I am pleased to share a lengthy but meaningful video by Josef Avatar, President of the non-profit organization “Israel Palestine Confederation” of which I am one of the Board Members.
The peace process is not an easy one – in the last 25 some years that I have been actively involved in the community building, I have found extremists on both sides of the issue and the moderates among us, not in Israel or Palestine, but right here in America.
I recall watching a movie made by the Palestinians shown in Dallas by the Jewish community- in the Q&A, I was a singular person who knew anything about the issue and facing finger pointing. Some of them were screaming at me claiming there is no such thing as Palestine. On the other extreme, I had heard insults from some of the Muslims when I started the annual event Holocaust and Genocides. They said shame on me for not holding the event for the Palestinian massacres.
If you are a dead person, as most of the living persons seem to be, who do not take a stand on conflicts and act as deceased persons, no one will point the finger at you. What a wasted life!
Justice requires seeing the point of view of all the parties to the conflict and finding solutions for all to exist. No one is more privileged than others. If you favor one over the other, then you lack the morality to be just.
JIDS held a Dialogue on the Israel Palestine Conflict a few months ago, I did not get to write the report on it, but it was an eye-opener. I give full credit to Dan Spiro for setting up an environment for people to express their opinions freely, and being a fair person, he made sure all points of view were given a voice. I hope we have a videotape of that.
Here is a 1:25 Minutes video by Josef Avasar, he addressed the myths people hold about each other in Israel and Palestine. It is an eye-opener. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeMGUP1kzfg
Reuven Rivlin, the President of Israel, likes the ides of the Israel Palestine Confederation, and he has talked about it in several of his speeches.
Josef,
Watched the video with optimism and hope. You’ve said all the right things fairly and squarely. I will be sharing this with my Jewish & Muslim Group’s as well as JIDS group ( Jewish Islamic Dialogue Society) and JAMAAT Jews, Muslims and Allies Acting together here in DC.
Josef responds;
Hello Mike, thank you so much for the kind words. I am now in the airport traveling to New York City to meet With Senator George Mitchell to get him to endorse an Israeli Palestinian Confederation. In November I will be in Israel Palestine to meet with many people who are interested in mutual democracy. The movie Surviving Peace is being translated into Arabic and Hebrew. It will be available soon on the web. If you know any Arabic speaking people who could check the translation that would be good.Love.Josef.
Israel Palestine Confederation – http://www.ipconfederation.org/
Dr. Mike Ghouse is the Executive Director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him and his profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/
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