TEL AVIV | Twelve Israeli Seeds gathered on February 24 for a screening of “One Day After Peace,” a documentary which examines whether the lessons learned from ending South African apartheid can be applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After watching the film, the Seeds engaged in a discussion with the film’s Israeli directors about the South African model for reconciliation, and the differences and similarities between apartheid South Africa and the Occupied Territories.
The film follows the bereaved mother of an Israeli soldier who returns to South Africa to explore the role played by that country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“This movie turns around all our basic assumptions,” said one participant. “You do something bad but instead of getting punished for it, you get forgiveness.”
“In our dialogues there was a lot of comparing,” said another Seed. “It is a strange thought to me to think that it is possible to enter a process of reconciliation without accusing each other. It was so surprising that in the movie people did not accuse each other.”
The program was especially meaningful for Seeds because it was initiated and led by one of their own, a Seed from Nazareth who shared her own experiences with her peers.
On March 7, three Seeds organized a follow-up activity for 15 Israeli Seeds called “One Day Before Peace.”
Following an introduction by a speaker from the Geneva Initiative, a group which aims to provide solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Seeds engaged in a negotiation simulation that applied the skills several Seeds had learned from the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Seminar.
“The organizers are really using the tools we saw in the seminar to simulate the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” said one Seed.