Make peace, not war!

in #life9 years ago

Just found out an extraordinary staff while scrolling fb newsfeed after working day. This is a cool peace-making project from Middle East. To be brief, I'd better quote what they write about themselves on their website:

"The YaLa Academy’s Aileen Getty School of Citizen Journalism brings together leading journalists and new media experts to train Middle Eastern and African youth in basic journalism techniques, photo- and video-journalism and 21st Century activism. Building upon an initiative launched in 2014 in partnership with the U.S. Institute of Peace, this online program is a unique combination of new media training and peacebuilding experience. In regions where media is too often a tool for nationalism, division and fear, YaLa citizen journalists are being empowered to express themselves and tell a very different kind of story."

After that I've read the amazing feedback of a friend of mine who was on this School in 2015. She was like WOW DAT'S AMAZING I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW IT BROADENED MY HORIZONS and so on and...

I clicked the link. As I knew from my previous experience (once I took part in a leadership summit for Jewish Youth Movement 17-30 years old), I was prepared that now I must write a lot of staff and bla bla. But even the bla-bla can be serious. Especially, when you try to speak on issues like peace-making in the Middle East. Even this combination of words ad aims sounds like stupid joke for the majority. But, as I love journalism, love break down barriers and actually love Middle East as I started live there, I decided to take part in this.

In the main body of application I should have written 2 small texts. I will bring them below. I sincerely ask all grammar nazis and Middle East conflicts experts to go fuck theirself somewhere not in Steemit. I look forward to your feedback and of course I hope to take part in this school. If my application will be approved, I would start another series of stories. This time on peace-making in the Middle East issues. I think it's gonna be awesome, steemers!

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Why do you want to join the YaLa Citizen Journalism Program?

Life in Israel has started for me from reflecting on the new identity, which differs from the environment that I came from originally. It started from the question "what is to be a Jew?" and "who is a Jew?" and broadened to other aspects of my new life: new economical or political logic and tendencies need to be cleared. Many issues that seemed unimportant in your home country (like feminism, xenophobia or human rights) became the foundation stone of a new lifestyle. All what you knew before has to be reviewed. And it should be reviewed not only in philosophical or metaphysical way of understanding. You should also fill the gaps in your education, which couldn’t be covered before, because of a lack of material and right people around you. After all, through realizing these key points for yourself, you will be more prepared and competent to share your own view and the views of others from the perspective of a third side, or from the first face, where it is necessary and appropriate.

Write a few paragraphs on one of these topics: Identity, Peace-Building, Gender-Equality, Social Justice.

Each state in the Middle East put at the forefront the nationalism principle as one of the main. However, even in such a conservative environment as Israel, Algeria, Iraq, Syria and other states, the definition of a national identity seems blurred in many cases. Even the common name of Israel – Jewish State – always leaves more questions than answers.

Especially, in the situation when people, usually called Jews in the countries of their origin, move to Israel where in many cases they are treated as goys or fake Jews. And the borders of domestic nationalism broaden even on them and more and more often it looks like a banal fascism and violation of rights. By this I mean Russian minority in Israel. Thousands of people moved to Haretz according to the Law of Return. To be Jew formally and to be Jew in Israeli society in reality turned out to be very different for many Russian Jews. As many organizations started their activity on the territory of former Soviet Union and in Israel itself, a lot of public discussions on the issue appeared. With the development of technologies and platforms, from year to year people could observe the expansion of the scope of discussions. They became younger with time and the people who took part in it became more educated and open-minded. The question remained the same: what is to be a Jew?

It has never been a matter of your intellectual or physical ability to formulate the strict definition of the phenomena. It couldn't also be a matter of feeling or emotion. The thing is that there are no rules for such discussions except for the laws of logic and banal intellectual hygiene to avoid ethical and moral conflicts (how naive, isn't it?). I recently formulated kind of a summary for myself: to be a Jew is to reflect on the theme of what is to be a Jew.

Of course, some religious guys wouldn't be so ambiguous and unspecified on such issues. Fortunately for them, the answers on the challenge are already given in the holy books without any chance to be interpreted. I'm not rabbi or imam, but I still got my own thinking on the issue. And who doesn't?

Stay tuned!