An Extraordinary Friendship - Meet Neriya and Sama
Neriya Mark and Sama Daoud are friends and neighbors. So what makes their friendship so extraordinary? Neriya is Jewish and Sama is Palestinian Arab and they’ve grown up together in a community called Neve-Shalom-Wahat al-Salam in Israel. When they were younger they were in the same class, but now at age 14, they go to different high schools outside of the community.Like most Israeli citizens, Neriya is Jewish. Sama, like one-fifth of Israel’s population, is Palestinian Arab with Israeli citizenship.
Read the interview with both of them:
How is living here different from living in the other towns and villages near you?
Sama: Here, Arabs and Jews are living together for peace. Usually, in Israel, Arabs and Jews don’tlive together – and if they do, it isn’t for the purpose of peace. Here we learn about each other and each other’s customs, unlike other places in Israel where they don’t try to learn like this.
Neriya: Also, here there is no hatred or racism between Jews and Arabs.
How do your classmates feel about the Arab-Jewish conflicts in Israel?
Sama: At my school we all try to understand both sides. We see that both sides make mistakes, not just the Jews or the Arabs. The opinions of the kids are different though – not that they are racist, but they have opinions similar to those of most other Arabs in Israel. Like they all sympathize with the Palestinians.
Neriya: Yes, that’s one thing that is different – at Neve Shalom everybody basically has the same opinion. At my school, especially now since the second intifada got started (the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000), a lot of kids have different opinions from me and my view isn’t that of the majority. It’s hard to express my own opinion sometimes when so many other kids oppose it.
Neriya: Yes, that’s one thing that is different – at Neve Shalom everybody basically has the same opinion. At my school, especially now since the second intifada got started (the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000), a lot of kids have different opinions from me and my view isn’t that of the majority. It’s hard to express my own opinion sometimes when so many other kids oppose it.
Is peace a grown-ups’ problem or is it everybody’s problem?
Sama: It’s a problem for everybody not just the grown-ups’.
