Life Onboard LAST UPDATE  June 2, 2009
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May 10, 2009 Nizar Ghanem – Building Peace in the Middle East
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Nizar giving a lecture about Lebanese culture, customs and history.
Nizar Ghanem is a 25-year-old peace activist from Lebanon who works in conflict resolution with the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies (LCPS), an NGO in Beirut. Nizar joined Peace Boat’s 66th Global Voyage in Singapore, and has since been busy educating participants about the conflicts, culture and politics of the Middle East region. This insight into the Arab world will be priceless for participants to better understand this troubled region, especially as Peace Boat will be stopping at two Arab ports in Jordan and Egypt.

The Middle East is a region not well understood by the rest of the world, and participants have been making the most of the opportunity to meet directly with someone from the region. Aside from chatting to curious participants, Nizar has been giving lectures on Arabian culture and the region's political situation, showing Lebanese movies, as well as giving introductory Arabic lessons which participants are keen to put into use when visiting Arabic speaking nations. Nizar has also held a series of conflict resolution workshops with participants, so that they might better understand the nature of conflict itself and in turn the problems of the region and the difficulties the people there are facing.
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Violent scenes such as this were a daily occurrence during the Lebanese Civil War and have continued to be during outbreaks of violence. (Photo courtesy of Nizar Ghanem)
Nizar was born in the Lebanese countryside during the civil war and recalls his childhood as being filled with rusting tanks, often playing games with other children from the village using discarded bullet shells. Until he was nine, he grew up in a wartime environment, with his village under Israeli occupation. As a product of his surroundings, it was from an early age that Nizar aimed to right this wrong that he grew up with, and attempt to build peace in the region.

It wasn’t until Nizar began university that he realised how to affect the change he desired. There, he participated in Dialogue Sessions for Peace and Reconciliation, which involved meeting weekly with people from different regions across Lebanon to discuss their viewpoints and perceptions of Lebanon’s history and contemporary situation. It was here that Nizar heard for the first time about the guilt of his own people. Having his version of truth shattered, he began to look for ways to establish the truth of his nation’s history and, with other members of the study group, formed the NGO Centre for Conflict Resolution and Peace Building (CCRP).
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Pictured second from left, Nizar prepares for Clowning for Peace, a program that aims to bring happiness and heal people who have been through hardships and experienced first hand violence, while creating a peaceful culture. (Photo courtesy of Nizar Ghanem)
Nizar currently works for LCPS, a research centre that holds at its core an aim to create a Lebanese identity by producing a national thought through knowledge production. A community of intellectuals and free thinkers who decided that Lebanon needed a new vein of political thought established LCPS at the conclusion of the Lebanese Civil War in 1989. To achieve this goal, they began researching and publishing books about Lebanese issues and politics in order to create a Lebanese perspective of contemporary issues. LCPS believes that knowledge is the key to power and that in order for the Middle East region to be able to rule their own destinies, they first need their own interpretation of their history and reality.

Nizar is also very active outside of work, and has co-ordinated and participated in a variety of campaigns including: Clowning for Peace – a campaign involving clowns visiting people who have experienced violence, Community Capoeira – a project that brings sectarian opposed people together through capoeira and turns their mutual animosity into expression, and the Khalass (enough!) Campaign – a movement that succeeded in building a large coalition of NGOs, syndicates and private sectors together in order to actively push for an end to the violence and political deadlock in the country.
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Nizar joins in the festivities at Peace Boat’s onboard sports festival, where he was “ very impressed with the Japanese teamwork and collective culture”. Nizar Ghanem - Building Peace in the Middle East
Nizar hopes to witness peace in the Middle East in his lifetime, however is realistic about the situation. He hopes to one-day implement changes in Lebanese policy that would lead to greater freedoms and equality, especially in women`s political rights and electoral reform. ‘Peace and justice are non-separable entities and to achieve justice there must be equality of rights under law.’ Nizar believes that peace should be appealing and that it should be ‘cool to be anti-war’. ‘Peacebuilding is understanding that violence doesn’t come from thin air. If there is violence in society, there must be something wrong. But, peacebuilding is fun and should be enjoyable. We don’t want war, we want to have fun.’ Nizar believes Peace Boat is a fantastic instrument for creating a culture of peace due to its process of changing peoples’ perspectives through experience, and simultaneously creating global political awareness.

Nizar will begin his Masters Degree in International Affairs in August in Bologna, Italy, and Washington D.C., USA. He hopes to one day retire to an apple farm in Lebanon's countryside, and relive his childhood memories free from war, hatred and violence.