1-Minute Version in 4K (Scroll down for 3-Minute Version)
2.5-Minute Interview Clip
AR Co-Founder David Less shares how he learned about “peace with problems” and “possible peace” from Elias Jabbour and the Berlin Wall. Excerpt from a longer video interview.
We were fortunate, we had some wonderful mentors. Elias Jabbour was a Christian Arab Palestinian Israeli, and Elias was the third generation of peacemakers. He kept saying, “Let us have peace with problems, but let us have peace.”
And I would always ask him, Elias, what does that mean exactly?
And he would say, “It’s simple, stop the killing, stop the hurting, stop the violence. Yes there are problems, yes there’s diversity, we can work it out, but we don’t have to work it out with bloodshed.”
That became, for me, an inner mantra. Yeah, we can have peace, even if there are problems. And there were so many people who said, oh, there can never be peace, and this will go on, it always has been and it always will be. Well, it isn’t true it always has been, that’s not the case at all, it’s really a phenomena of the last 100-125 years.
As for the idea that peace is impossible, I have two words: Northern Ireland. Everybody there believed, ‘oh, there’ll never be peace.’ And now there is. And you know what? They have peace with problems. They’re still difficulties, there are still things to iron out, but there’s peace, and the same can happen in the Holy Land.
There can be peace, let it be peace with problems, people want peace with justice, no, that comes way further down the road. WE want peace with problems, but we want peace.
So we’ve been working rather strenuously to create a vision of a possibility. And if there is no vision of a possibility, there is no possibility. And things can change quickly.
Just by coincidence, I happened to be in Berlin just before the opening of the wall. I was there for maybe 3 weeks before and maybe 1 week afterwards. And the changes really happened quickly from No, it’s not really going to happen, to one day, it was open.
So I know from my experiences that changes can happen quickly, and changes can happen in the Holy Land too, and they can happen quickly.
Help the Abrahamic Reunion lay the groundwork for those monumental and quick changes that can really happen in the Holy Land — make a generous donation to our Year-End Fundraiser “Peace Is Possible” today.
