son was not acepted by all, like my marriage. and it was the same for my jew wife... 4 years later, a lot of those who were against our union and our child are now delighted to have us... they changed their mind about our two communities...

so spreading the love might sound like a hippie idea.... but think about it ? what gives this conflict its strength ? the hate spread by BOTH camps.... for decades... maybe it s time to start thinking only about the future...

and maybe we ll start to see WORLDWIDE something more like this :

jewish-youth-disrupt-israeli-prime-minist ers-speech-in-new-orleans/
VIDEO OF THE MEETING


cause we must admit something... only the youth in each camp can make our leaders change their minds and politics...

please, keep hope and open mind.

namaste

reply to post by estebadia


At least someone is coming with ideas for peace.

Thanks.

Star.

Although I believe peace is not achievable with Zionists being in control, I do believe this is a positive step.

"What about the younger generation point of view ?" I thought after reading the Hitler/muslim thread. You just answered it.

You made me see a less dark future today, my friend. Thank you.

The youth is always the solution to hate.

You should know that there are many youths that yearn and work for peace that have also served in the army in different positions.

We don't really have a choice.

Also maybe I should mention my Ex, whose a very good friend of mine until this day, is an Arab.

Nice to see the gap being slowly bridged.

thanks a lot to you all for your comments and personnal opinions...

it's fun how the peace thread does not interst a lot of people not enough blood and guts i bet

anyway, youth is the solution but if you format the youth not to be a problem well, the youth will only be made of puppets, repeating what their parents told them and the medias

Thank you for posting this.. nice in comparison to the hysterical and uneducated rantings against Israelis Ive seen recently!

Good luck to them, they got a lot of imbred and indoctrination of hate to overcome.

reply to post by Advantage


you re welcome pal, it s so sad to see two communities with so much similar backgounds being in a fight for decades now...

i wanted to show that A LOT OF US from "both sides" want the conflict to stop and a better word to rise....

the ones who spread the hate in both sides are the only one with the media coverage so it does not help to learn to children a new horizon....

we should boycott all the hate messages, and deliver only those kinds...

i m dreamin about a walk, a Gandhi like one, with jews and muslims walking hand in hand from jordania to Jerusalem...

i m a dreamer

namaste

reply to post by estebadia


The understanding that most young people on both sides of the conflict here in Israel and Palestine support peace is starting to dawn on the political leaders of this generation.

We are no longer consumed by the hate and causes of our ancestors.. We don't care about lands and borders, all we care about is ending this war.

Sadly the fact of the matter is that only anti Israeli threads and posts receive stars and flags around here. That doesn't mean your thread is any less important.

reply to post by Eliad


i m not after flags and stars and i would exchange happily any flag or star against a positive thought about this conflict

i m more than happy to have answers and i know a lot have read this thread without answering but i know too that they give a second to think about it so my goal is achieved

namaste