Cascading Down The Generations
When you read exchanges like this, it’s difficult to have any hope at all for a solution to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, not while collective punishment of Palestinians for having had the temerity to fight back against the invaders and for electing someone Israel hates continues.
This is an excerpt from a question and answer session between Israeli and Palestinian school students, which I came across while looking for the podcast of the companion exchange between Tanzanian and English schoolgirls that was featured on Womans Hour this morning.
Question from Boaz, Charles E Smith High School of the Arts, Jerusalem
I’ve never myself met a Palestinian kid and I’d like to know do you do the same things as we do? Do you go out on Friday nights? What is there to do in Palestine and Ramallah?
Semma, The Friends Boys School, Ramallah:
We can go to cafes but the difference is that we’re always worried that a tank will pop out or a bunch of soldiers will come and start shooting and we’ll get injured. One of my fellow Palestinian classmates was supposed to join us today but couldn’t as he was shot.
So you could say that we could go to restaurants, we could hang out, but we always have this big weight on our shoulders. We’re never safe. We’re children living in fear. We’re children living in oppression. It’s horrible but we have to try to make the best of it.
Question from presenter Fred Dove
Would it be better if you could meet each other?
Mohammed, The Friends Boys School, Ramallah:
I don’t think so. I’ve built an image of Israelis. Israeli kids are not terrorists but… they are our enemies right now.
Mazen, The Friends Boys School, Ramallah:
I’m not really interested in meeting any Israelis right now because they are the people who are occupying our country. A lot of people who are Palestinian can’t go to Jaffa, Haifa because they’re living there. Also I think that all Israelis are the same. If you’re 16 now then in two years time you’ll be joining the army, stopping us at checkpoints, maybe shooting us, killing some Palestinians.
Question from presenter Fred Dove
Liron, Ziv and Boaz – do you consider yourself “enemies”?
Boaz, Charles E Smith High School of the Arts, Jerusalem:
No. No. What I do feel is that yes there is anger on both sides and images. I don’t consider them my enemies and I don’t want to be considered an enemy but I can definitely see where they’re coming from when they’re making that statement.
Question from presenter Fred Dove
Can you imagine living in peace?
Ziv, Charles E Smith High School of the Arts, Jerusalem:
As it is now, peace seems very far away. As long as the two sides won’t compromise, there’s not going to be any peace. It’s a terrible situation of escalation. One side blows up a bus. The other side blows up a house. And it’s just a circle of death and there are many hopes of peace… everyone – no matter what side they take – wants peace. But if Palestine and Israel won’t compromise… then the situation is actually going to remain the same.
Mazen, The Friends Boys School, Ramallah:
We Palestinians agree to make peace with Israelis and in a way forget about a big part of their land… but a fair peace, an equal peace.
Mazen, The Friends Boys School, Ramallah:
To us, to the Palestinians, we either live an equal life with equal peace and equal land. Also we’re not willing to keep our Palestinian refugees living out of Palestine and we’re not willing to give the Israelis all our Palestinian land. We want to live in peace but equal peace.
Boaz, Charles E Smith High School of the Arts,
Jerusalem: After what the guys in Ramallah said I sort of feel that it is impossible for both people to live in a single state. So in order to have truly equal peace it’s going to have to come in two countries, because the fact is Israel is a state meant for Jews… but I don’t know how to cut Israel a little bit.
One side cannot see why they should stop resisting an occupation and the constant bombing and state-sponsored assassinations, and the other refuses to understand why they are resisting. It’s tragic. Especially as the Israeli student still, despite being told what’s actually happening to his Palestinian counterparts, just refuses to accept that this is not some sort of an equal contest where both sides are equally to blame.
Those last words of young Boaz are the saddest of all:
“So in order to have truly equal peace it’s going to have to come in two countries, because the fact is Israel is a state meant for Jews.”
If these’re the kind of absolutist, separatist, rightwing values that the Israeli school system is teaching its children, there will never, ever be peace.
Read more: Middle East, BBC, Israel, Palestine, Schools, Education
