April Palestinian Youth Report
By Mohamad Jamous
Turn down the noise a little bit, the world needs you! This was the title of today’s meeting in the Abrahamic Reunion’s series of Palestinian youth meetings held monthly on Zoom. In these meetings we bring together Palestinian youth from different religions and beliefs and from different Palestinian cities.
Today, after we finished our IFTAR, the daily breaking of the fast during Ramadan, I activated the call to gather for these brave people, for these heroes who meet monthly from their work, their homes, and their places of residence, confirming the continuation of the approach that “peace is possible.”
After the rallying call, 15 young men and women from different places in Palestine responded and we opened the Zoom program to start this beautiful meeting that keeps the flame of hope going despite the continuing waves of violence in the Holy Land.
The meeting began at eight o’clock in the evening, and I welcomed and thanked all those who attended with us today and those who attended with us previously, stressing the importance of having hearts filled with faith that peace is possible and that the end of violence is not far away.
The themes of our meeting today dealt with many topics, among them, the most prominent being the need to continue faith and work for peace, and to prepare for the meeting next week at my home in the city of Ramallah. Through a personal invitation from me, we will break the fast together and have an IFTAR meal in the last ten days of the blessed month of Ramadan under a co umbrella with the Abrahamic Reunion. We spoke about the importance of continuing “cross-border” programs because of their positive impact on our reality today and creating positive educational programs to teach our children and new generations how to make peace and bring religions closer together.
After we set the main agenda for this month’s meeting, we delved into some details and studied the future vision of these young people.
First, I spoke about the importance of continuing our work and online meetings in Palestine, to continue achieving peace and ending violence by expanding our group to the largest possible number in Palestine, while taking precautions against some challenges or penalties that we may face.
We talked about the importance of our unity as Muslims, Samaritans, Armenians, and Christians in this land and in this country, emphasizing that making peace requires inner peace first and then spreading it to other religions, cultures, and nationalities.
Mahmoud, a Palestinian peace activist who lives in the city of Nablus, the area most facing violence now, said “Despite the violence and killings that I see daily in my city, I believe that peace is possible, and I believe that if we work more seriously and make programs on the ground and challenge our fears, we will actually achieve peace! And here I am, joining you continuously from my work and my home, because I believe in what the Abrahamic Reunion is doing in Palestine, and I believe in what Muhammad Jamous is doing in his work for peace through social media and on the ground.”
During the evening, I posed some questions to the participants. Among these questions were: What does peace mean to you? How would you feel if peace was achieved in the Holy Land? How much preparation are you willing to sacrifice to achieve peace? How would you feel if you could drink coffee early in the morning with your Jewish friend?
We spent a long time talking about this subject. The responses of the participants were more than amazing–Most of us felt that we were ready to do anything for this to happen! What an amazing group!
Later, we moved on to discussing the importance of continuing our work in the “Across Borders” programs that bring Palestinians and Israelis together.
I talked about the importance of putting our different visions and theories on the table in front of us and talking about them together, resolving our differences by peaceful means away from violence. We discussed the need of hearing the responses and beliefs of our Israeli neighbors and the importance of developing the ability to listen and discuss because of their fundamental role in changing the misconceptions on both sides.
Many Israelis and Palestinians commonly have negative perceptions of each other, which are misunderstandings between them and wrong thinking. Through our programs we challenge these perceptions and correct misunderstandings. The Palestinian participants praised the importance and continuity of these programs!
After that, I opened the topic of inviting everyone to break the fast and have an IFTAR in my home in Ramallah. Because the Abrahamic Reunion was not able to hold a multi-religious Iftar this year in Palestine, as it normally does, I invited all the Palestinian participants to come to my house next week and eat the Iftar meal. My invitation is an affirmation of my fully standing with The Abrahamic Reunion and of the importance of our unity, and faith in the continuity of our meetings on all possible occasions.
Of course, the participants were very happy that I invited them next week! Expect many beautiful photos and videos from me during that meeting.
Finally, we talked about the value of working for our children and the children of our Israeli neighbors, and the importance of spreading awareness and culture among these angels. It is very unfortunate that we see today many Palestinian and Israeli children who carry a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about each other. This is a fundamental basis of our role as peacemakers and decision makers: to work more seriously on this young generation to spread correct understandings and the concept of “love the other”. Many ideas were generated on this topic. I will share a few of them:
Samar, a Palestinian peace activist from Bethlehem, said, “I work in a Palestinian heritage center in Bethlehem, and we have many children visiting this center. I can arrange a beautiful and useful program for this age group.”
Ayman, a Palestinian peace activist from the city of Ramallah, said “I work with an educational center in Ramallah, where we do various educational courses for children from 10-17 years old, I can help as well.”
Bisan, a Palestinian peace activist from the villages of East Jerusalem, said “Through my work, I can arrange an educational workshop for Israeli and Palestinian children, where we can present some educational curricula related to making peace between peoples.”
A lot of positive responses and useful ideas permeated this meeting.
These heroes, courageous peacemakers, decision makers put their thoughts and faith in peace today to work under the umbrella of the Abrahamic Reunion and to build the bridge for peace that we have always dreamed of completing together.
The meeting lasted two hours. We talked a lot about various topics, hoping to meet each other at my house next week in Ramallah, insha’Allah, and talk more bringing us closer and closer to peace.
Yes, turn down the noise a bit, the youth of the Abrahamic Reunion are here!
Mohamad Jamous is the Palestinian Director for the Abrahamic Reunion, living in Ramallah. Mohamad@Abrahamicreunion.org
