Lessons Learned
Rutie Atsmon
Windows
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Interview Highlights »
“ I think that it could have been helpful to have connections, more than I had when I began, maybe even spend months and months just looking for a patron, someone with power, money, connections -- someone who can open doors. It would have saved us a few years of work had we had someone like that. [...] I don't know what I would have done differently. Even struggling financially created a certain atmosphere in the organization and perhaps if we had more money to begin with we wouldn't have this. Most people who came to the organization came knowing there was no money in it. Often when there is money, the wrong people come because you get a good salary, so why not? If people joined Windows for money, they left pretty quickly. ” [Source in Complete Interview]
Ester Golan
Interfaith Encounter Association
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“ [It's important] that we get to know each other and take responsibility for each other, because we live in the same country, go to the same schools, go to the same university, the same places of work, and don't know anything about each other. And the less you know about each other the easier it is to hate each other. But once you get to know each other there is no room for hate. Hate dissolves, and there is a possibility of respecting each other. The respect for the other grows and gets deeper when you encounter the other, when it's not something theoretical but practical.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree
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Interview Highlights »
“ In order to build peace you need to take the steps - human rights is one step for instance. Over the past few years, peace movements would come to a village for demonstrations. Very few keep in touch, and that's usually the organizers or people who have close relations with the village, but the 300-400 participants who come to the demonstration don't. […] Keeping in touch means slowly building a relationship with our neighbors; it's not just coming when we are needed and playing the role of the stronger older brother. I want us to be in touch regardless of whether I'm strong and you're weak, or the opposite. […] Palestinian people appreciate that-not people coming, demonstrating and running away.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Gidon Bromberg
EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East
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Interview Highlights »
“ Dialogue for dialogue's sake is part of peace building. But if you're also able to have dialogue that shows real on-the-ground, concrete change, then you're more empowered to respond to the critics, because there are so many critics, and the critics are very powerful. And I think that's one of the secrets of the success of our work.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Yana Knopova
Coalition of Women For Peace
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Interview Highlights »
“ The Oslo Accords pushed many coexistence groups into being. As one of our members likes to tell us, she had a coexistence meeting when she was at school and the Palestinians wanted to talk about the Nakba while the Jews wanted to do belly dancing. Enough. That period is over and I think it's for the best. I think that one good thing the intifada and the events of October 2000 did was that now at least we know what we're up against. At least I learned [the lesson]; I hope I'm not addressing people that want to eat hummus with Palestinians and think that's the way to bring peace. It doesn't work that way.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Kobi Snitz
Anarchists Against the Wall
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Interview Highlights »
“ There's a matter of cultural norms that Israelis need to learn while they're in Palestine. If you're a woman you have to wear a long sleeve shirt, or at least you can't wear a tank top. No skirt, no short pants. I find myself being fashion police on the bus to demonstrations sometimes. It's not something we like to do, but if you don't it could cause problems with the village. It's not that the people we know well are necessarily bothered by it, but it's a big village, and not everybody might be 100% thrilled about working with Israelis, so if some Israelis don't respect cultural norms, or it's mostly that they don't know about them, then that's a potential problem.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Daniel Seidemann
Ir Amim
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Interview Highlights »
“ The Palestinians will never go back to a process that is incremental, because they will always see this--legitimately--as an Israeli ploy just to gain advantages and buy time. Israelis will never go straight to endgame. And what we have to do is develop methodologies that will be sufficiently endgame in order to generate Palestinian willingness to engage, and sufficiently incremental at least in implementation in order to allay genuine Israeli suspicions.” [Source in Complete Interview]
Eliyahu McLean
The Sulha Peace Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Middleway
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Interview Highlights »
“ One thing I have learned in this work, and this is something that I call having a spiritual perspective, is to let go of attachment to results. Just to do the work because it's the right thing to do, even if things are a thousand times worse than they are today, and to not be attached to what happens. It's hard not to be attached, is it not? Just to let go of attachment, of the idea that my work is going to result in X.” [Source in Complete Interview]
The Late Professor Dan Bar-On
PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East)
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Interview Highlights »
“ For more than half of my life I have been living in a society that is always going the wrong way, from my point of view. That is very difficult. You have to find a way to live with it without developing self-hatred or hatred toward your own society. You have to understand how difficult it is for people but at the same time try to push them to move out of it. I learned a lot about change processes, and our limitations in terms of how much we can push people forward-when and how-and that we should never give up and say what didn't work yesterday may not perhaps work tomorrow. So you always have to look for new opportunities to try things out. Sometimes only by trial and error can you know if people are ready or not.” [Source in Complete Interview]
