Aziz Abu Sarah: For more tolerance, we need more ... tourism?
Aziz Abu Sarah: Ca să fim mai toleranți avem nevoie de... turism?
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,
și activist pentru pace,
că mă uitam la televizor
I remember watching television
a fun thing to do.
și am aruncat cu pietre,
and threw rocks,
să le arunc în mașinile israeliene.
to throw rocks at Israeli cars.
vecinilor mei. (Râsete)
my neighbors' cars. (Laughter)
about my patriotism.
and I know what you're thinking:
și știu la ce vă gândiți:
what the heck happened to you?"
a fost arestat când avea 18 ani,
acuzat că ar fi aruncat cu pietre.
of throwing stones.
să admită că aruncase cu pietre
to confess that he threw stones,
he was released from prison.
după eliberarea sa din închisoare.
când aveam 18 ani.
pentru a-mi găsi de lucru.
Hebrew to get a job,
in that classroom
primii evrei care nu erau soldați.
who were not soldiers.
like the fact that I love country music,
că îmi place muzica country,
for Palestinians.
that we have a wall of anger,
de ură și de ignoranță care ne desparte.
that separates us.
what happens to me.
ce se întâmplă cu mine.
to dedicate my life
that separate people.
care despart oamenii.
dar și mass-media și educația.
but also media and education,
really, can tourism change things?
să schimbe lucrurile, să dărâme zidurile?
de a le dărâma aceste ziduri,
to bring down those walls
of connecting with each other
care urmărește să conecteze oamenii.
aims to connect people,
de exemplu, în Ierusalim, avem doi ghizi,
we would have two tour guides,
care însoțesc grupul împreună,
guiding the trips together,
arheologie și conflicte,
and archaeology and conflict
împreună cu un prieten pe nume Kobi
with a friend named Kobi --
the trip was in Jerusalem --
veniți la Ierusalim –
de refugiați palestinieni.
a Palestinian refugee camp,
e nemaipomenită.
food called maqluba.
e maqluba, adică „cu susul în jos”,
apoi întoarsă cu susul în jos.
and you flip it upside-down.
israelieni și palestinieni
Israeli and Palestinian musicians,
vă arăt mai târziu.
I'll teach you later.
pentru că nimeni nu voia să plece.
they did not want to leave.
relationships still exist.
care călătoresc în străinătate pe an
if the one billion people
every year travel like this,
dintr-un loc în altul,
from one side to another,
of their buses of people and cultures,
autobuzului, cu oameni și culturi,
relații reale cu oameni.
de musulmani din Marea Britanie
a Muslim group from the U.K.
de evrei ortodocși
of an Orthodox Jewish family,
la o masă de Sabat
dinners, that Sabbath dinner,
which is a Jewish food, a stew,
o tocană evreiască,
după o vreme,
of realizing, after a while,
their families came out
din același loc din Africa de Nord.
să faci paradă pe Facebook.
for your Facebook.
să vă schimbați obiceiurile.
to change your travel.
în Irlanda, în Iran, în Turcia,
ca să schimbăm lumea.
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