Tensions between different groups

Recently Queen Elizabeth visited Ireland, and laid a wreath to commemorate those who died fighting for that country’s independence.   Not so long ago this would have been unthinkable.   I remember, back in the 80s, feeling hostility towards Americans who donated to NORAID, an Irish-American Republican fundraising organisation, and shock when members of the British Government were killed in an IRA terrorist attack in Brighton. 

When I visited Sweden as a teenager in the early 80s, a time of great tension during the Irish Troubles, my father reacted with anger and frustration when questioned by teenagers who felt sure the British were the baddies and the Irish, like Bobby Sands, innocent victims.  His views are actually very liberal – but most people will jump to their country’s defence when it is criticised by an outsider.

 Recently I went to a fascinating lecture given by a colleague of mine.  She described the problem of anti-Irish racism in the UK, something I’d never really thought about before.  It did make me reflect whether it was right to tell an ‘Irish joke’ to my children, when I knew I’d never tell the same joke in front of our Irish friends.

When I asked an Irish Catholic friend whether he’d ever experienced prejudice, he bitterly remembered taunts when he was at university in the UK.  He was doing an electronics degree and was subjected to endless jokes about how he must have chosen that course in order to make bombs for the IRA.

There are still tensions between Britain and Ireland – but great strides have been made. I hope young Israelis and Palestinians will see similar improvements – and perhaps help make them happen. 

Professor Sarah Brown, a Trustee of Children of Peace

About truths and half truths

How many of us really question things we have been taught as children? I, for one, did not. It is so natural for a child to accept the things they are told by their parents, family-members and teachers as absolute truths. It is only decades later that some of us realize that the truth is never absolute, and there is always more than one side to every story.

It is difficult to ask a young person to doubt what they’ve been taught by their society; to question the truths they have been presented with. It is only through exchanges and encounters with ‘the other side’ that they can come to realize that perhaps their own truth is not the only one; that it may be only half the truth. Children of Peace has made exchanges and encounters between Palestinian and Israeli youths a priority, which is the reason I feel so proud to act as Goodwill Ambassador for them. Because young people who play and spend time together today will grow into adults who can talk and relate to each other with more respect and understanding. What is the truth you have been taught, and do you think there might be another side to it?

Daniela Norris, co-author of Crossing Qalandiya: Exchanges across the Israeli/Palestinian Divide.

Crossing Qalandiya: Exchanges across the Israeli/Palestinian Divide by Daniela Norris and Shireen Anabtawi, (Reportage Press, UK May 2010)

www.crossingqalandiya.com

http://www.facebook.com/people/Crossing-Qalandiya/100000088361845

www.danielanorris.com

The first blog of Children of Peace

Welcome to our first of many blogs.

Children of Peace is a non-partisan charity dedicated to building friendship, trust and reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian children, aged 4 - 17, and their communities. Our aim is to develop a shared spirit via arts, education, health and sports programmes; so future generations might live and work peacefully side-by-side. We believe in working for peace. That is why we don’t take sides.