Youth Category 1st Prize

HARMONY

by Liat Margalit
Israel, Age 18

"The wolf also should dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together" (Isaiah 11:6)

Coming from the tough reality dictated by the everyday life of the Middle East, writing an essay about harmony is a great challenge. Having that for the last two years, we live an ongoing, daily, and some would even say, chronic war between two peoples sharing a land; or at least two nations that are supposed to share a common land, Palestinians and Israelis. And yet, things weren't always like this. Once, we too knew the meaning of true harmony and coexistence. Instead of writing a definition to what harmony is, I would like to tell you about an experience I had, a story that on days like these sounds almost imaginary, and yet might bring some hope.

In the year of 1998 I became active in a program called "Seeds of Peace", a youth movement that brings Arab and Israeli teenagers together for a summer camp in the State of Maine. The aim of this movement is to allow coexistence to take place on a neutral ground, while the teenagers get to know each other and re-humanize the face of what had once been called "the enemy". Seeds of Peace became not only a summer camp for me, it became a way of life. I therefore made a decision. I chose to remain an active member and bring more people together from both sides to terms of understanding. That was the beginning of a personal journey, which allowed me to explore what is called other side and its culture, a culture that was hidden from me throughout my entire life.

I have so many stories to tell, but I chose to write about this one, since the atmosphere was indeed one of harmony and true love. Allow me to take you three years back.

The time is Christmas Eve of 1999. The place is the Church of Nativity, Bethlehem. The sights are glorious; the sounds are wonderful. The new millennium is soon to arrive. Hopes for peace are flowing within people's hearts. I don't think I can find enough words to describe the sights I witnessed. Hundreds if not thousands of people from all cultures, all nations, all religions, came to the Church of the Nativity from all over the world, few because of their own faith, and others in order to observe.

Among all of those people, you can find me too standing within the crowd, a Jewish teenager who never dreamt she would be standing on the square of the church. I was there as a part of a group of young brave people, who decided they want to live the dream of the forever promised peace, who decided they have the will and power to fulfill it. Along with my fellow Seeds of Peace, in a group consisting of Jews, Christians and Muslims, we stood there hand in hand, arm in arm, and within ourselves, heart to heart.

I remembered the words of prophet Isaiah taken from the bible, which was said some thousands years ago. All of a sudden, those words became a reality. Palestinians and Israelis CAN live together; Palestinians and Israelis CAN love one another. And when I think about harmony, and those words come to my mind, I see this picture, of myself with my Palestinian friends, on that Christmas night--This is harmony.

The ability to coexist and live peacefully with each other-we learnt from one another; we educated one another; we understood each other. We found out things we didn't know before. I know from experience that we can live in harmony. We can achieve a world in which every individual and every nation can freely express their individual qualities, while living in harmony with one another and with all life on earth, by reaching mutual comprehension, and most importantly, by respecting one another.

I will continue my efforts to bring together as many people as possible, here in my region, and help them through my experience and stories to accomplish a dialogue. This is something I have been doing for the last four years of my life, and I don't plan to stop, despite all difficulties, and despite criticism I get from people who'd rather fight in order to achieve their goals. I plan to go on until one day, if not I, then my kids will live in peace and harmony. My kids will know that what is called the enemy has a face; what we have thought to be a monster is a human being, just like me, just like everyone else. And hopefully one day when I have kids, they too will stand with their Palestinian friends in the Church of Nativity, within a crowd of people coming from all over the world, UNITED.