Listen To The Pain And Fears Of Each Other
A PUBLIC AFFAIR, WORT 89.9 FM, NOVEMBER 14, 2024
Allen Ruff is joined by Palestinian Osama Iliwat and Israeli Rotem Levin, who are peace activists currently on a speaking tour. The pair have spoken at a number of conferences in Germany, Israel, the West Bank, Mexico and are now on a US tour. They join Ruff to discuss their experiences growing up in very violent and militarized worlds and their eventual paths to peace work.
This program came just before Iliwat and Levin’s Madison speaking date on November 19th at Christ Presbyterian Church.
More on our guests:
Osama lliwat was born in Jerusalem where is family is originally from and was displaced like so many Palestinians. He grew up in Jericho during the first Intifada. He has been in the peace world for more than 15 years and co-founder of Visit Palestine. He has dedicated his life to nonviolent resistance working with different organizations such as: Sulha Peace Project, Interfaith Encounter Association and IPCRI appearing in several documentaries including Objector and The Other and regularly speaking on peacebuilding at organizations and universities around the world. Osama has made a name for himself in the Peace world with his collective liberation perspective and opting for peaceful resistance. When Osama is not working for peace internationally, he helps his community of Jericho and other communities in the west bank, supporting them to stay on their land and rebuilding homes, parks and educating. He also offers political educational tours in the West Bank and goes to schools to talk with Palestinians and Israelis about, amongst other things, non-violent resistance and communication. Osama taught himself Hebrew in order to connect on the land. He also participated in trauma and healing work to support people on the land. Osama was a speaker for TEDx Jaffa at the beginning of his peace journey and featured in many television interviews
Rotem Levin was born and raised in Ein Vered. After his military service he participated in a transformational intensive dialogue program in Germany where he got to know Palestinians on a personal and intimate level. This instigated a change in perspective on the story he was born and raised with. After this experience he started organizing similar programs in Aqaba, Jordan where he offered the experience to other post-military Israelis and for Palestinians and Israelis medical workers. He is a committed activist and doctor by profession. While studying medicine at Ben-Gurion University, he dedicated himself to learning Arabic and building solidarity relationships with Palestinians. He also worked with different peace organizations. Rotem moved to Beit Jala, a Palestinian village in the West Bank in 2020 in order to get to know his neighbours’ reality of living under military occupation, understand their culture and improve his Arabic. When Rotem is not giving conferences for Peace internationally he invests most of his time creating healing spaces for Israelis and Palestinians on the land.
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