Buthaina Doqmaq
Chair of Mandela Institute for Human Rights
More than 380 Palestinian children under 18 years of age are in Israeli prisons. They need to be educated—not tortured, abused inside prisons, deprived of their parents’ visits. The Israelis tour the world demanding the release of one abducted soldier. I demand the international community intervene to free prisoners who are seekers of freedom and peace. We want our detained children home with their families.
Naomi Chazan
Professor, author, and Member of Knesset (1992-2003)
I was one of the first Israeli supporters of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. I’ve tried to achieve that for over 40 years. Yes, I’ve gotten an award here or there because I’ve tried, but I don’t think I deserve any of those awards because I haven’t succeeded.
When I [...]
Huda Naim Naim
Member of Palestinian Legislative Council (Hamas party), Gaza
I live like one and a half million Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza Strip. We suffer poverty, hunger, killing, destruction, darkness, and a lack of medicine and fuel. We wake to the sounds of artillery and bombing from fighter jets. Our children are killed and deprived of their basic needs. Their fathers cannot provide food, their mothers die from lack of medicine. The occupation has destroyed the basis of our life. [...]
Tova Dmbulu Gette
Conversion Counselor for the Rabbinical Courts
It was like the Exodus from Egypt. We slept during the day and walked at night so robbers wouldn’t catch us. We walked, hungry and thirsty. I was with my parents and two of my brothers. We carried them on our backs and put them on donkeys. We had only [...]
Ibtisam Mahameed
Founder-Director of Women’s Center in Faradis
Peace exists—every time the sun rises and the moon and stars shine at night. It exists in the greenery and the mountains, the sea and the beautiful landscape.
Peace is possible without conditions. The minute you set conditions, there’s an obstacle. Look at how many obstacles we place in our lives, [...]
Amoun Sleem
Founder-Director of Domari Society of Gypsies
You don’t see gypsies fighting around the world. They look for the simple life and they look with beautiful eyes. Our flag means green for the land, blue for the sky, and wheels for traveling. People should learn from the gypsies: be open, make your hearts green for everybody. [...]
Suad Amiry
Author, architect, and architectural conservator
I feel that our conflict with the Israelis can be reduced to one word: land. I cannot trust an Israeli who is always trying to confiscate my piece of land.
Nothing can change the reality that my father’s house is in Jaffa. If Israelis want peace, they must apologize for what they [...]
Haviva Ner-David
Rabbi and activist for equal religious rights for women
When my kids are fighting, I sometimes get impatient and exclaim, “Why can’t you just get along?” In the same way, I feel the Arabs and Jews to be siblings, and I am like a mother figure looking on and saying, “This is ridiculous. Everyone take a [...]
Ester Golan
Sociologist and Holocaust educator
What was your childhood like in Nazi Germany?
My mother was a Zionist since the Balfour Declaration. So, I grew up in the belief that the ancient dream would be fulfilled one day and we would come to Palestine. I was ten years old when Hitler came. In Catholic school, the teacher came in and said: “You are Jewish? Get up and sit at the back.” From that day on nobody talked to me any more. Nobody played with me any more. [...]
Aisheh Awajneh
Director of Department of Labor for Jericho and Jordan Valley
Laborers constitute 80 percent of the Palestinian adult society and unemployment is also at 80 percent. This is dangerous. It produces social, economic, health, and psychological diseases as well as poverty. It is like a ghost that threatens us.
Unemployment is the most difficult issue facing the Ministry of Labor, and the occupation, roadblocks, and closures increase unemployment. [...]
