A Palestinian activist and his Jewish-American "brother" foster dialogue in war-torn countries
NEW YORK -- Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, tensions have been on the rise in America. But two friends, one Palestinian and one Jewish-American, have been working to foster a more meaningful dialogue between people living in war-torn countries and the rest of the world. By founding a travel organization dedicated to sharing multiple perspectives from conflicts zones, Aziz Abu Sarah and Scott Cooper seek to heal divides and make the world a more peaceful place.
Born to a Muslim family living in Jerusalem's West Bank, Abu Sarah remembered throwing stones at passing Israeli cars. His older brother Tayseer was arrested on suspicion on stone throwing and detained for a year when Abu Sarah was nine years old. His brother died shortly after being incarcerated by the Israeli police, which Abu Sarah's family attributed to beating he received while in prison.
Abu Sarah initially sought vengeance for his brothers death by attending anti-Israeli rallies, throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers and writing political pamphlets. Only after Abu Sarah studied Hebrew at the age of 18 did his perspective change. For the first time, he learned to see the humanity in his fellow classmates as they welcomed into the classroom. He soon formed friendships with Jewish immigrants. Today, Abu Sarah is a peace builder and activist that tries to bridge gaps between communities.
Cooper, a Jewish-American, took multiple trips to Israel and chose to venture off the traditional tour route to meet the Arab community living in the West bank. He discovered Israeli and Palestinian peace builders working together to resolve conflicts. After the trip, Cooper quit his job in finance to study conflict and became a social entrepreneur dedicated to world peace.
Abu Sarah and Cooper met in New York City in 2008 through a mutual friend, and they quickly hit it off. Together, they created Medji Tours, a socially conscious travel company that encourages individuals to travel to the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia to hear various perspectives regarding conflict. They offer tour guides that provide a multitude of narratives and arrange for tourists to meet up with locals. They hope to build empathy and eradicate prejudices through meaningful interactions.
Speaking of the ongoing war in Gaza, Abu Sarah said, "The problem we have is we often ignore this issue until it explodes. Communities that didn't want to talk about this issue, and suddenly now it's exploding. It's exploding because we didn't learn how to talk about it, there was no space for talking about it. And now to come and talk about it is much harder, because people have so much emotions. We need to talk to each other, we cant live in our echo chambers ... So we need to verify. We need to talk to people from the other side. Call your Muslim, your Jewish friend, ask them how they feel what's going on. Don't jump to conclusions right away. And if you calling for a ceasefire, you're not anti-Israel or anti-Jewish, if you calling for release of the hostages, you're not anti-Palestinian and anti Muslim. We need to be careful of how quickly we label people. We often think it's all about justice. I think a lot of what happens around us is about vengeance, not about justice. But people feel it's about justice. We need more people to come to the table for a conversation."
