Cast of Characters:



Karen
Enkidu (AKA Slim)
Beowolf (AKA Wolfie)
Blaze (AKA Blaze)

Friday, August 04, 2006

Israel and Palestine

If I had my druthers, there would be mandatory student exchanges between Israel and Palestine. This would serve a dual purpose:

1) People are less likely to attack places where their children are.

2) Individuals need to meet individuals. As long as the Israelis see the Palestinians as the dehumanized "other" and the Palestinians also see the Israelis the dehumanized "other", there can be no peace. Individuals need to talk to other individuals to see that they really aren't all that different from one another.

The culture of hate needs to be dealt with at an early age. Children need to learn not to hate thousands of people they've never met.

Israel also needs to end the institutionalized discrimination against non-Jews. Until everyone is treated as an equal citizen, there will always be strife.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are groups in the mideast sponsoring peaceful conversations between Palestinians and Israelis. There even used to be a student exchange. It worked until the student joined the army - then they believed the army propaganda.

Karen said...

This would need to be large scale; everyone. At the moment, I'm thinking of the example of the Hitler Youth (HJ). They were very effective at indoctrinating an entire generation of kids. Rather than indoctrinating hate, though, a program in the Middle East would have to teach tolerance, acceptance, and maybe even friendship. I don't know if it is as easy to instill children with love as it is with hate, but I think that it would be worth a try.