Interview with Participant Omri Gershon

We want you to now more about the participants so during the exchange we are going to let you know the participants by taking a few interviews. This is the first one in a long list.

Name: Omri Gershon
Age: 19
Occupation: volunteer at Sadaka Reut
Favorite food: my mom's pasta (with cheese and cream)

What was your first encounter with Sadaka Reut?

I grew up in the closed environment of the Kibbutz, a left winged Zionist community. The conflict between Jews and Arabs was a non-topic there. When I was 16, I got involved with an organization called Peace Child through my school. This organization does a two year project with teens that have Jewish as well as Palestinian backgrounds. The first year we worked separately and discussed the topics that were important or difficult for us. The second year we made a play together. I liked it, but I felt I wanted to do more, be more active, go outside the protected environment of the school and make real changes.

Then, in 2006, I received a letter from Sadaka about their summer camp. I went and decided I wanted to become a part of this organization, so I did! First I went to the groups (a project of Sadaka Reut in which Jewish and Arab youth meet to discuss their problems in groups), then I joined the commune (intensive leaderschip progrram in which Arab and Jewish youth live together for a year and learn to take an active role in their community) and it has been a great experience up until now.

Were there also some difficult times?

In the commune, life is very intense. Every month we discuss a different topic. One of the last topics was the war of 1948. We went to Hebron and East-Jerusalem and met with Palestinians who talked to us about their experience of that war. It was hard for me, it hit me almost like a bomb and I felt so angry. I couldn't understand why our army had done those things. Me and my friends, we want to live our life, but politics and adult make it so hard while it should be so easy. It's a natural thing, right, to live life?

Yes, it is. So how do you live your life in your free time?

In the weekends I go home to the Kibbutz and spend time with my friends. They know what I do in Sadaka and they respect me for it, but they don't share my beliefs. For me it's OK, I respect them in their choices also. We do regular stuff, we go to parties, listen to music. I like hip-hop, and can break-dance a bit ass well. When I was younger, I studied Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, because I wanted to do it myself.

Last question, because I know our female readers are dying to know: are you single?

Yes. (Unfortunately for our readers this changed during the exchange)

Great! Thank you very much for this interview.


Bert, Klaartje, Omri