Over the last two months, a dozen students from three continents have been meeting to write and reflect as part of the Writers Matter program. The following piece is part of the “I Wonder” collection, and comes from Endina in Kosovo.
I wonder
I wonder, when you look into my eyes,
do you see the pain or does it fade away, like a moth to the flame?
Really, tell me, do you feel the same?
It’ s a hard thing to say but I can’t help but think.
But no, you won’t tell me. Is that right? Why? I can’t figure it out.
Whether you love it or hate it, you should have stayed. That’s what I wonder when the storm comes rushing in.
You know I wonder what would happen if I quit because the game it’s starting to lose it’s grip.
And yet, I still find myself drawn to it, waiting for my dreams, though I know they don’t fit.
Over the last two months, a dozen students from three continents have been meeting to write and reflect as part of the Writers Matter program. The following piece is part of the “I am from” collection, and comes from Duru in Turkey.
When I was little I liked to imagine that I came from a place that’s filled with rainbows and unicorns where the sun never set. In reality I come from a place where the sun only comes up once in a while. I don’t know why I didn’t like the place I came from as a kid. Every night we ate dinner together. Sometimes that dinner table was filled with laughter and joy. But sometimes it was filled with silence cutting through the air like a knife. We used to play games or watch movies once in a while. I remember loving the time I spent with the people that make me who I am today. But now I barely see them. I can’t recognize where I come from, let alone the people whom I love the most.
I didn’t appreciate the good times back then and only focused on the bad stuff that led me to want only good things to happen. But what I hadn’t realized was that, in order to have a rainbow you need the rain too. Since I know that now, I can easily tell you where I come from. I come from a family that’s loving and caring where everyone looks out for each other. I come from a household that’s filled with fights and arguments that took days and months to be forgotten. I come from a place warmer than any sun could ever make me feel.
Now I’m proud of where I come from and the person that I have become.
As part of the Writers Matter program, teachers from about twenty schools around Israel wrote and shared their writing together. The following piece was written by Writers Matter coordinator Amal:
To all the people that I know and have met during my life chapter
A message of love I want to send for being a daughter, sister, wife, and a mother
First, i want to say “alhamdolilah” for being me as l am and thanks God to creat me in a good shape and complete picture
I look to the skies so thankful for all the blessings that I get from you Lord, calling, praying, thanking and asking that me to you become closer
You always balance my life, despite i got the biggest worries and heavy responsibilities, but you gave me the wisdom of struggling and the power of a fighter
It is the uniqueness of feeling others’ pain, being the helping hand for who needs it, and taking all people as they are the same and not ” judging the book by its cover”
I lost precious ones in my life, I cried, got frustrated then realized your generosity for choosing me to be the worrier and the winner
Of getting the best dad that have even found on earth, and a very special sister
I got the honor to serve and took care of them, like you telling me to do the mission and go up higher
To get the highest human degrees of being an obedient daughter, good sister and successful fighter
The prize is getting my mom wishes to God to keep and protect me from dangers by calling God “الله يرضى عليكي” my daughter
The best winning of gold medal is getting an unique or even the best man on earth ever
A loving, caring, sharing, and supporting husband and an amazing role model father
That helps me raising four lovely roses in our garden of life by containing me and them and holding us together
To face the rudeness of life and fight for the place we belong to till ever
The holly place of The Holly Land that live do many years and was attacked by dangerous minds of haters
That want to convince people to live in groups, split them from the tree of union, humanity and cancel the meaning of lives if all as one matter
Hey you! You are totally wrong! All as one, and one cares for all, that is the point that we must raise the generations at, so do not create a gap and make it wider
I was born as a Muslim Arab, I practice Islam and speak Arabic and live in the holy land, my best friends are Christans, Druze, Jewish with pleasure
Stop mix cards together, acting the worst way and try to show that things are different by judging the book by its cover
Your tries will not be taken anymore because we are getting up that our differences create an unique figure
You will not cancel me if I am the other, and I will not let you live the saying ” the other is me”- it is a mistake dear hater
Me is me, you must get this and respect me as I do by taking that you are the other and I do accept and respect with a pleasure
Over the last two months, a dozen students from three continents have been meeting to write and reflect as part of the Writers Matter program. The following piece is part of the “Where I am now” collection, and comes from Nahla in Kenya.
Nahla
Where I am now
I look at myself in the mirror. A pretty smile. A pretty face. A scarless skin. I am a happy girl who loves where she is.
My achievements are what make me happy. I am moving towards my goal; being independent. I am now taking small and large steps to my independence era. I am proud of who I am becoming.
At last I can walk straight and say I am me. I am who I am. I am myself. I am who I want to be.
As part of the Writers Matter program, teachers from about twenty schools around Israel wrote and shared their writing together. The following piece is part of the “I Am From” collection, and comes from Abeer, from the Ibn Al-Haitham high school in Baqa al-Gharabiya.
Over the last two months, a dozen students from three continents have been meeting to write and reflect as part of the Writers Matter program. The following piece is part of the “I Am From” collection, and comes from Amina in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I want to escape it. I want to run away from it. It makes me sick and scared and it’s following me wherever I go. All I see are blurry lines and a vague vision of what the world could be, but it keeps spinning and nothing is clear. People and places are blurry and I’m only sure of what I feel. The breeze that so graciously feeds my brain and the hand that holds me tight . The rain that washes over my face and the salty tears that flow with it. The kiss from a human and the kiss from the sun . The ground that keeps me from flying and the bed that keeps me from dreaming. The stories that I fall asleep to and more so the ones that wake me up. I feel the cold that gives me illness and the warmth that makes me dizzy. I feel the people that I hold and the words that they give me. I feel it because it’s real and it’s real because I made it that way. I am from the fear of making nothing real. From spinning on this ride until my body is left alone, and my soul is wondering. Wondering why am I running away. Why can’t I sit with it? Why does nothing make me so scared and I yearn for something, anything? But when I lay my head on the cold ground and close my eyes forever, I’ll see that the world is steady and I was the one spinning. Nothing is very clear and real now and it’s my comfort because I know it. We all return to what we know. I am from nothing, and to that I return.
As part of the Writers Matter program, teachers from about twenty schools around Israel wrote and shared their writing together. The following piece is part of the “I Wonder” collection, and comes from Inna, from the WIZO Hadassim school in Even Yehuda.
Over the last two months, a dozen students from three continents have been meeting to write and reflect as part of the Writers Matter program. The following piece is part of the “I Wonder” collection, and comes from N. Ostenfeld in Malmo, Sweden.
I wonder, does the moon know it’s loved?
Does the moon know it lives with purpose, does the moon know the love and adoration it has received, the countless pieces of art written and created in its beauty?
A single rock, floating in solitude amidst a vast darkness—shining so brightly when nothing else does. A borrowed light, a reflection, nothing of its own. I wonder, how many of us are like the moon? Lonely, silent, yet dazzling only in the emptiness of night. Do we burn so others might see, only to fade when their world fills with light?
The moon, in actuality, is nothing extraordinary, just a simple rock, made of oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron and so on. Earthly materials. Uninteresting materials. Plain materials. Just stone and dust, the remnants of a violent past. A scar in the sky. Yet it draws poets, painters, dreamers, and lovers to its cold surface, offering them nothing but a reflection. The moon is our muse, just as you have now become my muse, an unfeeling witness to the longings we pour out, as if hoping its pale glow might soothe our restlessness.
Perhaps that is the moon’s cruelest beauty. It gives us nothing of itself, and yet we give it everything. Our words, our songs, our stories. Perhaps it mocks us in its silence, knowing we will always return to it, hungry for inspiration, searching for meaning in its emptiness.
The moon is loyal to the Earth, bound in quiet devotion, circling endlessly—not out of love, but because even in its loneliness, it has nowhere else to go. Your name meant loyalty and fidelity. You were my moon.
Perhaps, it is as the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote; “Maybe the moon is beautiful only because it is far.” Maybe its beauty would vanish if we touched it, if we truly understood it.
Maybe we love it because we can’t have it. Because it will never love us back.
I wonder, if the moon ever looks at us—at the chaos, the greed, the fragile hopes we scatter across the earth—and feels grateful it is so far away.
The inaugural meeting of the Youth Working Group on Social Cohesion (YWGSC) was held on Monday October 28 in Petah Tiqva. This unique event, which coincided with a Unity conference organized by the Chen Young Ambassadors School, was hosted at the Ahad Ha’am Junior High school in Petah Tiqva. Students came from a range of communities around Israel, including Ashkelon, Baqa al-Gharabiya, Deir Al-Assad, Dimona, Fureidis, Herzliya, Jerusalem, Karmiel, Modi’in, Petah Tiqva, Rahat, Sakhnin, Shefa-amr, Tzur Hadassah, Shoham, and Tel Aviv, to share perspectives, and brainstorm practical steps to improve relations between different communities around Israel from a youth perspective.
The students, including delegations from the Darca Brotherhood school (Dimona), Amal Rahat, Ibn al Haithem school (Baqa al-Gharabiya), and the Shefa-amr Comprehensive C School, as well as individual delegates from several dozen schools around the country, worked in five breakout rooms, which focused on Identity, Stereotypes, Religion, Society, and Social Media respectively. The topics were chosen by a dedicated team of Arab-Jewish teen leaders, who also facilitated the discussions using three languages (Arabic, English and Hebrew). At the end of the meeting, each group, as well as a sixth group of educators, produced their list of recommendations for improving social cohesion, which will be published in a forthcoming report and distributed digitally. The Working Group is now transitioning to planning the second meeting, while also disseminating the report of the inaugural session.
The initiative to advance unity and social cohesion by empowering youth voices, and addressing topics like diverse identities and religions, stereotypes, positive social media use, and an inclusive society, took great courage, particularly in the midst of an ongoing armed conflict. Debate for Peace congratulates each student for their decision to join, as well as the educators who supported their participation.
Abd alRahman Masri, a student at Ibn Al-Haithem high school, explained that he had learned about Jewish culture and how Arabs are perceived. He noted the importance of meeting face to face and not relying on media representations of one another. Naomi Fellert, from Ahad Ha’am Junior High School, said that “In the conference, I learned so many new things and met so many people from different backgrounds”.
Madian Marana, from the Younited school, facilitated the Stereotypes group. She shared that “Throughout the discussion, I would look at my co-facilitator and smile; we both could feel the rise of engagement, and the crossing of language, social, and emotional barriers. I felt that we succeeded as facilitators when students shared that the discussion had challenged the values their family and community bubbles had imposed.”
Yasmine Yassin, a teacher from Shefa-amr Comprehensive School also noted that: “The program was a rich experience for my students. They really enjoyed the discussions. One student said it was surprising to her that people were good listeners and tolerant and respectful toward her opinions.”
Partners and sponsors included the Darca Brotherhood school (Dimona), Amal Rahat, Ibn al Haithem school (Baqa al-Gharabiya), Shefa-amr Comprehensive C School, Ahad Ha’am Junior High School, Chen Young Ambassadors school, the regional student parliament of Tel Aviv region, the young leadership team of Petah Tiqva, the Youth and Education Office for Tel Aviv region, and the office for volunteering of the higher education department, Petah Tiqva.
Photo credit: Kai Dekel, Shalev Khaikin, Rayan Kaise Badarne.
To get more information, or join the Working Group, please contact Steven Aiello: debateforpeacemun@gmail.com.
Amidst a very challenging time, facing alarms and rockets, we were honored to host another Sukkat Shalom (Sukkah of Peace) gathering this year. On Tuesday, October 22, diplomats and representatives from Finland, Ireland, Malta, the Philippines, and Romania, as well as Bahai and Muslim leaders, visited the Debate for Peace sukkah, adorned with flags and pins from over 30 nations. They were joined by 20 Arab and Jewish students from all over Israel. Together, we discussed the messages and customs of the holiday of Sukkot, as well as learning about diplomacy, and peacebuilding. We pray for a more peaceful year ahead, and to welcome students and diplomats back to the Sukkah next year, in more peaceful times!
Debate for Peace 