Written by Mohamad Jamous
Every month Abed Alsalam Manasra, the Israeli Director of the Abraham Reunion and myself, Mohamad Jamous, Palestinian Director of the AR, meet to decide what is most important to highlight in our meetings between the Palestinian and Israeli youth. Our goal is to continue building peace in the Holy Land in our belief that the land is for everyone and that we all deserve to live in stability, brotherhood and affection.
On March 16th, 2023 we decided we would bring together the decision makers, the Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers, after a break that lasted for several days due to the intense violence, great fear and tension, that prevailed in the region recently.
The country has just witnessed a great storm of violence between the Israeli army and Palestinian citizens, which led to the death of large numbers of innocent Palestinians and Israelis within a few days.
This meeting was one of the most important meetings among the youth. Its purpose was to help them maintain their hope, to adhere to the constants, and to continue to build a bridge of peace. We emphasized not to let fear and tension control our feelings as decision makers who have worked throughout their lives in order to devote a better life and future to their children.
The second topic in this meeting was preparation and readiness to hold our annual multi-religious iftars in Palestine and Israel. These are of great importance, to strengthen the unified trust between all religions in the Holy Land.
The meeting began at seven o’clock in the evening on Zoom and was attended by about 15 participants, the majority of whom were Palestinian youth from the different religions in Palestine. Many of the Israeli youth were detained as they travelled to a memorial celebration for AR Co-founder Rabbi Menachem Froman, in Tekoa, and could not attend the meeting.
The youth in attendance came from different cities and areas of Palestine and Israel and attended from their work and homes.
Abed Alsalam and I welcomed all the participants and established a time for them to share their feelings and attitudes towards the recent waves of violence and anger.
After hearing everyone, we stressed the importance of our adherence to faith and hope during these fleeting waves, and the critical need of completing what we are doing in making and building peace for the sake of our societies, our children and our families.
Not controlling our feelings during these waves would cause us to lose much of the unity and brotherhood that we have built over the past many years. Working for peace requires many great sacrifices for our children to live in a garden full of flowers and not with thorns.
I spoke to the participants with all my heart, sharing my faith that tomorrow will be better and that peace is possible.
What I liked today, as previously in many of the meetings, is that for the most part the youth, despite witnessing blood, killings and demolitions, did not lose their morale and did not lose their hope that we can indeed achieve peace if we are with each other and if we live as one hand, working together.
It was an hour of time during which we talked about the basic, educational and methodological rules for completing and continuing our work and reinforced that our generation is the generation of freedom, stability and, it is our hope, the ones who will achieve peace.
After completing the first topic, we moved on to preparing for multi-religious Iftars in Palestine and Israel during the month of Ramadan this Spring.
The annual Iftars that the Abrahamic Reunion holds are events that build and strengthen one spirit in the faith that we are all human, created from dust and will return to Him, our Lord who is one Lord. Despite our different religions, beliefs, colors, and nationalities, we are human, we must treat each other as human beings.
We spent two hours together during which we encouraged the participants and cultivated the spirit of love, brotherhood and trust among them, because we all need someone to cultivate and strengthen us when we go through periods of weakness and despair. In these two hours, we raised the morale of our youth to complete our work on this land, a land that deserves to live in peace.
Mohamad Jamous is the Palestinian Director for the Abrahamic Reunion
