United We Stand
By Lydia Aisenberg
August 1, 2008
Like many of his Jewish peers, sixteen years old London schoolboy Adam Bowers is spending one month of his summer break on Israel Tour with the British Masorti youth movement Noam.
Recently all 120 Noam teens on tour participated in a one day seminar with the International Department’s team of educators and guest speaker Amir Gara, a lawyer who studied in Britain and like Adam, is an avid football fan.
The paths of the Jewish teen from London and the 30 something-years old Arab Muslim lawyer from Wadi Ara would never have crossed had it not been for the coexistence seminar on the youngster’s itinerary.
During the course of his discussion with the youngsters, Amir touched upon his love of sport. Football being his main interest, he is also a snooker champion and recently represented Israel in an international competition held in Poland.
“Until recent years my friends and I didn’t really support the Israeli national football team when they played in international games purely because the whole team was made up of Jewish players even though there were many talented Arab players in league teams in the country but they weren’t even considered,” Amir told Adam – an avid supporter of Manchester United Football Club - and his friends.
“However, in recent years this has changed. We now have a number of Arab players on the national team and even stars of the team and this makes us feel a certain element of acceptance in Israel – at least on the football field,” he said somewhat tongue in cheek before explaining areas where Arab citizens of Israel are not exactly walking a level playing field with that of their Jewish peers.
When Amir touched on different areas of inequality between Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens, the British teens asked a slew of difficult questions and although at times found it almost impossible to sit and listen to his comments, they proved they could do what many of their elders seem to fail miserably at – let ‘the other’ finish before heaping on their own comments and questions of the speaker.
“I really respect that Amir was being honest in his presentation of how things look from his side of the equation and even though I don’t agree with many of his comments it certainly has given me a great deal to think about,” said one young lady after the session.
Adam Bowers, who visited Israel only once before on a family holiday, said he found the seminar thought provoking and appreciated the chance to deal with the sensitive issues on the program.
“This is the first time I have had the opportunity to look at the other side. There are always two sides to a story but we tend to forget that,” said the Londoner at the end of the seminar.
“I am beginning to see things from a different perspective. That there might be racial and religious discrimination in Israel never occurred to me and the necessary ingredients for peaceful coexistence now more difficult to pinpoint,” Adam said with detectable sadness in his voice.
“I go to a non-Jewish school and my school does not shy away from engaging with difficult religions and backgrounds. Everyone has an opinion and seems to me the main problem is that people don’t value each other’s opinions.
“When people accept the opinion or narrative of the other then we can begin to move forward whether that be back home in Britain or here in Israel,” concluded Adam who intends to try and do what he can to make a difference wherever and whenever the opportunity arises.