"Give me hope, Help me cope with this heavy load..."
December 8, 2017 : Every morning we scan the contents of 10 news sites related to conflicts in the Middle East. Without any bias or a priori. It goes from Ma'an News to Israel National News, and from Al Jazeera to the Jerusalem Post. It takes between an hour and two.
In 2016 we could collect 133 articles raising constructive prospects in terms of peaceful coexistence and uplifting achievements. An average of 11 a month. One every three days. Not bad for a land supposedly doomed to endless chaos, when you think about it. Maybe we were not thorough enough, maybe we missed some things. January and February 2017 were along the same lines : 11 a month.
Then, suddenly, in March we witnessed an amazing surge : up to 52 in just four weeks ! Check for yourselves. Some of these news are just amazing, if not positively ground-breaking... It went on like this for six months, but it started declining in July, down to an average of 20 in September-October.
Leading us to wonder : what makes for Hope ? what makes it ?
When the darker side gets stronger, is it that the peaceful seekers have become weaker, and looked the other way ?
Gazan authors start new chapter [the increase in youth and college students who buy books reflects a cultural movement “that was absent in the last 10 years.”]
Sarah Tuttle-Singer, The Times of Israel, December 12, 2017
Rosanne Skopp, The Times of Israel, December 10, 2017 ["Of course Jerusalem is the capital of Israel...The embassy will not make Jerusalem our capital. Jerusalem is our capital."]
Season of culture unites Jerusalem [Karen : "when you come and encounter the place you realize the city is filled with human beings who can’t be boxed in, they challenge your preconceptions,"]
Lior Dattel & Dafna Lutsky, Haaretz, September 5, 2017 [Arik Saporta : "in our school it’s important for us not to live in a bubble and to let reality in"]
Amir Tibon, Haaretz, September 1, 2017 ["We make a clear distinction between Israel's right to self-defence and our moral obligation to dramatically improve our neighbors' living conditions."]
YNet News, August 30, 2017 [Kibbutz Nahal Oz“asking us to helpthe Palestinians in Gaza to overcome their tragic humanitarian problems, ready to help and to provide support to people in Gaza.”
Amjad Yaghi, Al Monitor, August 29, 2017 [Rawan Issa:"to host guests with powerful opinions who express their readiness to take charge and change some negative aspects of our society]
YNet News, August 23, 2017 [The Center for a Shared Society at Givat Haviva works to promote civic equality, mutual support, and communication between the different groups in Israeli society]
Dov Lieber, The Times of Israel, August 22, 2017 ["“Palestine is the freest country, Except that one must be very careful what one says in public about politics or religion"]
Why did tribes take up arms in Egypt's Sinai? [Sheikh Issa Al-Karafin : "The lack of education and spread of ignorance are the main reasons behind the spread of these extremist groups"]
The Times of Israel, August 20, 2017 [“So tragic the situation there means people are so cut off, but the bottle reaching there illustrates greatly how we are just all one world..."]
Nir Hasson, Haaretz, August 20, 2017 ["I oppose the essence of the State of Israel. I oppose the concept of the army. I don’t agree with their wars and operations"]
Shakked Auerbach, Haaretz, August 17, 2017 ["I started the whole thing as a new political message: We are normal children and people, like everyone in this world"]
The path to peace is long and tedious ["For the past year or so, I’ve spent my free time reaching out to people throughout the Arab world on social media, primarily on Instagram..."]
Mordechai Sones, Israel National News, August 14, 2017
Yitzhak Eldan, The Jerusalem Post, August 13, 2017
Youth building peace ? ["We, the youth, are the future and we must be engaged now and talk if we want peace for the next generations"]
Barry Davis, The Jerusalem Post, August 12, 2017 [a pervading sense of calm and unspoiled beauty]
Going green in the Holy City ["Today, there are 70 community gardens, almost every neighborhood in Jerusalem, including in the eastern part of the city and haredi neighborhoods"]
Reuters, YNet News, August 12, 2017 [the youth-led Muslim Jewish Conference, founded by Ilja Sichrovski in Vienna in 2010]
Dina Farwana, Al Monitor, August 11, 2017 [ the 2017 Women's Leadership Incubator (WLI) project is the first to allow women's support organizations in Gaza to identify their needs ]
YNet News, August 10, 2017 ["We must always bring hearts closer.We are all one people and we must be together and eradicate any phenomenon that tries to destroy our good relations"]
Yaniv Sagee, YNet News, August 8, 2017 [“Open your eyes, your heart, your hands, and avoid the poison your forebears so greedily sucked in from history." Albert Einstein]
Ali Dolah, Al Monitor, August 8, 2017 ["the film does not focus on the political situation and the blockade, because Palestinian audiences in Gaza have become bored with those themes"]
Hadar Tennenberg, The Times of Israel, August 6, 2017 https://www.jewcer.org/project/popsiclesforpeace/
Popsicles for peace ["Whether you want a one-state solution, or a two-state solution, or any other solution you can think of, we will get absolutely nowhere if we can’t be kind"]
Frankie Taggart, The Times of Israel, August 6, 2017 [“an enemy is a person whose story you haven’t heard.”]
Ben-Dror Yemini, YNet News, July 30, 2017 [“We have formed a significant coalition to advance peace on a religious basis (...) in order to change the atmosphere.”]
Isabel Feinstein, The Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2017 [“When we fight for the land, for money, for the will of the people, we forget the basics of our life, which is how to live for everyone.”]
Amy Spiro, The Jerusalem Post, July 26, 2017 [“It seems like there is nobody that is actually in the middle, because the only loud people are the ones in the extreme.”]
Amjad Yaghi, Al Monitor, July 25, 2017 [focusing on hope and life rather than the destruction and human suffering that usually is portrayed to the world]
Daniel K. Eisenbud, The Jerusalem Post, July 24, 2017 [dozens of volunteers have joined the Tzofim Movement to embark on a cross-country trek to create co-existence events]
The Associated Press, Haaretz, July 22, 2017 ["We are born there and running way is not a solution. We should not give up. We should face this issue and try to solve it"]
Shlomi Eldar, Al Monitor, July 21, 2017 ["“We have set ourselves a target of providing truthful reporting. There are no manipulations, just real information.”]
Andrew Tobin, The Times of Israel, July 18, 2017 ["“I had to do something, I didn’t want the same thing to happen to anyone else in my neighborhood or in Israel.”]
Leah Solomon, The Times of Israel, July 16, 2017 ["Where is our humanity ?"]
Gaza is burning["Gazans are invisible; no one is interested anymore. My neighbors are burning. They are mothers, fathers, babies, young couples in love, teenagers, the elderly & infirm."]
Adele Raemer, The Times of Israel, July 15, 2017
Wake up and smell the danger ["the truth is: Gaza is already uninhabitable — totally — by your and my standards of what we consider habitable, logical, sane"]
Sarah Tuttle-Singer, The Times of Israel, July 14, 2017 [There are assholes, and there are good people. And there are way more good people then there are assholes.]
Elisha Ben Kimon, YNet News, July 13, 2017 ["This isn't a political matter. There are Jews and Arabs who die on the road. We call Road 60 'the Road of Caskets.'"]
Sue Surkes, The Times of Israel, July 12, 2017 ["Music, art and academia is about crossing borders not building them, about open minds not closed ones"]
Daniel K. Eisenbud, The Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2017 [Runners Without Borders : "The goal of the race is to strengthen the connections between [the] eastern and western parts of Jerusalem & encourage cooperation and collaboration between Jews and Arabs, particularly in light of the tensions in the area" ]
Haviv Gur, The Times of Israel, June 27, 2017 [Instead of trying to end the conflict, can we shrink the size of the conflict? Instead of bringing peace, can we bring more peace?]
The neo-Nazi who converted to Judaism ["It's actually quite simple to convert extreme right-wingers, or radical Islamists, You just need to allow them to take part in life, and extremism is solved"]
Eliyahu Kamisher & Adam Rasgon, The Jerusalem Post, June 25, 2017
Amanda Borschel-Dan, The Times of Israel, June 23, 2017 [“Sikkuy:The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel.” to promote interaction between Jewish & Arab populations and to advocate for equal rights and opportunities ] [For some Israelis, their presence in Umm al-Fahm meant overcoming stigmas — and even a bit of fear]
Haaretz, June 21, 2017 [Across the border from Gaza, dozens of peace activists from 'Zazim' light skylanterns to protest Israel's slash of power to Strip]
TPS, YNet News, June 16, 2017 [Approximately half the attendees are Israeli residents of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc communities...talk about co-existence and build relationships]
Multifaith Iftar in Gush Etzion meals bring settlers, Palestinians together [hosted by the Shorashim/Judur organization, a local NGO that calls itself a “grassroots movement of understanding, nonviolence, and transformation among Israelis and Palestinians,”] [other groups :Givat Haviva, The Abraham Fund Initiatives, the Abrahamic Reunion]
Mordechai Sones, Israel National News, June 14, 2017
Senator Rand Paul blasts Saudi arms sale ["General Dwight Eisenhower said that he worried that someday we would make decisions (...) but based on the military-industrial complex."]
Dr Nitza Dori, Israel National News, June 14, 2017
Mazal Mualem, Al Monitor, June 13, 2017 [Haim Jelin :""Gaza is a ticking time bomb, there is an obligation to institute a diplomatic vision that will stall repeated rounds of fighting .”]
Avraham Burg & Ahmad Majdalani, The Jerusalem Post, June 5, 2017 ["We are asking that the paradigm which defines the relations between us be shifted"]
A new atmosphere of brotherhood for peace ["until the day that we achieve this prophetic and final peace, we have work to do on the imperfect peace to precede it."]
Tamara Zieve, The Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2017 [SISO : Save Israel Stop the Occupation : "I stand with thousands of Israelis working to end occupation"]
Noga Tarnopolsky, Haaretz, May 22, 2017 ["We love to live together in peace. (...) We work together. (...) We go to the same hospitals (...) We have a life together. "]
Daughters of Jerusalem ["This spirit is now being revived by Women Wage Peace, a grassroots movement determined to end the political deadlock between Palestinians and Israelis"]
Shoshanna Solomon, The Times of Israel, May 17, 2017 [Their goal: joint research projects that promote strategic management and entrepreneurship while also boosting tolerance, peacemaking]
Judy Maltz, Haaretz, May 10, 2017 [“The Field,” a documentary by Mordechai Vardi about Shoreshim (the Hebrew word for “Roots”), an Israeli-Palestinian grassroots organization ]
Shoshanna Solomon, The Times of Israel, May 10, 2017 [Moona, set up by a former Israeli fighter pilot, uses technology to empower students and focus them on targets, not war]
Bassem Eid, The Times of Israel, May 8, 2017 ["today’s situation is in our hands. We cannot expect our situation to improve while Palestinian youth are taught to believe that killing Jews – even Jewish children – is honorable. It is not honorable, and such hate will never benefit the Palestinians."] Palestinians need real support, not self-serving BDS
Ahmad Melhem, Al Monitor, May 3, 2017 ["This is a plea from me to the Trump administration -- the new American administration -- break out from the wrong approaches of the past"]
Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz, May 2, 2017 [about Halas (a Hebrew acronym for “Living Together without Conflict or Violence”)]
Opinion : How an Israeli Arab Marks Independence Day ["And so, without anyone noticing, a Jewish-Arab floweris growing in our parched garden; a fresh flower, beautiful. “You can’t tell who’s Arab and who’s Jewish here,” says Eyal Betzer. Yes, when people are equal, they look alike. When they feel that they belong, they can create wonderful things."]
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Haaretz, May 1 ,2017 ["Initial steps require a deep understanding of each other’s generational traumas that condition our thoughts and perceptions."]
Yigal Elhanan, Haaretz, April 30, 2017 ["Combatants for Peace, an Israeli-Palestinian movement of men and women who participated in the combatant cycle, who now fight together for peace"]
Amir Tibon, Haaretz, April 28, 2017 ['President Trump has the political capital, the relationships with all the parties involved and the will to actually achieve this goal' ]
Haaretz, April 28, 2017 ["I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians. There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - none whatsoever." ]
Hydroponic farming finds its way to Egypt [Amr Bassiouny decided to think outside the box in the hope of finding a way out of this predicament and boosting the agricultural industry in general]
Rafael Levy, Israel National News, April 21, 2017 ["the Israeli left doesn’t have a monopoly on peace, adding that he had found his own way to develop neighborly relations with nearby Arabs"]
Library train brings books to Gaza children["Children are given the freedom to closely explore the train. The aim is to create a safe environment that encourages awareness and intellectual growth."]
Israel National News, April 21, 2017 [7' video ILTV interview of MK Rabbi Glick : "peace means win-win"]
Anav Silverman, YNet News, April 21, 2017 ["This coming together of these feasts this year is a wonderful providential sign of hope" Patriarch Theophilos]
Isra Namey, Al Jazeera, April 20, 2017 ["Most of the Palestine-related news stories are about how many were slain (...) or turned homeless, but these numbers are impersonal and do not hail Palestinians' steadfastness"]
Brett Kline, The Times of Israel, April 19, 2017 [The late Rabbi Froman :"The land does not belong to the Jewish people. The people belong to the land, the Jewish and Palestinian people"]
Joshua Hammerman, The Times of Israel, April 14, 2017
‘Oslo,’ meet ‘Fauda’ [the situation appears so intractable and hopeless, but on closer examination, we find that what unites the two sides of this conflict far exceeds what divides them]
Noa Shpigel, Haaretz, April 14, 2017 ["Take all the creativity that we put into science, technology and agriculture and funnel it into groundbreaking thinking to find a solution"]
Mazal Mualem, Al Monitor, April 10, 2017 [On Temple Mount :"... tolerance and reconciliation. There’s no reason that people of all three faiths won’t pray there with mutual respect"]
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel, April 10, 2017 ["Sifriyat Pijama began with 3,500 kids in 2009 and has ramped up to 340,000 with the 90,000 Arabic-speaking kids"]
Entsar Abu Jahal, Al Monitor, March 27, 2017 ["Palestinians must not surrender to the political stalemate and instead should find a way to resolve it"]
Uri Savir, Al Monitor, March 26, 2017 [the 1967 lines; East-Jerusalem as Palestinian capital; 2% land swap; the issue of settlers; 2002 Arab Peace Init"]
Hassan Shaalan, YNet News, March 25, 2017 ["The weapons must be collected. Enough with the violence and killing. These weapons are killing us all." MK Tibi]
ETA annonce avoir « complètement dissous toutes ses structures »
Après des décennies d’attentats meurtriers, l’organisation séparatiste basque affirme « mettre fin à son cycle historique et à sa fonction », dans une lettre publiée par un journal espagnol.
Le Monde | 02.05.2018 à 15h54 • Mis à jour le 02.05.2018 à 16h01
Dans une lettre datée du 16 avril, envoyée à diverses institutions basques et publiée mercredi 2 mai par le journal en ligne espagnol El Diaro, l’organisation séparatiste basque Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA – « Pays basque et liberté ») a annoncé avoir« dissous toutes ses structures » et « mis fin à sa fonction » après des décennies d’attentats meurtriers.
« ETA a décidé de mettre fin à son cycle historique et à sa fonction, mettant un terme à son parcours. En conséquence, ETA a dissous complètement toutes ses structures et considère son initiative politique terminée », affirme cette lettre écrite en basque et portant l’emblème de l’organisation, un serpent enroulé autour d’une hache.
Dans un communiqué publié le 20 avril dans le quotidien basque Berria, l’organisation terroriste avait déjà demandé « pardon » aux victimes de ses violences. ETA avait annoncé vouloir mettre fin à la violence armée en 2011.
Depuis 1959, ETA aura été responsable de la mort de 829 personnes dans le nord de l’Espagne et le sud de la France. L’organisation est notamment responsable de l’assassinat du président du gouvernement espagnol Luis Carrero Blanco en 1973.
En savoir plus sur http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2018/05/02/eta-annonce-avoir-dissous-toutes-ses-structures-dans-une-lettre-a-un-journal-espagnol_5293452_3214.html#QwAKv0hUgUx1guYF.99
[extract : In 2005, Gaza's per-capita GDP was $1,375. Last year, it was $970. In 2005, unemployment was 30 percent; in the first quarter of this year, it was 42 percent. In 2005, the average number of trucks entering Gaza every month was 10,400; between January and June 2015, it was 6,252. In 2005, the monthly average of exiting trucks – bringing Gazan produce to Israel, the West Bank or further afield – was 830. In the first half of 2015, it was 88.]
Hanine Hassan, Al Jazeera, May 15, 2014 (thorough study and prospects of a Cyprus-Gaza maritime line)
They say the little man with his back turned to all, his head bowed down and his hands clasped in the back, actually is a little boy, aged 10, born in a refugees’ camp, a long time ago. His name could be Hindu, Arabic, Persian, or Javanese : they call him Handala. Remember him : HanDaLa, the eternal refugee-child of this Earth.
Not so many people remember where he was born exactly. Somewhere between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee, for sure. His father took him to the West, but his father was later shot down on a London street, and Handala has remained an orphan and a refugee until this day, twice forsaken.
Others claim he was from Kobani, a Kurdish town in Syria, and the little boy whose body was washed ashore on a beach in Turkey, Aylan, with his elder brother Galip, were his siblings.
Behind the high walls of Gaza, where almost 2 million people have been locked in for 8 years, others yet say that Handala actually was a child from Gaza, a close cousin of the four Baker kids, Zakaria, Ahed, both 10, Ismail, 9, Ramiz, 11, whose lives were taken by a missile in July 2014, on the harbour beach, before the empty hotels.
But some claim that Handala is not dead, but alive today, and that he’s actually a refugee from Deraa (Syria), stranded somewhere along the banks of the Tisza river, between Serbia, Romania and Hungary. He’s even been identified as Kinan Masalmeh, and shortly interviewed.
After 111 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were injured by the army, a rabbi and his son were shot down south of Hebron on November 13, 2015, and 44 people lost their lives in twin bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, and another 129 persons were killed and 353 injured in Paris by kamikaze killers related to Syria, all of it on the same day (but who cared about the rabbi, the Lebanese and the Palestinians?) – after such abyssal waves of darkness and shame, and before he grows up to be washed away onto the shores of normality and indifference, maybe we should listen to what the eternal refugee-child has to say :
“My message : please, help the Syrians! The Syrians need help now! You just stop the war, and we don’t want to go to Europe. JUST STOP THE WAR IN SYRIA!”
Not just in Syria. Stop the war process on its threshold : in Palestine & Israel.
Needless to blame leaders, be they Syrian, Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese, American even, or else.
To steer away from darkness and doom, needless to identify politicians to messiahs… You only need to rekindle hope. Hope and common sense.
We, the people, the simple people, only need to become a little bit more human, a little bit more responsible, a little bit more other-centered. If only to start looking for Other Voices, voices to bring us together in the face of fear and terror, madness and separation.
Again, not to expect the moon and the stars from self-appointed or elected leaders. They only do what they are able and allowed to do. Start expecting a little more from yourself… to stop the deadly processes of war and dislocation – all the way from Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, to France and further…
With Peace Lines we have decided to open a door into Hope, to share the sound of these Other Voices rising. May you remember Kinan’s voice… May you add your part, one way or the other, and bring a little light into this night !