Peace Conference Continued

Continued

Sorry! I didn’t mention that the speaker which we had on Thursday afternoon was Manuel Hassassian, the Head of the Palestinian Mission in the UK.

 

On Friday the first lecture was from Whit.

A few notes: he started an English version of the Siberian newspaper in order to fuel understanding between East of Russia and West of the United States post-Cold War. He spoke of how to facilitate a peace process and gave insight on on-going conflict in Kosovo.

 

My first Workshop of the day was led by Ricky, a First Year from Florida/Puerto Rico. It was called the Art of Deception, Persuasion. It wasn’t anything that I didn’t already know, but it was very entertaining to watch three of my co-years try and sell us dishwashers, putting the skills into action. Particularly Phillipa from Zambia, who has such an infectious laugh.

The last lecture of the conference was probably my favourite. It was led by Reinhard Krause, a German who started to work for REUTERS in 1989 as the Berlin Wall came down and covered all kinds of political, sports and international breaking stories. From 200 to 2004 he was Chief Photographer for Israel and the Palestinian Territories, based in Jerusalem. He is currently Global Pictures Editor.

Anyways he showed us videos of him taking pictures in Palestine. It was interesting to see the video, because it shows the before and after that lead up to the picture being taken and the situation in which he was in. He spoke about the ethical standard of taking photos, should you take a horrible picture? He would never take a photo for the sensation or entertainment, but would if he feels the need to show the world the issue.

When showing us a slideshow of the pictures he had taken, he deliberately mixed those of the Israeli and Palestinian ones. He also spoke of the complaints that there were being too many pictures of Palestinian funerals. He explained that this was because at that at the time there were more deaths. Also that the Palestinians funerals are more like demonstrations, whereas the Israeli funerals the family would ask him not to come, and of course he would respect those wishes. He said it was good when there were complaints coming from both sides, for this would mean that everyone is unhappy and that they were always touching the other sides nerves.

Then he moved on to a picture he took of a boy holding a hand grenade. Commentators did not question why this boy was holding it- but why was Reinhard taking the picture- which really was the wrong way around.
Finally he showed us a picture of a man pointing a gun, and that only when he enlarged the picture did he realise the man was pointing at him. When he is based in a certain country, he needs to work hard to not be partial to that side because of course he is trying to keep himself safe from the ‘enemy’ side. His biggest principle is to be the independent witness.

I also really liked the way he pronounced other: azzer.

 

My last workshop was led by Razan, a first year from Palestine. It was probably my favourite. She taught us about Seeds of Peace. It was something that I’d heard about but really knew nothing about. When she went two years ago (with Agat from Israel who was also in the classroom), it was mind-opening. Initially she wanted to go because her older brother loved it a few years prior. But two months before applying for it [for you have to thought the government] her brother was arrested and she was disheartened. Her parents convinced her. When there, she had dialogue sessions between Palestinians, Israelis and Americans [as mediators usually], that were extremely powerful. I really liked the philosophy behind these camps in Maine, and thought they were similar to that of UWC. If not a bit more focussed because there you’re not getting bogged down with school work and Universities.

We ended the session with a discussion on the definition of peace. The problem is there are just too many definitions to be able to attain it. One could be no killing. Another could be co-existing. I sat by Saleh, my co year from Palestine who said he didn’t really believe in peace. It was quite upsetting, but I had no powerful words to convince him of the contrary.