Fighters cross the divide for peace in Middle East
With the news that Israel has launched a rocket attack in the southern Gaza Strip killing six people, with the EU and US announcing their decision to cut funding to the Palestinian authority, it feels like yet another bad news day from the Middle East.
And then, comes the story of a remarkable group of people bravely working against the odds to settle their differences.
It's people like this who give us all hope.
"I stared at his face and he said 'why are you looking at me?' I said: 'I want to be convinced you are an Israeli Jew who commanded the Qalandiya checkpoint. I don't see this in you. You are a human being.'" Both men recall it as a deeply uncomfortable first encounter, despite Noam's harsh self-criticism over what he did as an Israeli soldier and officer. "He said: 'I consider all of what I've done is terrorism,'" Bassam recalled. "I told him: 'It's true. All you did is terrorism.'"
Both men are part of a unique and unprecedented 120-strong group of Israeli and Palestinian ex-fighters who have been meeting in secret across enemy lines for over a year. On Monday they will publicly launch themselves as "Combatants for Peace" to campaign both against occupation and against violence as a means of achieving peace.
Bassam thinks the West should give Hamas a chance. "I think Hamas will make peace," he says. A more sceptical Noam interjects quietly in Arabic, "Inshallah" - god willing.
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