Aziz Abu Sarah: For more tolerance, we need more ... tourism?
Aziz Abu Sarah: Pour plus de tolérance, il nous faut plus de ... tourisme ?
Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism. Full bio
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and a peacebuilder,
et faiseur de paix,
I remember watching television
j'ai le souvenir d'avoir vu à la télé
a fun thing to do.
devait être amusant.
and threw rocks,
jeter des pierres
to throw rocks at Israeli cars.
les jeter sur les voitures israélienne.
my neighbors' cars. (Laughter)
les voitures de mes voisins.
about my patriotism.
mon élan de patriotisme.
and I know what you're thinking:
et je sais ce que vous pensez :
what the heck happened to you?"
qu'est-ce qui a bien pu t'arriver ? »
of throwing stones.
pour avoir jeté des pierres.
to confess that he threw stones,
qu'il avait jeté des pierres,
des hémorragies internes
he was released from prison.
sa sortie de prison.
quand j'ai eu 18 ans.
Hebrew to get a job,
pour trouver un boulot,
in that classroom
en classe d'hébreu
who were not soldiers.
des Juifs qui n'étaient pas soldats.
like the fact that I love country music,
comme mon amour pour la musique Country,
for Palestinians.
pour un Palestinien.
that we have a wall of anger,
qu'il y avait un mur de colère,
that separates us.
qui nous séparait.
what happens to me.
ce qui pouvait m'arriver.
to dedicate my life
de passer ma vie
that separate people.
qui séparent les gens.
but also media and education,
les médias, et l'éducation.
really, can tourism change things?
ça peut changer les choses ?
to bring down those walls
durable pour démolir ces murs,
of connecting with each other
de connecter les gens entre eux
aims to connect people,
vise à connecter les gens,
notre modèle,
we would have two tour guides,
on avait deux guides
guiding the trips together,
qui partent en excursion
and archaeology and conflict
l'archéologie, les conflits
totalement différentes.
with a friend named Kobi --
un groupe avec mon ami Kobi --
the trip was in Jerusalem --
le groupe était à Jérusalem --
a Palestinian refugee camp,
dans un camp de réfugiés palestiniens,
Elle est géniale.
food called maqluba.
appelé maqluba.
and you flip it upside-down.
et on retourne le tout.
Israeli and Palestinian musicians,
israéliens et palestiniens
I'll teach you later.
je vous apprendrai plus tard.
des deux côtés,
they did not want to leave.
ils ne voulaient pas partir.
relationships still exist.
sont toujours en relation.
if the one billion people
qu'un million de personnes
every year travel like this,
voyagent chaque année comme ça,
from one side to another,
d'un côté à l'autre,
of their buses of people and cultures,
leurs coutumes par les fenêtres du bus
des connections.
a Muslim group from the U.K.
de Musulmans du Royaume-Uni
of an Orthodox Jewish family,
juive orthodoxe
dinners, that Sabbath dinner,
le vendredi soir, Shabath,
which is a Jewish food, a stew,
qui est un plat juif, une potée,
of realizing, after a while,
en comprenant,
their families came out
leurs familles étaient issues
for your Facebook.
à mettre sur Facebook.
C'est l'avenir du voyage,
to change your travel.
à changer les voyages.
everywhere to change the world.
pour changer le monde.
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