Pain and hope fill hearts of Israeli coexistence activists

“Nava Sonnenschein of Change Agents, a program of the School for Peace in Wahat al-Salam-Neve Shalom, a Jewish and Arab village near Jerusalem, and author of The Power of Dialogue Between Israelis and Palestinians: Stories of Change from the School for Peace:

We feel we are going back many years in what has been built to create dialogue and bring people to understand each other. It’s very difficult right now.

It’s horrible that Hamas has sent more than 1,000 missiles into Israel from Gaza and it’s horrible to bomb Gaza. That is not the way. The right way is to sit down with the other side and solve the conflict.

What you see today in the mixed cities is that the young generation has lost hope. There is anger and frustration. The Palestinians want to be part of this land and have a positive influence like they already do in the hospitals where they treat people equally from both sides. This piece of land is theirs like it is ours.

Thousands of our graduates are committed to initiating many projects to advance peace, rights and equality. Some are meeting to formulate a policy to publish on advancing equality and peace between the two peoples. We have three meetings planned where people can come and brainstorm together how to help.

At the annual conference of the Israel Planners Association on May 20, a panel of our graduates will speak about the current situation and call for understanding and equality in land policy.

Instead of complaining and being frustrated, we choose to channel our energy to do something to change the situation.”