In the midst of this horrific violence, we turn to the voices in our community—Seeds, Educators, counselors, and staff members—who have experienced brutal violence and fear; who are saying enough to the killing and the dehumanization; who are listening to and supporting one another; and who are calling for peace.
Their message is one of hope, but they are also not naive to the violence, injustice, occupation, fear, and hatred, they face. Seeds of Peace is not charged with or capable of negotiating peace treaties or ceasefires that would end the disaster that is this violence, but we exist to stand by and support the Seeds community as they tell their truths. These are their voices.
| Ahmad Adi Mohammed Hashem |
Roy Aly Danny Yaala |
Ophir Rama Jane Lior |
Hamutal & Maysoon Hannah Voices in the media |
Ahmad
My dear family,
I am writing to you today because there is seriously no place I’d rather be more than Camp right now.
I find myself helpless, sinking in the sorrow of my people. I have been thinking of you intensely, as I find hope whenever I do. Your messages ignite hope inside me that has been there since the summer of 2012.
The situation takes me back two summers ago. I remember every single detail of the safe zone that took me away from the reality and at the same time made me much more aware of it.
I remember how peace was the only thing we were thinking about. I remember how love filled the place. I must say, I need nothing more than that.
The recent weeks were mind wrecking, but also illuminating. I have come to the realization of how much a human life means, and how easily it can be taken away.
I hope the situation gets better as soon as possible to stop the brutal killing and the unbearable bloodshed. I am now three wars old with more to come, but I swear to you all I will never forget what each and every one of you said in your life giving messages.
This is one of the times that I thank God for being a part of the Seeds of Peace family. I sincerely hope to see you all this summer, even if I know for sure that I won’t.
I won’t lose hope.
With my all love,
your brother Ahmad (Gaza)
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Adi
Last night a rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.
The pictures are nothing compared to pictures from Gaza.
Still, a rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.
Dialogue in Seeds of Peace has taught me well: We are the oppressors.
Still, a Palestinian rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.
I went to protest last night against the war with Jewish and Palestinian friends.
We had so much hope.
Still, a rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.
My grandmother is used to it.
She’s been living on the border with Gaza for 65 years.
She’s been going to the shelter every once in a while for the past 10 years.
She left her home two weeks ago when escalation started.
It wasn’t luck that kept her safe.
Still, I seek no revenge. I seek an end.
I want rockets to stop being shot at our grandmothers and their grandmothers’ beds.
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Mohammed
I have spent years working with Seeds because I want peace. In fact, all members of Seeds of Peace in Gaza stay engaged in our programs because they believe in peace. The families huddled dozens to a room—they want peace. But we also want to be treated like human beings.
We often wonder what Israelis think about us. What they think about their government when hundreds of civilians are killed, when thousands of homes are damaged, when hundreds of thousands are without electricity and water.
I live in a poor neighborhood called Shajaiya. Most of the people in my neighborhood are not educated. I was born to a very poor family, and built myself from zero. My father died when I was young. I’ve always worked several jobs to survive.
People ask me all the time why I don’t leave this neighborhood. The fact is, my neighbors need my help. Every Ramadan I used to make food for families in the neighborhood. But the war came during Ramadan this year, and I don’t have anything to give them. They ask me to call the electricity company. They see me as a leader, but I don’t belong to any party or any politician. I am a human being. I am a Gazan.
People look to me because I’m educated. Because I work. Because I have been to the United States. Gaza is where I’ve grown up—it has made me who I am. It’s not easy to be a leader in this situation. It requires me to be responsible. I cannot run away. I have to face it.
My extended family is living here with me. There are 30 of us. I have three brothers. One is dead and I’m responsible for his family. My son’s family, and my other brothers’ families are here. I am responsible for all them. I have to be strong, as a father and as a community leader. It would be shameful for me to leave. The others depend on me.
But I am human. I am scared. The bombs are exploding every minute.
The war is terrible. It’s a dirty, unfair war. Thousands of tons of bombs are hitting Gaza. Thousands of people are without shelter. Nobody can sleep. Hundreds of people have been killed. The power is out and soon food will rot, and we will not have water now since we can’t pump it. Sewage is running in the street. The banks are closed, so there is no money. And sick people cannot go to the hospital. This is going to be a humanitarian crisis. On top of the bombs that are dropping.
Do Israelis want us to spend another 50 years talking about peace? Gaza has been under siege for seven years. We are in a cage. Does anyone care?
The war is unjust, but it’s not my fault. I keep doing my job because I believe in peace.
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Hashem
As a change-maker, these times make me reflect on my mission.
They refocus my compass towards the ultimate goal of reaching justice for my people, and those who strive for it in this world: a justice that is not a privilege, one that is not restricted to a certain people or religion.
With the help of Seeds of Peace, I have a spark of change that’s always vivid. It always reminds me that justice will prevail, and soon.
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Roy
I’ve lost two friends to Israeli-Palestinian violence, and these days remind me that I can always lose more.
Four teenagers were kidnapped and murdered this week in Palestine and Israel because they were Jewish or Palestinian.
Kidnapping is a very fitting brutality in the Middle East, where reality itself is being hijacked: people in power (or aspiring to have it) advocate for a backwards, hostile narrative about the true nature of “Palestinians” and “Jews,” thus occluding the identities of the true polarized sides in this part of the Middle East: “extremists” and “moderates,” kidnappers and abductees not just of lives, but of narratives and agendas.
All of us who want a sane life in this region can only survive by dodging the violent crazies on both sides, the exacerbating effects of slanted mass media coverage, our visionless leaders, and the flattening effects of social media memes and talkback culture that impoverishes the debate about life in this region while giving the illusion that we are somehow informed about what the other side is truly like.
There is a silent majority out there that wants to live peacefully, be respected, and offer respect to anyone else who derives meaning out of life by having their home west of the Jordan river. Unfortunately, we have not yet figured out how to communicate our shared values and goals. By default, we surrender to a false discourse about the futility of trying to live with another people, identifying them erroneously by their nationality or religion rather by their toxic value system.
If we fail at communicating for much longer, our identities will be hijacked to a point of no return. Regardless of who we are as individuals, we will find that being “Israeli” or “Palestinian” will be completely formed and informed by fanatics—Jewish, Christian and Muslim—to justify more violence, more extremism and more death.
Aly
People always ask me how I can simultaneously be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine.
The truth is, one can have a principled stance on this conflict, and that principle is nonviolence. Gandhi liberated the entire Indian sub-continent from British rule through non-violent means. If it’s good enough for India—a country of over a billion people with 21 languages, eight religions, and hundreds of regional and ethnic groups—then it’s certainly good enough for Israel and Palestine.
We need to start living by his timeless words: “I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”
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Danny
This is a very sad moment. People will suffer because of the way our leaders and some (possibly many) of the people in our society chose to address the conflict.
A few people on both sides decided to take matters into their own hands and sparked fires fed by various forces, and we, and the many like us, did not carry our voice clearly and loudly enough.
I know that there are much better ways of addressing our conflict; ways which will respect each other, save lives and sufferings and lead to peace. Yes, we can live together or side by side in peace. Yes, intending peace is the only realistic road to move to a better future for all of us.
We do not need nor wish for more dead or wounded heroes. We need that both societies fully respect each other, that each individual respect every others person’s life. We need an end to the very long suffering of the Palestinian people, and that of Israelis. War, regardless of who wins, will not solve our conflict; only respectful peace will.
The road to peace is one of recognition, understanding, inclusion, and humanity. As Seeds of Peace we try to develop these.
The vast majority of our people know this deep down in their hearts, and want this. We need to help them lead the way. It is sad that people need to fight for their protection, lives, dignity and wish for freedom. Lets change this into a better and more effective future for all of us.
Seeds of Peace builds people and builds communities which know how to live in peace and work out their differences in effective and peaceful ways.
Wishing and working for peace, equality, and societal sovereignty may not be popular when the guns roar. But this, more than ever, is the time for us to talk with people of that which they really want, of that which is possible and of the acceptance of the other.
Yes, I know that when war erupts, people first rush to secure their existence, by all means necessary. And yet I know, that the only real security lies in mutual acceptance. One must first exist to make peace. We must be very aware and very eloquent in expressing our awareness that the promise of a better future for either of us needs the existence of both of us.
Yaala
In light of recent events back home in Israel and Palestine, I have come to yet again reevaluate my experiences at Seeds of Peace.
While I realize that many question the validity of Seeds and organizations similar to it, at the end of the each day like today, the memories I have made and the friendships I have formed there help me cope with the helplessness and powerlessness that I feel.
I am hoping for the safety of all Palestinians and Israelis tonight.
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Ophir
This is for my Palestinian friends.
These are hard times for all of us. While my grandparents, and now me and my family, are living under threat of missiles, you live under direct military control.
And some of you are in Gaza, or have probably have friends or relatives in Gaza, who find themselves trapped with no connection to Hamas actions.
It’s easy for me to look on the suffering and fear that my people experience. It’s the most automatic thing to do. Yet hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza, who are born into poverty and hostility, will suffer more than I or my friends ever will.
As an Israeli, it’s natural to me to support the military operation because when someone throws a rocket at my house, I’ll try to stop that man from doing so …
But then I hear the horror in Gaza, and I know that although I believe in my country, some of its actions–like the eternal blockade on Gaza in areas unrelated to security—aren’t justified.
Emotions led me to publicly support the military operation, but now other voices inside of me tell me that something is terribly wrong with us—Israelis and Palestinians. These are things that should not happen.
I ask you now, what do you think should happen? How can we, who met each other in order to come to understanding four or six years ago, keep our sanity and not lose the sense of hope that lead us to speak to one another?
Rama
As a Palestinian from Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Syria and now a refugee in another camp in Gaza, I am again forced to live in the middle of killing and fear.
I’ve been displaced twice so far this war and even the new location we moved to is not safe. I hate this daily fear of losing family members—with every explosion, I look around me to check on them one by one. I was in Shejaeya three days ago. You can’t imagine the massive devastation there. We had a life, a normal life. Now it’s gone. The peace that doesn’t bring me a normal life would never be a just peace. I’m trying to build a career, a future, but I’m not given the chance.
Jane
I am a teacher. I believe in the power of changing a child one at a time. I believe in Seeds as a power to educate and from this education will come a better world.
Maybe they won’t all be news people or politicians; maybe they will be in a classroom. It took John Wallach a long time to be in the right place to have the power to execute his passion as he moved from journalism to Seeds, and I think we are equipping many young adults to follow a similar path and to change their world.
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Lior
I want to share something personal. Throughout this war, in which over 2,000 Palestinians were killed—including nearly 500 children—and 70 Israelis, I have known that another way is possible.
Throughout this war, while my heart was with the citizens of the South and my friends who were drafted, my dearest friend has been a Gazan.
Through this war, we spoke several times a day. She told me about her sister, who sheltered for over six hours in a stairwell with her two children, ages 7 and 9, while heavy bombing shook her home.
She shared with me the lack of water and electricity, and the existential fear that you might be killed at any given moment.
This friendship between us in these difficult times is the proof that another way is possible and that there is hope. I don’t expect us all to become friends, but she is not ‘them’ and she should not be boycotted.
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Hamutal & Maysoon
We completed the Seeds of Peace facilitation course together last month. It was an intense experience, during which we had to face and accept not only “the other,” but mostly ourselves—our deepest conflicts, contradictions and frustrations. As the course ends, it seems as though everything we’ve learned is being thrown in our faces.
It’s hard to understand how we are at a point where we have started kidnapping and killing each other’s children. These terrible incidents evoked something new in our society. A dangerous, evil form of racism that lashes out in the heart of the society, that legitimizes violence. A sickening racism that spurs a young man to follow Maysoon in public, issuing threats and calling her a dirty Arab, after overhearing her speaking Arabic.
We’re scared. Scared to walk in the street, or take the bus. We’re even scared to stay in our homes. But more than anything we’re scared of what is happening to the society that we live in.
And now, a new war on Gaza. It feels like every few years, we go on another “operation” of massacre and destruction hidden behind a literary name provided by the government. We’re in an endless repetitive cycle, where every step of the governments is known in advance, people’s reactions are prewritten, the media’s reaction is known, the conversations we will have about the situation are tired. Citizens are all marionettes of our blind leaders, who have no vision and no compassion.
Alarms, missiles, the news, deaths, hatred, fear, anxiety, desperation. We’ve already seen what this madness looks like, and we’re all running straight into the same scenario, filled with hatred, as we create a new generation of Gaza youth who’ve lost everything and have nothing left to lose.
It’s hard to keep believing that there’s hope. It’s hard to avoid justifying the violence of one side or the other. For Palestinians, it’s easy to justify violence as resistance. It is the obvious relationship between the occupier and the occupied. It is a struggle, believing in non-violent ways to solve the conflict, believing in peace when everyone around you demands war. It is indeed a huge struggle.
But as Mahatma Gandhi said: “you must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if few drops are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
So today, we stand together, and refuse to surrender to fear. Refuse to surrender to the reality that our societies and our governments dictate. The ocean—the sane majority—has to step up and say there is another way. We have to gather all of our strength, to stand strong in front of our own fears, in front of the fears in our societies, in front of racism and violence, and find the courage to look at each other and see the hope, compassion, and love in the eyes of the other.
Hannah
Reading the news lately pains me more than it has in the past.
I’m not sure if it stems simply from a feeling of helplessness or from a feeling that something has changed—that the ability to create peace feels further away than it has in a long long time. And the kind of peace I’m talking about is one where both people’s needs for identity and security are acknowledged and their histories of being victimized are not ignored so that individual and national traumas can be acknowledged.
The level of hatred and loss of humanity—not only literally in the deaths but also in the way we talk about one another—shows a disregard for human life in a way I don’t remember seeing in some time. Whether it’s my Palestinian friends referring to Israelis as Nazis and wanting them to die or my American Jewish friends repeating over and over ‘why are Israelis not allowed to defend themselves like every other country?!’ and truly not understanding why that sounds crazy to some of us or whether it’s the images and the stories of the Palestinian PEOPLE who are suffering such physical and emotional violence and trauma, it seems that we’ve gotten so severely lost.
We are so far off the path of ever being able to see the person in front of us as a person, a human being, with goals and motivations and feelings and pain, that I worry we may never get back on to that path.
VOICES IN THE MEDIA
Peace Camp in US Unites Israeli, Palestinian Teens (July 29 | Associated Press) ››
Viewpoint from the West Bank: ‘We are all humans’ (August 26 | PBS) ››
Interview with Israeli Seed Lior Amihai (July 26 | Ha’aretz) ››
In US, fearful campers eye Middle East conflict (July 18 | Associated Press) ››
In Israel and Palestine, children imagine a world without war (July 16 | MSNBC) ››