Peace Child Project

I decided that I’d had enough. I was sick and tired of sitting at home and complaining that nothing ever happens here. Nothing ever changes in Israeli society. I was sick and tired that no one really cares, people seem to have fallen asleep, deciding to leave their fate to God… and just to remind you, since Hanukkah there have been no miracles.

Last year I was surprised to discover (when I was in the 8^th grade) that a “Peace Children” group (the Peace Child Israel Organization) was going to open in Megiddo School – a group of Jewish and Arab boys and girls who would meet throughout the year in a drama group. They had auditions, discussions, meetings, and I was accepted together with 25 other Jewish kids. Unfortunately we were only six at the end…just to show you how much we really care about our common future.

Meetings started at the beginning of the 9^th grade. We were twelve at the first meeting. We were very excited, afraid, but mainly we didn’t devote much thought to the reason for our coming.

The Arab kids came in a fairly large group, 20 boys and girls – all smiling and happy.

The meetings were facilitated by Hadas Ziv (the drama teacher at school) and Niveen (an Arab woman, who came on behalf of the organization).

It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t always fun, we weren’t always appreciated by our friends, but I’m proud that we’ve reached the final project, and although it seems to me that I haven’t made much of a difference – I know I’ve changed quite a lot of things, because now there are at least 40 Arabs who know that there are good Jews too, and there are about 30 Jews who know that there are good Arabs too.

And what does that do?

And are 70 people really enough?

In summary,

I’m left with a lot of questions that have no answers, but I know today, although it sounds absurd, why there are Arabs who are happy when they hear there’s been a terrorist attack. We asked them a lot of in-depth questions, we made sure that we understood, because when you come out of some of these meetings it’s hard, but we did it.

This is also the place for me to personally thank Gadi Rakovsky, and the meager audience that was present in the auditorium when we performed – the big performance at the end of the project.

What I have to do today is not to get angry with people who change nothing in their environment (because that’s their problem…) but explain to them why I decided to make a difference.

To some of the people here I may be just “a little girl who doesn’t understand a thing”. But I’ve done my bit – at least for the time being.

With hope for a change,

Stav Davidman