I just came back from an inspiring event on Capitol Hill, in which young Israeli and Palestinian peace activists told their stories and urged Americans to get involved to make Middle East peace a reality.
It was the first annual congressional forum of the Middle East program of New Story Leadership, a Washington-based organization that brings young adults to Washington for internships and leadership training. Participants eventually return to Israel, the West Bank or Gaza, and, hopefully, continue taking action toward peace and reconciliation.
In the past, NSL brought to Washington students from South Africa and Ireland. This year - for the first time - it brought to town ten impressive students, five Israeli and five Palestinian, who shared their stories with a crowd of members of Congress, congressional staffers, fellow interns, and Washington-based peace activists.
One of the ten, Mariam Fadel, a Palestinian from Gaza City, is interning with APN this summer. Mariam and Noam Rabinovich, a young Israeli female student, were chosen this year by APN and the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), to participate in our joint internship program. They are working on a joint project, a blueprint for the two organizations to enhance their cooperation.
What I found particularly inspiring in this event today was the dedication of these young leaders to continue struggling for Israeli-Palestinian peace in the long run, despite the cynicism and skepticism that are so ubiquitous on both sides. What clearly struck the audience today was the very strong notion underscored by the participants, that most Israelis and Palestinians share a solid common sense of purpose: lasting peace based on a historic compromise, with a clear agreement on what the outlines of a peace agreement should be.
"Many people from both sides are basically on the same side, the side that wants peace," said Liel Maghen, an Israeli student who moderated the event.
Each of the five young speakers moved the crowd with a personal story. Hanan Abu-Shanab, a female student from Bethlehem, told the crowd: "if you ask a Palestinian what is his or her worst nightmare, they will tell you that they most dread being in a room with an Israeli for a whole day." Well, she said, that is precisely what she is doing now as an intern at the Washington office of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), a coalition of over sixty Israeli-Palestinian people-to-people peace groups that work to advance coexistence between Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians. Her co-worker at ALLMEP is an Israeli, she said, who she now considers a personal friend.
Shay Zavora, an Israeli student from Tel Aviv, spoke about the fear he experienced growing up under the terror of suicide bombers during the first three years of the second intifada. Later, as an IDF soldier patrolling the streets of Bethlehem, he saw the same terror in the eyes of a young Palestinian child gazing at the heavily armed Israeli soldiers through his home window. That, he said, was a life-changing moment. It was a moment in which he grasped how fear governs the lives of people on both sides, Zavora said.
Jayab Abu-Safia, a young Palestinian from Gaza's largest refugee camp, Jabalya, spoke about a childhood of struggle and hardship. He was six when he was first shot in the leg on his way home from school. He was nine when he was first arrested, for wearing a shirt with the colors of the Palestinian flag, he said. And he was 17 when he was shot again, this time in his upper torso, causing him a serious injury. As he was recovering from the injury, all he wanted was to seek revenge, Abu-Safia said, but a UN worker who befriended him advised him to focus on life rather than death, on building peace rather than on killing. "I now want to fight for peace, for the sake of the next generation" he said. "I don't want my future children to grow up like me with a large scar on their back."
The last speaker was Noam Rabinovich, who spoke about a life-changing meeting with a Palestinian as a teenager in Hong Kong, of all places. By meeting Halil, she said, "I no longer thought of Palestinians as a people but as people." She ended her moving address by pointing out the significance of young Israelis and Palestinians speaking up in support of peace. "I can promise you this," she said, "we have no intention of shutting up anytime soon."
I won't be surprised to see Shay, Liel and Jayab, Noam, Miriam, Hanan and their friends in leadership positions - maybe even in Israeli and Palestinian national politics - steering both peoples toward peace and reconciliation. We sorely need their spirit, their dedication and their energy.
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