« Thematic Highlights

Religion

Yehuda Stolov
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ When I first encountered a Muslim prayer session I discovered a prejudice I never even knew about: that I associate Muslim prayers with violence. This is because I never encountered a Muslim prayer in reality. I'd only seen it as portrayed on television, where it's always footage from the Ashura in Iran with close-ups of the blood, or people leaving Friday prayers at the Temple Mount and starting uproars. That's what I knew about Muslim prayers prior to actually seeing it. I never encountered the gentle or spiritual aspects of this prayer and I wasn't even conscious of it, and this is something I only realized in retrospect.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Professor Sami Adwan
PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East) Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ "Dialogue" is a big word that I try to avoid, especially in reference to inter-religious dialogue, because it leads to a dead-end. My aim in this project was, first, for both Christians and Muslims, to learn more about their own religions, and second, for each to learn as much as possible about the religion of the other and to develop a relationship based upon mutual respect and acceptance. Acceptance does not mean that a Muslim becomes Christian or vice versa. It means that each accepts the other the way that he or she is, without imposing any sort of pressure or constraint or denying him a thing.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I was born in Damascus. My neighbors were Palestinians, Muslims, Christians, Druze, and the majority were Jewish, but it varied. Most of my friends were Palestinians from the two largest refugee camps there, al-Yarmukh and al-Palestine. In Syria there are schools for Jews up to junior high school. After junior high, whoever continues studying goes to government schools. So I went to high school with Palestinian and Syrian girls - girls like me. I never thought about it, except during religion class, when we were told, "You're Jewish, get out." There were only two of us Jewish girls at that high school. Christian girls went to Christianity classes and Muslim girls went to Islam classes and we Jews sat outside. When I got married and began working, I had Palestinian partners; I worked alongside them in many fields, in sales, fashion, marketing - in every field - and they became my friends.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yehuda Stolov
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ We organized a joint prayer session with the organization from Ramallah in Nebi Samuel [tomb of the Prophet Samuel]. It's a special place. It's one of the only places that has both a prayer hall for Jews and a prayer hall for Muslims in the same building. They're actually right above one another and both have a tombstone for the Prophet Samuel.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Eliyahu McLean
The Sulha Peace Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Middleway Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The problem is that the negotiations that happen in Washington or in Europe are between English speaking academic Palestinians and English speaking academic Israelis. They don't incorporate any of the people-to-people approach, the grassroots elements. They leave out the religious and spiritual dimension, which is often missing from statecraft. We're trying to reclaim the indigenous tools of Middle Eastern peace wisdom-- the sulha, text study-- tools found within Islam and Judaism in particular, but of course also in Christianity and in all the traditions here. Spirituality deals with the trans-rational level, the non-rational world, with spiritual ideals. Sometimes if you try to approach this conflict only from a rational point of view, you don't get anywhere; it's almost like deadlock.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

George Sa'adeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Basically, the Palestinian Israeli conflict came from years of struggle even before Christ. If we go back to read the Torah and the Bible, we will find that there has always been conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. After the Second World War, after the Holocaust, and after the Jews' migration to the country, we all, of course, know what happened. History is all about conflict that continued because it wasn't solved in the right way. There are a lot of events that need explanation. Palestine, or let's say the Holy Land, has never experienced calm for hundreds of years”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomi Daskal
The People's Voice, Realistic Religious Zionism Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ In general I don’t see a connection between halacha and retreating from the Territories. There are explanations, but personally I don’t see a connection. The State of Israel is a secular rather than religious body. There shouldn’t be a link between policy and halacha. That’s my opinion. Halacha pertains to people; if this country were a halachic state that conducted itself according to halacha, then it would make sense to consider halachic considerations, but it isn’t, so that’s not relevant.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I didn't see my grandchildren, my son's children, for a year. He is religious and the rabbis told him -- I don't know who told my son's rabbis, though during the activities we attend we're photographed everywhere we go -- that "your mother associates with Arabs." They thought they would apply some pressure. I kept calling my son for a month saying I was coming to see the kids and he found reasons, "mother don't come, we're going, we're coming, we're cleaning." Finally I said, "What's the story? Can't I come visit my grandchildren?" And he said, "To tell the truth mother, I'm miserable, it's hard for me, and one of the rabbis said last week that as long as my mother associates with Arabs my life won't get easier." I said, "You know what? You, and your children and your rabbi won't change my opinion."”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Eliyahu McLean
The Sulha Peace Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Middleway Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Tich Nhat Hanh says, "I am the pirate and I am the rapist and I am the raped. I am the criminal and I am the police…" I really try to hold the whole picture, and that includes the experience of the hilltop youth and the right-wing settlers, and the experience of the disenfranchised refugee and the Palestinian who supports Hamas. That seems like an almost impossible place to be politically-where does that leave you? But I think that's where my spiritual roots come in, to somehow be able to hold all of that and then to organize meetings, events, projects that somehow connect to that.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
Peace Child Israel Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Now, I always have to say immediately that in a perfect world I don't believe there should be any states. In a perfect world there would be no borders; there wouldn't be territory. The human race has not evolved that way yet. There is still a need for groups, affiliation with groups, allegiances, and it seems, territory. And until we get rid of the need for religion, there's nothing to talk about. Until we evolve-human beings, all of us-beyond the need for religion, which is still a very inherent need for people, I don't think there's any possibility. So, I believe the world would be a better place if there were no states, but until that day comes I still feel-it's absurd to say that this is a safe place considering how miserable everything is here- that Jews have their right to a place of their own just like the Palestinians do.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Ihsan Turkiyyeh
Arab-Hebrew Theatre in Jaffa Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ [...In] our religion [Islam] it's an eye for an eye and a tit for a tat. And the Jews have an eye for an eye and a tit for a tat, in Christianity no. If they slap you on your cheek, give them the other. So Muslims and Jews have the same religious roots, we are from the same Abraham. We are not going to deal with the Jews like Christianity, giving them the other cheek. No, an eye for an eye and a tit for a tat. But for how long, for how long? I believe in religion if somebody takes something from you it's your right to take it back. Whether it is by force or by negotiation. But there are rules. If you want to get it by force, in our religion they say they have to have a lot of force to be ready to do that. But it's a state thing, it's not like you and I can determine it.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I grew up outside the Green Line of 1967, though settlement in Gush Etzion began before the State of Israel was established. Lands were legally purchased there, they were barren then and agriculturally-orientated settlements were founded on them. In 1948 Gush Etzion fell and since 1967 the rallying cry of the regional council has been “Your children will return to their own land.” People grow up there with that heritage of clutching to the land, of returning to the settlements, to the lands, to a land that is ours. There’s a path nearby called “Trail of the Patriarchs”, it's the path that Abraham took from Be’er Sheva to Mount Moriah - you are taught to have a religious bond to living there. When you get older it links to having political awareness and naturally to the National Religious Party and the right-wing parties who regard the return to Zion as a historical process of the return of a people to its land. Despite the problem the Arab population living there poses, [this population] is perceived as an obstacle that needs to be faced, but in no way does it suggest that this process – or this "right" - must be relinquished.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yafit Gamila Biso
The Olive Tree Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ It's important for me to prove to the other side that there are people in Israel who are concerned for them. There are humanitarian people in Israel, we Jews are merciful people. It's important for me to explain that all my mercy and compassion and goodness and assistance and consistency and stubbornness stems from my being Jewish. It is Judaism that taught me to be merciful and help my neighbors.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Sarah Karajeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron has been closed and they [the Israelis] dictate when people can pray and when not. The worshippers themselves are forced to endure being searched, so they think twice before carrying out their religious obligations there because they may be exposed to the harassments of the occupation. Only a tiny fraction of the people pray in the mosque. This is real suffering”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yehuda Stolov
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ In regular interfaith dialogue the initial objective is to teach people about the other's religion. When that is the objective, the stress during the activity falls on the lecture… If we want to employ interfaith discussion as a mechanism for constructing mutual respect and friendship among communities, then we need to stress interaction... Most of the time is dedicated to discussions in small groups where people can talk to each other. This method obviously undermines the goal of talking about the other's religion, because often people will say things that are inaccurate about their own religion. Our goal includes learning about the other's religion, but that's the secondary objective and not the main one.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yehuda Stolov
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ There are disagreements during the discussions, so there are disagreements within the Jewish group and within the Muslim group. The Christian groups are usually much smaller. There are fewer Christians here, but even they disagree occasionally. Disagreeing is fine. We're not scared of disagreeing; it's fine. Our challenge, I think, is not agreement but rather to learn to disagree amicably.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomo Zagman
Realistic Religious Zionism, Mosaica Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I think that currently religion is fueling the extremists both among Jews and among Muslims. Extremist orthodox Jews transform religion into irreconcilable fundamentalism – into control over lands. Fundamental Islam transforms religion to be uncompromising about control over Palestine and nationalism. We know for certain that both religions have content that is different than that. There are different kinds of orthodox followers and there are different religious streams that can converse. They must be addressed, given a speaking platform and assisted in disseminating their perspective.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Kitty O. Cohen
Folklore of the Other: The Institute for the Study of Religion and Communities in Israel Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ There is a revival of religion all over the world, not only in Jewish and Muslim societies, there is a revival elsewhere as well, and this is dangerous - any absolutist view that only my belief and my faith and my culture is the true one that leads to God, any exclusivist view is very dangerous. This is one of one of the roots of this conflict. ”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yehuda Stolov
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I think that the roots of my activity are in the writings of Rabbi Kook, which are very inclusive in spirit towards opinions and people. He says we must take care of the rest of the universe, including nature; it goes beyond humanity. That's what influenced me. I learned all that there. I don't think that I'm the only one who did.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Shlomi Daskal
The People's Voice, Realistic Religious Zionism Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ [Leaving the settlements is] a beginning, the first step. That’s what brought me to the People’s Voice. We came to Israel to establish a democratic Jewish homeland. If we continue to occupy the Territories we will either cease to be a democracy or cease to be a Jewish homeland. We will have to relinquish one of the two and I’m not prepared to do that. I think that for us to realize the dream of a democratic Jewish homeland we must exit the Territories, for example. Religious society is led by the extreme factions, which do not acknowledge this idea. That’s why we are saying, “no, there’s a different option.“ The biggest problem with religious society is that it’s founded on the notion of community -- it could be a synagogue, friends or neighbors. People don’t feel comfortable speaking out against their community. What we’re saying is that we represent a legitimate part of religious society. We want to legitimize that notion.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Shwanesh Maniov
Seeds of Peace, Children of Abraham Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ After the army I traveled a bit in the States and lived in New York for a little while. It influenced me because I was exposed to new things again. I was in the States with a million black people, not just black Jews [ultra-Orthodox Jews], but blacks like me, only not Jewish. I disappeared. For people who saw me on the street, I wasn't a Jew. It was very important for me that I be seen as a Jew. It's something I never dealt with in Israel because here everyone knew I was an Ethiopian Jew. It wasn't such a question of, wow, what am I - more Jewish, because I feel Jewish, or more black because everyone sees me as black? It had a big impact on me.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Wafa Srour
The School for Peace Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The question of how to design a bi-national, bilingual school requires more thought, and it is something that we can continue to work on. We need first to attend to the issue of a bi-national school, and then perhaps to the issue of an interfaith school. Here in the Waha, we asked for a bi-national school that does not deal at all with religion. We wanted to put the religious issue aside. The Jewish residents objected, however, because for them religion is part of their national identity. In the end, what we have here seems to be a typical Jewish school, with some Arabs added in. If we want a genuinely Arab-Jewish school, on the other hand, we must create it from scratch. It must be Arab-Jewish from its very foundations and basic principles.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
Peace Child Israel Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Religion was founded on a need in human beings to answer fears. They created and imagined these forces, these spirits, these idols, because it answered the fear they had about something they couldn't understand. That's fine; that was good for then. Sometimes fear is a good thing to have… not to do something stupid like put your hand in fire; it's good to be afraid of fire. But basically fear is a negative energy. Anything whose whole core and essence was based in negativity couldn't have good results in the end. It doesn't mean that religion doesn't answer some needs for people, but basically it's no surprise to me that religion is the core of all this, of many, many tears.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Walid Salem
Panorama Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ A new misunderstanding I discovered is that Palestinians are violent by nature. I discovered that the Israeli and international public think that we are a violent society. This belief is connected to the view that Islam is the religion of death - that it regards death as holy. These conceptions are wrong. Islam is a religion that regards life as holy. According to Islam life is given as a gift by God and man doesn't have the right to harm that gift. When a person kills another person he harms a gift given by God. There is a misconception among the international community that Islam believes in violence and killing. We have a misconception about the Israeli society that all of Israeli society is soldiers and settlers, and therefore targets for killing.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Ester Golan
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I feel very, very deeply, consciously Jewish-- Zionist Jewish. A combination of Zionism and Judaism, which is different from the Haredim, who have no Zionist feelings. I certainly believe in having to defend my being Jewish. That's why I was in the army, my children were in the army, my grandchildren are in the army. Because I have a right to live, and I defend that right to live.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Adi Dagan
Coalition of Women for Peace, Machsom Watch Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I think Zionism is an obstacle to normal life here and that's why I'm not in favor of retaining the definition of a Jewish state. I assume there can be a state with a Jewish majority; I'm not opposed to that. I'm not saying we need to get rid of the Jewish majority at any cost. I think that my aspirations have changed, and that I want this to be a normal country where equality isn't sanctioned by religion and for there not to be an ever present census - how many of them and how many of us. I feel I'm always being reminded I'm Jewish; if it isn't in the religious sense then it's in the ethnic sense and I'm very uncomfortable living this way. I want to live somewhere where nobody will care about my religion. That was also Zionism's aspiration: a normal life, people not being conscious which group they belong to, that's what really went on in the Diaspora.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Eliyahu McLean
The Sulha Peace Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Middleway Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I'm trying to approach the chaos and the conflict that seem to be completely unsolvable by getting out of the box of the usual ways of trying to approach this conflict-both in peace activism and in the official governmental level peace talks. I'm trying to bring in this other dimension. This is the Holy Land, and it's not the Holy Land for nothing. If you try to approach people-the simple Palestinians on the street, the vendors, falafel stand owners, taxi drivers, bus drivers-many of them, on both sides, if you try to approach things purely from a political, rational level, you won't get anywhere. But if you bring in the spiritual dimension, I find that sometimes you can make bridges in amazing ways.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Yehuda Stolov
Interfaith Encounter Association Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ For a long period I was involved with this type of activity because I was interested in meeting with different people. I found interfaith dialogue novel and surprising, because prior to that, when I found myself interested in other religions, I would simply take a course at a university or read a book. I had never considered the possibility of actually meeting with other people. That in itself was interesting for a certain period. Later, I began to understand the force of interfaith dialogue and its ability to be a facilitative mechanism between communities. ”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Eliyahu McLean
The Sulha Peace Project, Jerusalem Peacemakers, Middleway Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ You can have a settler rabbi and a Hamas sheikh working together for peace, because they're speaking a common spiritual language even though they're coming from diametrically opposed political points of view. I like to say that spirituality is trying to find the underlying place of unity between contradictory opposites, places where there might be a resonance and a commonality between two opposing sides, even settler and angry Palestinian, or Left wing and Right wing. It's almost like in this world, things are divided, but the place from which everyone originates, the ultimate place, is a place of unity. So the idea is to remind people that our source is the same source. We come from the same source, whether you call it a monotheistic God, or the Native American Great Spirit, or the Great Buddha, or whatever. I want to tap into the field of energy, the place of unity where people come from.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Meir Margalit
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ I want a democratic state, first and foremost. If we don't become a democracy then the Jewish part of it will fall apart and we'll become an Ayatollah version, like in Iran. That's not the Judaism I believe in; I believe in Buber's Judaism, that of the prophets, of "Love thy neighbor as thyself." I'm in favor of moral Judaism and not the settlers' version. If we continue this way it is very clear that we won't be a democracy, but we won't be a Jewish state either. In order to save something of Judaism and be a Jewish state that we can be proud to live in, first of all we need to return to democracy, otherwise it will all fall apart.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Sarah Karajeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ There are Jews that believe that the occupation of this land is wrong and that the Palestinians should retain their rights. Religion isn't the main factor. During the confiscation of land in the north of Palestine in order to build the racist wall, I was surprised to see an NGO made up of Jewish rabbis who defended human rights. This is an indication that it isn't an issue of religion. The Jewish rabbis tied themselves with chains, not in order to defend Islam or Judaism, but in order to defend human rights in this land.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Dr. Khuloud Dajani
People's Campaign for Peace and Democracy Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ The main misconception is that Israelis think this is their promised land, given to them by God, and that they should have this land without a people. Even educated professors and doctors still believe that it is their promised land.[…] I met with Israeli scholars and very high ranking individuals in higher education etc. Some of them come with an illogical argument of the land promised to them by God and ignore the issue of the people who are living in the land with all the historical, social, cultural dimensions of life and mainly their basic human right of existing and living in their own homes and lands, as well as having the right to justice and equality!”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Ibtisam Mahameed
Interfaith Encounter Association, Middleway Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ If I consider myself a peace activist, then all my words and actions must be devoted to peace. For me this is Jihad, and if I die doing this I will be considered a martyr. How do I identify a martyr? He is one that takes a role in improving his community and its situation, according to his own understanding. People can call him what they like, but I consider this a sacred mission that I could use to help the next generations.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

Ibtisam Mahameed
Interfaith Encounter Association, Middleway Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Religion itself is guided by the Bible and the Koran, but when a rabbi-- for example Ovadia Yosef-- calls the Arabs snakes and cockroaches, this is not written in the Bible, these are his own expressions. I don't blame the Bible. He is a representative of his religion but he also represents himself. If he is responsible for his personal expressions then I blame him as Ovadia Yosef, and not his Bible. The same is true about a sheikh who curses someone. The Koran didn't tell him to curse. This sheikh represents himself, not my Koran. We should separate between the laws of the Koran and the Bible and the expressions of people who play with religion.”  [Source in Complete Interview]

George Sa'adeh
Bereaved Families Forum Portrait »
Interview Highlights »

“ Faith in the first place was what helped us pull though this experience. We know that we live in dangerous circumstances due to the current situation but it was our faith foremost that helped us. I know there are a lot of families that went through the same experience but they didn't all pull through-- it is important to be able to move on in your life and have strong faith, because without sincere faith it will be difficult for one to accept matters and events that happen. But the most important thing is to have the ability to adjust and to forgive the other, to be able to move into a better life. Hate will not get us to a solution; it will not bring back the victims that were lost, only love and forgiveness will do that.”  [Source in Complete Interview]