The u.s has called for an immediate end to the violence between Israel and the
Palestinians the conflict enters its second-week Israeli airstrikes on Gaza
reached a new level of intensity in the early hours of Monday morning as the
military targeted the homes of Islamic jihad and Hamas militants at least 200
people have been killed in the past week
including 59 children in the Gaza strip and 10 in Israel so what might it take
to end the violence well in a moment we'll talk to two people on either side of
the conflict who belong to the same organization which is dedicated to lasting
peace and cooperation but first take a look at this video [Music] foreign
[Music] [Music] by okay well one of the people in that clip is Osama aliwat who
joins me now from Jericho also joining me from tel Aviv is Ayala sharif who
works with the same for an organization created by former fighters on both sides
called combatants for peace thank you both for joining us here on the program
Ayala i'll begin with you just help our audience understand very briefly what
your organization aims to do I think first of all it aims to put an end to the
occupation and we do it in different ways but you bring uh sort of people
who were combatants together to try and get them to work on reconciliation and
cooperation just help our audience understand that okay the movement was
built by combatants who put down their weapons and they understood that violence
is not a way to move forward in any way and today the movement is bigger
and we work together in any way possible to forward this message i'll bring
you into this uh because we saw you in that clip there you yourself uh were a
Palestinian police officer you say that you've known nothing but this conflict
and you started to really think about your place in it from the age of about 14.
unfolding and be able to say no I want peace it wasn't hi thank you first of
all for having us for paying attention to us and our work this is a big support
for us for me at the beginning this conflict was something like I was built-in i
didn't think who's right and who's wrong all that i knew about the conflict that
there are some armed soldiers and these armed soldiers are against us they come
to our schools they come to our houses they demolish our houses and that's all
what I knew about Israel Israel succeeded to show me how strong and powerful and
how much they can hurt me but they never tried to show me that there is another
voice inside Israel there is other people who don't agree with what's going on
and the minute I saw this in 2010 after a long time of being involved in this
circle of violence I understood that there is another way and it is different
face for this coin that Israel is trying to show us and there are partners on the
other side and together we can make it better because keep ignoring the story of
each other keep ignoring the narrative of each other will not take us to
anywhere and we have to find a way to share this small place and not to divide
it into the small gate to zero and there and as long as Jewish people and
Palestinian people are not free no one will be free as long as I am not free the
Israelis also would not be free so that's why we are fighting together for the
freedom for both sides I'm just gonna I'm just gonna bring in uh Ayala because
that is quite a strong point isn't it that no matter what happens neither
side is free till both sides can live in peace exactly it is it's like I i the
the picture I always have in my head is like a prisoner and a guard both tied so one
side is has a benefit but they're both tied and nobody's free and that's our
the situation here and there's no way of solving it through violence only if you
work together something that Osama also said is just being raised believing that
the other side is the enemy how do you change that mindset how do you help
re-educate families and people to stop telling their children I i suppose that
the other side is the enemy it's more than parents telling children it's the
the whole system and you said the word it's education it someone needs to be in the
head of the pyramid that wants to make a change and wants to work together and
then the educational system has to change and that's what brought it and
that's what can stop it uh education Osama do you find when you are speaking to
other Palestinians when they see the level of violence and destruction in a
place like Gaza that they are unwilling to join the movement the organization
actually, people are afraid to join this kind of organizations because as i
mentioned before Israel is still controlling the land either we accept it or not
even when we have Palestinian authority Israel can enter any city and arrest
anyone so people are afraid of putting them in themselves in this risk and join
the other side the other thing is people are disappointed actually because since
the Palestinian Authority signed the peace agreement with Israel. Israel is
taking land beast by peace and we will give up this whole thing but we are
changing lives of people as much as we can and through this change, we are doing
education for example when we go to harvest all of the trees for the
Palestinians to protect them from settlers we take Palestinian children and
Israeli children to meet when they are young and to me to see each other as a
human being and not as an enemy before they go to exactly is that helping it helps
a lot and I am as a responsibility of the education department and combat transfer
bees I give lectures to Palestinian students Israeli students teaching them
about peace resistance teaching them about life under occupation teaching them
about both the right of the what people to live in this land and teaching
them about how being playing the victim all the time will not help anyone and we
should stop playing this game of who's more victim than the other and start
being united together in order to save the future of our kids yeah anywhere from
this place indeed I'm just going to bring in uh Ayala and Ayala we don't have
much time left but I just wanted to ask I mean how do you feel the entire system
can now change how do you think there can be some kind of lasting peace and what
your organization does be translated into something more my hope is that the
the current say the prime minister will be will change and it will bring a
change because it needs to be systematic it helps what we do helps in uh
where we work but for the whole system to change we need to influence the whole
system and if the prime minister will change if Netanyahu will not succeed to
make a government there's a chance that the system might change especially after
all this violence that's erupted here now it's like I'm sorry but everybody
everybody has to see that there's no it goes nowhere it's
just going to be happening again next year or in two years a solution is needed
in a deep way not just stopping ceasefire now indeed ceasefire now but then
go on and something more lost yeah Ayala shaliv and Osama Ella what thank
you both for joining us here on the program