The first meeting with a person whom you have your entire life considered to be an enemy can alter your perspective. It can even turn things utterly upside down. The trip from Ramallah to Jerusalem for the purpose of meeting Yossi helped me re-evaluate the relations between the two sides of our conflict, irrespective of the years of suffering and the price we’ve paid.

Perhaps the enemy’s good intentions and willingness to reconcile will eventually bring down the barriers and checkpoints. Such intentions to create peace exist in the hearts of good, loving people.  Being able to see beyond the constraints of your own narrative after a first meeting with a person from the enemy’s side is proof that the only way to overcome barriers and obstacles between the two sides is through conducting face-to-face dialogue. This is the only way to hasten the process towards a solution that will enable us to coexist and build a flourishing future.

Meeting Yossi and his colleagues changed a lot of my prejudgments, thoughts and ideological viewpoints. It also proved to me that making peace requires a lot of effort, time and patience, and that the most important thing is to start a process so that we don’t leave our fate in the hands of extremists. 

For your knowledge, Yossi is the first Jew with whom I have sat, met and held a conversation. I found him to be a tactful, honest and nice person. I feel like I have known him for a long time, probably because I read his book and have been interacting with his staff on the Facebook page for a while. I can truly say that now I have a friend whose name is Yossi. On this occasion I would like to note that the rest of the participants in the meeting were as tactful and humble as Yossi.

Salah from Palestine

———————————————————————————————————–

If you would like to read Salah’s letter of response to the book which was sent several months ago, before meeting Yossi, please check this link