Translator: Louis Lafleur Reviewer: Zsófia Herczeg
Friends frequently ask me,
"Why on earth are you going to Israel and Palestine?
What does your wife say about you traveling to such a dangerous place?"
I typically tell them,
"I don't always feel danger when I am in Israel and Palestine."
I hear these questions often,
if not always,
when I tell [people] I’m going back to Israel and Palestine,
where I have been 12 times in nearly 20 years.
It’s natural that when people think about Israel and Palestine,
they imagine perpetual conflict,
"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,"
a culture of retaliation and revenge.
To understand why people think this way, just turn on the TV news.
What you will not see on the news is the story about people, on both sides,
who are trying to resolve the conflict not with a tit-for-tat retaliation
but with mutual reconciliation.
These people want to stop using bereavement as the justification
for further violence and retribution.
They are called "The Parents Circle - Families Forum."
They are a group of Palestinian and Israeli bereaved families
working together to achieve reconciliation with each other.
I have had an association with that group for 15 years, since 2003.
The key word is bereaved.
Each family has lost at least one family member,
and they are trying to solve the problem with reconciliation.
The Parents Circle was created in 1995
by Yitzhak Frankenthal and a few Israeli families.
The first bereaved Israeli and Palestinian meeting
took place in 1998.
They are trying to solve the problem with dialogue and talking,
and they have now more than 600 member families.
Members believe
reconciliation is a prerequisite
to achieving a sustainable peace.
Before I go any further, let me state
that I'm not an official representative of The Parents Circle
nor a spokesperson for the organization.
I have got to know the people of The Parents Circle
through one very interesting, unique project in Japan -
one I’d like to share with you today.
I’m sure all of us here have taken some time away from our daily routine:
a short trip to a new city,
a trip overseas to visit another country.
The time away, if you leave your country,
you learn something new.
So how [do you feel it's different] from your usual day?
A new place, new food, new things to see.
I’d like you to think about the time you’re away from your usual day.
I’d like you to think about that time:
a new experience, a chance for new experiences
and new things to learn.
Time away and travels are good for the soul.
And when you returned from that time away,
you brought something back in your heart, in your mind.
In 2003, the City of Ayabe hosted teenagers from the Parents Circle,
half Israelis and half Palestinians,
for a cross cultural experience with Japanese youth and with each other.
I managed the relationship with The Parents Circle
and the recruiting of the participants of the Ayabe project.
By bringing them to Japan to experience our culture,
we allow them to experience each other.
They were paired together, one Israeli and one Palestinian,
for their homestays with Japanese families.
Through hands-on experiences with a taiko drum, origami
and other Japanese traditions,
they learn together a different culture in Japan.
The main reason we invite them is to share this different culture in Japan.
At the end of each project, at least some of the teenagers said,
''We came all the way to Japan and realized we are so much alike,
and also realized there is a good culture,
a wonderful culture which is not the same as ours.''
One of the facilitators, named Aaron, once put it best:
''If these teenagers could overcome the hatred, sorrow and sadness
they feel over their very personal loss,
then it’s possible,
it may be possible for many Israelis and Palestinians
to learn to live together.''
Aaron lost his son who was serving in the army.
With my remaining time,
I would like to tell you about some of the participants.
Let’s start with Abdallah.
When I first met him,
Abdallah was a 17-year-old Palestinian living in East Jerusalem.
He was very smart and hoped to go to medical school.
His high school was not far away,
but going there was a daily ordeal.
The trip normally took 10 minutes by bus.
But he had to pass by the Israeli settlements
that the Palestinians and many countries in the world
consider illegal,
and he had to clear the Israeli army checkpoints.
Very often Abdallah was subjected to insults and harassment
by the Israeli soldiers.
Abdallah’s experience is not uncommon for the Palestinians.
But these are stories the Israeli youths had not heard before.
They did not know them until they came to Japan.
Palestinians also heard things they did not know
about what life is like in Israel.
For example,
the way some Israelis live in a fear of suicide bombings
and rocket attacks.
Eden was a 16-year-old Israeli
who had lost her uncle
in a mortar attack launched by Palestinian Gaza.
The mortar hit the father of three
in his garden.
Eden told us,
"It is still hard for me to think about my uncle Jimi.
He had a happy smile and a voice loud with optimism.
Now he’s gone, and he will not come back."
This past summer, two adults from The Parents Circle
came to speak in Kameoka and Ayabe
as official spokespersons for the organization.
Amal is now a 23-year-old Palestinian woman
who was born in Bethlehem.
This was her second visit to Japan.
Five years ago, she came as a teenage participant
in the project sponsored and hosted by the City of Kyotango.
She has lost a grandfather and two uncles in the conflict.
After those tragedies, Amal’s father decided to join The Parents Circle
and suggested
that Amal attend a summer camp for Israelis and Palestinians
and that she go to Kyotango.
Amal was at first hesitant, but eventually, she realized
that what The Parents Circle was trying to do
is the peaceful way to solve the conflict.
She became involved as a facilitator and supervisor for the summer camp.
Traveling to Japan with Amal was Iffat,
a 49-year-old Israeli, a mother of three sons.
She was born in Jerusalem,
and she has lost an uncle and an older brother.
As Iffat’s sons approached the age
when they would be required to serve in the Israeli army,
she had troubling thoughts
about the losses the family had already sustained.
She said, ''As a mother, I don’t have the privilege
of looking on passively at this vicious circle.
I would do whatever I can to stop it.''
She now participates in Parents Circle programs as a lecturer.
She and a Palestinian partner go into the Israeli classrooms,
where on average 90％ of the students have never had meaningful communication
with a Palestinian.
She said they only see the Palestinians as potential terrorists.
By the end of almost every lecture,
the students rush to greet the Palestinian guest,
shake hands, and ask more questions.
Whenever I visit Israel and Palestine, I try to meet the former participants.
In 2005, we had a reunion with the first Ayabe project,
The reunion was fun and filled with many memories,
memories about Japan.
I remember one Palestinian at the meeting.
She was very smart, very active and very interested in Japanese culture.
"In Japan," she said, "I could make peace with the Israelis."
But once she was back home, she changed her mind
after experiencing again
the daily ordeals or daily challenges the Palestinians face.
She said, in the future,
she was determined to become a leader in a new state,
an independent state of Palestine.
She would be very hard on Israel.
She would not compromise on Israeli policies towards Palestine.
But at the same time, she did acknowledge
that her short time in Japan with an Israeli roommate
would always be with her,
and before she makes a very hard decision against Israel,
she’d just try to remember it.
Let me conclude by sharing one other episode.
The group of Israelis and Palestinians,
after they returned to their country,
I received one email from the facilitator.
The group had arrived at Tel Aviv airport at midnight.
The Israeli kids quickly cleared immigration,
but the Palestinians faced security checks
that lasted more than two hours.
Although their parents were waiting outside,
the Israeli teenagers insisted on waiting
until all the new Palestinian friends
cleared security.
When the last Palestinian teenager was finally released,
the entire group left the airport together.
Thank you very much.