Aziz Abu Sarah: For more tolerance, we need more ... tourism?
Aziz Abu Sarah: Si queremos más tolerancia, necesitamos más... ¿turismo?
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,
y constructor de la paz,
I remember watching television
haber visto en la TV
a fun thing to do.
algo divertido de hacer.
and threw rocks,
a tirar piedras,
to throw rocks at Israeli cars.
debía tirar piedras a los autos israelíes.
my neighbors' cars. (Laughter)
los autos de mis vecinos. (Risas)
about my patriotism.
and I know what you're thinking:
y sé lo que están pensando:
what the heck happened to you?"
of throwing stones.
de tirar piedras.
to confess that he threw stones,
a confesar que tiró piedras,
tuvo lesiones internas
he was released from prison.
de librarse de la prisión.
Hebrew to get a job,
para conseguir empleo
in that classroom
who were not soldiers.
que no eran soldados.
like the fact that I love country music,
como que me encanta la música country,
for Palestinians.
that we have a wall of anger,
también de que tenemos un muro de ira,
that separates us.
what happens to me.
es cómo enfrento eso.
to dedicate my life
decidí dedicar mi vida
that separate people.
que separan a las personas.
but also media and education,
también los medios y la educación,
really, can tourism change things?
¿el turismo puede cambiar las cosas?
to bring down those walls
para derribar esos muros
of connecting with each other
de conexión mutua
aims to connect people,
objetivo conectar a las personas,
we would have two tour guides,
tendría dos guías turísticos,
guiding the trips together,
guiando los viajes juntos,
and archaeology and conflict
la arqueología y el conflicto
totalmente diferentes.
with a friend named Kobi --
con un amigo llamado Kobi
the trip was in Jerusalem --
el viaje fue en Jerusalén--
a Palestinian refugee camp,
un campo de refugiados palestinos,
esta comida espléndida.
Ella es genial.
food called maqluba.
llamada maqluba.
and you flip it upside-down.
y se la da vuelta.
Israeli and Palestinian musicians,
de músicos israelíes y palestinos,
I'll teach you later.
they did not want to leave.
no querían irse.
relationships still exist.
todavía existen esas relaciones.
if the one billion people
1000 millones de personas
every year travel like this,
hicieran eso,
from one side to another,
de un lado al otro,
of their buses of people and cultures,
sus buses, de las personas y las culturas,
a Muslim group from the U.K.
a un grupo musulmán del R.U.
of an Orthodox Jewish family,
dinners, that Sabbath dinner,
la cena de shabat,
which is a Jewish food, a stew,
una comida típica judía, un guiso,
of realizing, after a while,
al cabo de un rato,
their families came out
sus familias vinieron
del norte de África.
for your Facebook.
para su Facebook.
to change your travel.
cambien su forma de viajar.
everywhere to change the world.
para cambiar el mundo.
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