Jeg er en turisme-entreprenør og en fredsskaber men det her er hvordan, jeg startede. Jeg kan huske, at jeg så tv, da jeg var 7 år gammel, og så folk kaste med sten, hvortil jeg tænkte, at det måtte være sjovt at gøre. Så jeg gik ud på gaderne og kastede med sten, uden at indse, at det var meningen, at jeg skulle kaste efter israelernes biler. I stedet endte jeg med at stene mine naboers biler. De var ikke entusiastiske over min fædrelandskærlighed.
I'm a tourism entrepreneur and a peacebuilder, but this is not how I started. When I was seven years old, I remember watching television and seeing people throwing rocks, and thinking, this must be a fun thing to do. So I got out to the street and threw rocks, not realizing I was supposed to throw rocks at Israeli cars. Instead, I ended up stoning my neighbors' cars. (Laughter) They were not enthusiastic about my patriotism.
Det her er mit billede af mig og min bror. Jeg er den lille, og jeg ved, hvad I tænker: "Du plejede at se så sød ud, hvad fanden skete der med dig?" Men min bror, der er ældre end mig, blev arresteret, da han var 18, og blev taget til fængslet for at kaste med sten. Han blev banket, da han nægtede at tilstå, at han havde kastet med sten. Som følge fik han indre kvæstelser, der resulterede i hans død, kort efter han var sat fri fra fængsel.
This is my picture with my brother. This is me, the little one, and I know what you're thinking: "You used to look cute, what the heck happened to you?" But my brother, who is older than me, was arrested when he was 18, taken to prison on charges of throwing stones. He was beaten up when he refused to confess that he threw stones, and as a result, had internal injuries that caused his death soon after he was released from prison.
Jeg var rasende, jeg var bitter, og alt, jeg længtes efter, var hævn.
I was angry, I was bitter, and all I wanted was revenge.
Men det ændrede sig, da jeg var 18. Jeg besluttede mig for, at jeg havde brug for hebraisk for at få et job, og at studere hebraisk i det klasselokale, var den første gang, jeg mødte jøder, der ikke var soldater. Og vi forbandt os over virkelig små ting som det, at jeg elsker country-musik, hvilket er virkeligt sært for palæstinensere. Men det var også der, jeg indså, at vi har en mur af vrede, af had og af uvidenhed, der skiller os ad. Jeg besluttede, at det er ligegyldigt, hvad jeg kommer ud for. Hvad, der tæller, er hvordan jeg håndterer det. Og derfor besluttede jeg at dedikere mit liv til at rive murene, der skiller folk ad, ned.
But that changed when I was 18. I decided that I needed Hebrew to get a job, and going to study Hebrew in that classroom was the first time I ever met Jews who were not soldiers. And we connected over really small things, like the fact that I love country music, which is really strange for Palestinians. But it was then that I realized also that we have a wall of anger, of hatred and of ignorance that separates us. I decided that it doesn't matter what happens to me. What really matters is how I deal with it. And therefore, I decided to dedicate my life to bringing down the walls that separate people.
Jeg gør det på mange måder. Turisme er en af dem, men det er medier og uddannelse også. Du undrer dig nok over, om turisme virkelig kan ændre tingene. Kan det rive mure ned? Ja. Turisme er den mest holdbare måde at nedbringe disse mure og skabe en holdbar måde at forbinde os til hinanden og skabe venskaber.
I do so through many ways. Tourism is one of them, but also media and education, and you might be wondering, really, can tourism change things? Can it bring down walls? Yes. Tourism is the best sustainable way to bring down those walls and to create a sustainable way of connecting with each other and creating friendships.
I 2009 blev jeg medstifter af Mejdi Tours, en social virksomhed, der har til formål at forbinde folk, i øvrigt med to jødiske venner, og det, vi gjorde, var eksempelvis i Jerusalem havde vi to rejseledere, en israelsk og en palæstinensisk, der guidede ture sammen, hvor de forklarede historie, arkæologi og konflikt fra helt forskellige perspektiver. Jeg kan huske en tur med en ven kaldet Kobi - jødisk menighed fra Chicago, turen var i Jerusalem - og vi tog dem med til en palæstinensisk flygtningelejr, hvor vi fik fantastisk mad. I øvrigt er dette min mor. Hun er cool. Og det er palæstinensisk mad kaldet maqluba. Det betyder "på hovedet". Man koger det med ris og kylling og vender det så på hovedet. Det er det klart bedste måltid. Og vi spiste sammen. Så havde vi et band, israelske og palæstinensiske musikere, og vi dansede mavedans. Kender I ikke til det, så vil jeg lære jer det senere. Men da vi gik, begyndte begge sider at græde, fordi de ikke havde lyst til at gå. Tre år senere eksisterer de forhold stadig.
In 2009, I cofounded Mejdi Tours, a social enterprise that aims to connect people, with two Jewish friends, by the way, and what we'll do, the model we did, for example, in Jerusalem, we would have two tour guides, one Israeli and one Palestinian, guiding the trips together, telling history and narrative and archaeology and conflict from totally different perspectives. I remember running a trip together with a friend named Kobi -- Jewish congregation from Chicago, the trip was in Jerusalem -- and we took them to a refugee camp, a Palestinian refugee camp, and there we had this amazing food. By the way, this is my mother. She's cool. And that's the Palestinian food called maqluba. It means "upside-down." You cook it with rice and chicken, and you flip it upside-down. It's the best meal ever. And we'll eat together. Then we had a joint band, Israeli and Palestinian musicians, and we did some belly-dancing. If you don't know any, I'll teach you later. But when we left, both sides, they were crying because they did not want to leave. Three years later, those relationships still exist.
Forestil jer, hvis en milliard mennesker, der rejser internationalt, hvert år ville rejse ligesom vi gjorde, hvor man ikke tager bussen fra den ene side til den anden, fra et hotel til det næste, og tager billeder fra bussen af menneskerne og kulturerne, men rent faktisk skaber en forbindelse med folk.
Imagine with me if the one billion people who travel internationally every year travel like this, not being taken in the bus from one side to another, from one hotel to another, taking pictures from the windows of their buses of people and cultures, but actually connecting with people.
Jeg husker at have en muslimsk gruppe fra Storbritannien, hvor vi tog til en ortodoks jødisk families hus, hvor vi havde deres første sabbatmåltid, hvor vi spiste hamin, der er en jødisk gryderet, og følte forbindelsen af efter lidt tid at indse, at for nogle hundrede år siden kom deres familier fra det samme sted i det nordlige Afrika. Det er ikke et profilbillede til din facebookprofil. Det er ikke katastrofeturisme. Det er fremtiden for rejser, og jeg inviterer jer til at ændre måden, I rejser på, med mig. Vi gør det over hele kloden lige nu, fra Irland til Iran til Tyrkiet, og vi kan se os selv rejse til alle mulige steder for at ændre verden.
You know, I remember having a Muslim group from the U.K. going to the house of an Orthodox Jewish family, and having their first Friday night dinners, that Sabbath dinner, and eating together hamin, which is a Jewish food, a stew, just having the connection of realizing, after a while, that a hundred years ago, their families came out of the same place in Northern Africa. This is not a photo profile for your Facebook. This is not disaster tourism. This is the future of travel, and I invite you to join me to do that, to change your travel. We're doing it all over the world now, from Ireland to Iran to Turkey, and we see ourselves going everywhere to change the world.
Tak.
Thank you.