Adele ZumotAll for Peace Radio |
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“ Since the beginning of the intifada there are military checkpoints at the entrances to all Palestinian cities. So, it was basically the restriction on travel. The checkpoint to the entrance of Bethlehem is a big one, and because I hold a Jerusalem ID, the soldiers would not let me pass to go to work. I started to go into Bethlehem using detours, very bumpy roads, very dangerous, and my car broke down several times. I was also stoned a lot. The Arabs would think that I was Jewish and the Jews would think I was an Arab. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ I will serve my people through this work by telling them things about the Israelis, away from politics, things that they didn’t know before. Jews, like Palestinians, are human beings with feelings; they laugh and they cry. There are a lot of Palestinian who sympathize with the Israelis, as there are Israelis who sympathize with the Palestinians. With simple words and meaningful concepts, outside of politics, we could get through to Palestinians and Israelis to try to reestablish trust. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ Before the intifada there was a high percentage of Jews and Palestinians that supported peace. With the intifada, that number decreased. The number of people that believed in the idea of peace shrunk, so we could in our own words and expressions try to bring those people back to believing in it. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ Every journalist who wants to be successful will talk about politics, but it is the way he talks about it that either causes him to fail or makes him succeed. We will not go in depth about politics, because all other media are covering it. So, in order for us to be unique and to give the best show to our targeted listeners, we will not go into politics very much. While this is how we work at the station, as a journalist I will not give up on politics--it is the air we breath and the food we eat. We will try in other ways to talk about it--mentally, socially, and psychologically-- in a way that will help both the Palestinian and the Israeli to believe in living together again. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ The first time I felt that I really needed to do something about the conflict was when I opened the Al-Quds newspaper and saw on the front page a picture of a little girl named Iman Hijjo, who was killed by a missile two years ago. I opened more pages of the same newspaper, and I read about a bus bombing in Israel. There was another little boy who lost his eye because of the explosion. I looked at the two children's stories and I thought to myself, “we have a problem.” There are children on both sides that are dying. As an individual Palestinian or Israeli, you won’t be able to influence the governments, but you can feel that you are being effective by being part of an organization or project that works to restore trust between the two peoples. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ The challenge is to get an extreme right-winger to talk to a station that is talking about peace, a station that is composed of a Palestinian and Israeli team that are working for peace. The challenge is in convincing extremists that oppose all kinds of joint work including organizations that promote peace, to talk on the radio station knowing that it is a joint Palestinian Israeli project working for the promotion of peace. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ Peace means no war. It means life and death; if there is no war, there are no deaths and there is peace, there is life. Peace is everything. Personally I dream of peace and living it. I grew up hearing about it, but all I could see was fighting over this and that, giving up here and there-- this is what created the whole mess of the conflict. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Education and Women in Society:
“ There is a fairly high percentage of Palestinian women who have experienced domestic violence. So by working together with my Israeli colleagues to report on this topic, I learned that more than 35 to 40 percent of Israeli women have also experienced domestic violence. Working together enabled us to see this comparison. I am one of the Palestinian women that did not know that there was such a high percentage of women in Israel that were exposed to domestic violence-- even more than in the Palestinian society. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Community Responses to Peace Work:
“ Some people appreciated the kind of work I did and the atmosphere I did it in. They thought it was a good idea for a radio station. It didn’t change my relationship with anyone, because I didn’t come out of an extremist environment that didn’t believe in peace education. On the contrary, I grew up in an environment that wanted peace. I can’t recall a time any of my family members told me something like “forget it, why do you bother with peace and so on.” ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ The intifada has affected each of us living here a great deal. I had a great job in Radio Bethlehem for five years, but ever since the intifada started I’ve had trouble entering Bethlehem on a daily basis. Every time I tried to go in, I would have to face the soldiers and all the trouble of having permits. They would check my car and give me a hard time for being a Palestinian journalist from Jerusalem trying to get into Bethlehem. Of course, everything around us affects, such as victims we see on TV. Don’t you think that seeing them has an impact? It definitely affects even the toughest person. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ When you do something related to peace education, media plays a big role, and this is what I am trying to tell the public. There is media coverage about the number of victims but there is no media coverage about peace education, so this is the most important thing I am trying to do. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Fear:
“ What is happening in the Palestinian Territories is definitely more than what is happening in Israel. However, the Israelis are also afraid of the bombings that happen inside Israel; even the soldier at the checkpoint is afraid, terrified. The soldier at the checkpoint that terrifies thousands of people is terrified himself. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
“ It is common for people to get involved in a self-interested way, but no one says, “Hey those people are suffering, let me help.” I am talking about governments, because there are a lot of people around the word that support the cause of peace in our country. The difficulty is how much of an impact those people have on their governments. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
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