In the past decades, this land had witnessed violence, war, and tragedy. We were born into state of conflict. We grew up in polarized societies, dominated by strong feelings of resentment, hatred and fear – Decades of violence led our people entrench in fear.
The world is different today.
We no longer want to be bound by the old narrative.
We no longer want to be led by the old generation.
We no longer want to be threatened by fear.
Let us shape our own future, as equals human beings.
The world is different today.
There should be no doubt that both our people, Israelis and Palestinians are strong, determined, and prepared to scarify. But let us scarify not our children rather our historical resentments, feelings and burdens.
Let us use our endless determination for challenging this distorted reality and create a new story.
Inspired by THE Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a dream” and J.F.Kennedy’s speech “The torch has been passed to a new generation”, Yara and I, wrote our own short speech, which we presented to the New Story Leadership forum.
Crafting together one coherent massage for both a young Israeli and a young Palestinian, a task that I expected to be controversial and tense, was in fact challenging but yet also achievable.
So how come that creating such a generic massage is a doable task, but when it comes to accepting real compromise the negotiation stuck?
Why when it comes to taking real decisions about territories, refugees, Jerusalem, all of a sudden peace and the possibility of having a better future lose clout?
Why people insist on holding to the misperception under which lack of violence TODAY at any cost necessarily means security tomorrow?
By Lior Frankiensztajn
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