Northeastern Ohioans promote Mid East peace
Your Way Home, November 26, 2007
Peace in the Middle East is not being left solely to international peace talks this week in Maryland. Some Northeastern Ohioans are raising awareness about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their own communities.
Douglas Kerr is a pediatrician at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and a professor at Case Western Reserve University. He and his wife were part of a peace delegation to Israel and Palestine earlier this month. Kerr was born in Lebanon and his brother, who was president of the American University of Beirut, was killed by terrorists in 1984. Since then, Kerr speaks often about the Middle East conflict and advocates compassion and understanding.
"The alternatives are frightening, because there could be an ongoing state of war indefinitely affecting generations," he said.
The Bush Administration organized a peace summit this week in Annapolis, Maryland, with 40 countries. Kerr's wife, Mary Ann, thinks the conference will be critical in shaping U.S. relations in the Middle East. She said Arab countries are focused on the Israeli-Palestinian situation and U.S. policies can make a "huge difference in how [Arabs] think about the United States and how much they can trust us."
John Tuzcu joined the Kerrs on the Interfaith Peace Builders trip. He found reality far worse than what he had expected.
"Reading about military checkpoints, reading about this giant separation wall that's going through the West Bank, you know reading about what a militarized country Israel is," Tuzcu said. "It's a completely different experience when you actually see what's going on on the ground."
Media accounts are disconnected from much of reality, he said.
"You don't hear the voices of the grassroots or the people that are struggling for peace," he said. "Instead we hear about a certain group of people that are inherently violent and inherently not interested in peace."
The grassroots effort is reaching area campuses. Case Western's Students for Justice in Palestine formed last semester. Zeyad Schwen, whose mother was a Palestinian refuge, co-founded the group.
"We're thinking of ways we can bring information to the students here on campus that they will not get from just regular TV," he said.
Schwen says his group is discussing reaching out to Jewish-based groups on campus to facilitate the peace-making process locally.