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Special Report |
LAST UPDATE July 1, 2006
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| May 3, 2006 |
International Students Programme – Israel and Palestine |
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| International Student Ram Shokeh from Palestine |
Since 2001, Peace Boat has been inviting young adults from opposite sides of conflict to come together and share their stories with participants. In the past, students from Bosnia, Serbia, India, Pakistan, Northern Ireland, Colombia, China and Korea have joined the International Students Programme. “We wanted to do something for young people in war and conflict regions because they usually don't have the chance to meet and talk. So we thought that we could give them space on the ship, so that they can get to know each other, understand each other's position and think about how they can resolve their conflict,” said Jasna Bastic, International Student Program Director.
Onboard the 53rd voyage are two young adults working to overcome one of the longest conflicts—the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rami Shokeh, a Palestinian, and Moran Chen, an Israeli, would probably have never met otherwise. In fact, very rarely do Palestinians and Israelis have the opportunity to interact. When Moran participated in an international conference with Israeli and Palestinian youth last summer it was the first time for her to meet Palestinians that lived just five minutes away. Rami has participated in similar conferences but has found very little support from the Palestinian community. He said that, “[Palestinians] think that it is not the time to start talking with the Israelis because Palestinians are continuously being killed by Israeli forces.” |
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| International Student Moran Chen, second from the left, poses with her new Peace Boat friends. |
Rami, 25 years old, works as an English teacher at a Palestinian government-run school in Bethlehem. To make ends meet, he works a second job as a manager of handicrafts union. He began participating in Israeli-Palestinian conferences to share his experience of living under the Israeli occupation. Moran Chen, also 25 years old, is a political science major at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She volunteers with the organization Mahapach, working to create social change and empowerment in Palestinian-Israeli communities. Though they come from opposite sides of a fifty year long conflict, they have something very important in common—they both believe that the conflict can only be resolved in a peacefull and non-violent way. |
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| Rami explaining the expansion of Israel's territory |
Since 1967, Israeli forces have occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. Rami described his experience of living under Israeli occupation. He said, “Our daily life is very difficult because we can not move from one city to another. It is difficult because we have many checkpoints on the roads. And at the checkpoints there are Israeli forces. The soldiers stand in the middle of the road to check your papers and go through you bag. [It's ]a procedure of humiliation. “
For him, the most intrusive act of the Israeli forces is the construction of the wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories. Though the wall was supposed to be constructed along the Green line declared in the 1949 Jordanian-Israeli armistice, the reality is that it is being constructed well within Palestinian territory. “They are using Palestinian agricultural land to build this wall. The wall surrounds all of the Palestinian cities and for certain cities like Bethlehem, it is like an open prison for us.” Israelis who support the construction of the wall see it as a necessary security measure to protect Israelis from potential terrorist attacks but both Moran and Rami believe that the wall is only deepening the conflict. |
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| Moran says, “I am a Israeli peace activist.” |
“The wall is like a snake that has no beginning and no end,” described Rami. Palestinians call it the wall of “separation”, “apartheid,” and “discrimination” while Israelis call it by a very different name- the security fence. Because many Israelis are unaware of the true reality of the wall, Moran organizes students tours to visit nearby wall at Abu-Dis. Believing that the 'security fence' is truly just a wire fence, many students are shocked to see concrete walls 8ms high and 3 m wide. They also see that Israeli forces patrol the wall from watchtowers equipped with cameras and march the ground in 100 m buffer zones.
At school, Moran remembers learning about the long history of Jewish oppression. In geography class, her teacher emphasized how small Israel was in comparison to the Arab countries that surrounded it. However today, Israel is the most powerful nation in the Middle East both economically and militarily and Moran believes that, "we don't need to feel like victims anymore. That era is over." She takes comfort in the movement among high school students opposed to the mandatory 2-3 year military service. “ It is a small movement but I hope it grows,” said Moran. |
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“We can continue to keep fighting each other for another fifty years. We need to think of another way. I think we are smarter than our leadership and we recognize that this is not working.” Starting in the fall Moran will be pursuing a Master's degree in Political Science. Her dream is to educate youth about their civic power and democratic rights. Rami will continue to participate in conferences between Israeli and Palestinian youth because, “ I believe that such a meeting necessary to find the ground for communication and to reach a mutual understanding between these two nations.” Though they are only onboard from Singapore to Aqaba, Jordan, the two have been enjoying their time on Peace Boat, getting to know each other as well as participants from around the world. |
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