Aziz Abu Sarah: For more tolerance, we need more ... tourism?
Aziz Abu Sarah: Daha fazla hoşgörü için ihitiyacımız olan daha fazla ... turizm mi?
Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
and a peacebuilder,
girişimciyim ve arabulucuyum,
I remember watching television
a fun thing to do.
and threw rocks,
to throw rocks at Israeli cars.
fırlatmam gerektiğinin farkında olmadan.
my neighbors' cars. (Laughter)
arabasını taşlamıştım. (Gülüşmeler)
about my patriotism.
and I know what you're thinking:
ve şunu düşündüğünüzü biliyorum:
what the heck happened to you?"
of throwing stones.
to confess that he threw stones,
he was released from prison.
bir takım iç yaralanmaları vardı.
Hebrew to get a job,
gerektiğine karar verdim.
in that classroom
ve İbranice öğrenmeye başladım.
who were not soldiers.
bir Yahudi ile ilk defa karşılaştım.
like the fact that I love country music,
gibi bir takım küçük şeylerle iletişim kurduk.
for Palestinians.
that we have a wall of anger,
that separates us.
duvarların olduğunu ilk defa farkettim.
what happens to me.
fark etmediğine karar verdim.
to dedicate my life
that separate people.
but also media and education,
bunun yanı sıra medya ve eğitim de var.
really, can tourism change things?
gerçekten bir şeyleri değiştirebilir mi?
to bring down those walls
of connecting with each other
en iyi sürdürülebilir yöntem.
aims to connect people,
we would have two tour guides,
birlikte rehberlik edecekler,
guiding the trips together,
and archaeology and conflict
with a friend named Kobi --
bir geziyi idare ettiğimizi hatırlıyorum.
topluluğu idi ve gezi Kudüs'te idi.
the trip was in Jerusalem --
Filistintililerin yaşadığı bir mülteci kampına
a Palestinian refugee camp,
O çok iyi birisidir.
food called maqluba.
and you flip it upside-down.
ve altını üstüne çeviriyorsunuz.
oluşturduğu bir müzik grubuna katıldık
Israeli and Palestinian musicians,
I'll teach you later.
they did not want to leave.
relationships still exist.
sonra da hala devam ediyor.
if the one billion people
every year travel like this,
from one side to another,
ve kültürleri fotoğraflamadığını
of their buses of people and cultures,
bağ kurduğunu hayal edin.
a Muslim group from the U.K.
of an Orthodox Jewish family,
dinners, that Sabbath dinner,
which is a Jewish food, a stew,
of realizing, after a while,
their families came out
ilişkin bağın farkına vardıklarını hatırlıyorum.
for your Facebook.
to change your travel.
değiştirerek bana katılmaya davet ediyorum.
değiştirebileceğimizi düşünüyoruz.
everywhere to change the world.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aziz Abu Sarah - Entrepreneur + educatorAziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism.
Why you should listen
When Aziz Abu Sarah was a boy, his older brother was arrested on charges of throwing stones. He was taken to prison and beaten — and died of his injuries. Sarah grew up angry, bitter and wanting revenge. But when later in life he met, for the first time, Jews who were not soldiers, Sarah had an epiphany: Not only did they share his love of small things, namely country music, but coming face to face with the “enemy” compelled him to find ways to overcome hatred, anger and fear.
Sarah founded MEJDI Tours to send tourists to Jerusalem with two guides, one Jewish and one Palestinian, each offering a different history and narrative of the city. Sarah tells success stories of tourists from the US visiting a Palestinian refugee camp and listening to joint Arab and Jewish bands play music, and of a Muslim family from the UK sharing Sabbath dinner with a Jewish family and realizing that 100 years ago, their people came from the same town in Northern Africa. MEJDI is expanding its service to Iran, Turkey, Ireland and other regions suffering from cultural conflict. If more of the world’s 1 billion tourists were to engage with real people living real lives, argues Sarah, it would be a powerful force for shattering sterotypes and promoting understanding, friendship and peace.
Aziz Abu Sarah | Speaker | TED.com