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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Ryan Geertsma.
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And I'm Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is well reported by the media. International television, radio, newspaper and even internet websites share stories about the conflict almost every day.
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Many of these stories concentrate on the fighting and the extreme people involved. It is normal to see pictures of Israeli soldiers with guns. It is normal to hear the sounds of Palestinians celebrating in the streets after a suicide bombing in Israel.
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These, and other stories like them, are familiar generalizations used by the media. Years of conflict have separated the Palestinians and Israelis. The media has made their cultural and political differences well known. And these general stories shape the way many people understand the conflict. However, do these generalizations truly describe the conflict? Are these stories the stories of all Palestinians and Israelis?
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Many people might say yes, but today's Spotlight program is on an organization that would answer ‘no.' The organization is called the Parents' Circle - Family Forum. This Israeli and Palestinian organization uses media to show a different side of the people and conflict in the Middle East. It wants to show the human side and the side of peace.
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Parents' Circle is a group of Palestinians and Israelis. However, the members of this organization all share one important thing. They share the pain of losing a family member to the conflict.
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The members of the Parents' Circle come together and share their stories, pain and tears with each other. This process helps people begin to understand people from the other side of the conflict. And the families involved with Parents' Circle hope that this experience will encourage peace.
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You may remember another Spotlight program on the organization Parents' Circle - Family Forum. This program looked at one of Parents' Circle's earliest programs called Hello Shalom. This telephone program continues to help Palestinians and Israelis talk freely to people on the other side of the conflict.
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However, in the last three years, Parents' Circle has begun using other kinds of mass media to tell their stories.
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One of the leaders of the Parents' Circle is named Robi Daemlin. Robi lost her son David in the conflict. He was an Israeli soldier and he was killed by a Palestinian gunman on March 2, 2002. Soon after her son's death, Robi began attending Parents' Circle meetings. She told the radio program "Speaking of Faith,"
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"I understood right away that the biggest problem that we have as two nations is that we do not know each other. All we know is the blame created by the media...and that is really the base of all the work that we are doing. We work to take away this blame, to take away the idea that the other side is evil. This idea is fed by all the media around us, which feeds off extreme examples. You know, it is much more interesting to show an extreme person shouting from the top of a mountain about a greater Israel or to have the mother of a suicide bomber saying she is proud to have given her child for the Palestinian cause."
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Robi knows that these extreme stories are not the stories of common Israelis and Palestinians. She knows that many Israelis and Palestinians want peace. So, now she helps Parents' Circle tell the stories of its members in the media.
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Robi works closely with a Palestinian member of the Parents' Circle named Ali Abu Awad. Ali lost his brother Yusef in the conflict. Yusef was a citizen killed by an Israeli soldier.
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Together, Robi and Ali travel the world telling their stories to large groups of people. Robi and Ali have also told their stories through a documentary film called Encounter Point. This real life film shares the stories of Israelis and Palestinians that want to make peace. It questions generalizations about Israelis and Palestinians. It is also a film that encourages people to talk to people from the other side of the conflict.
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The film has been very successful for a small, independent documentary. It has won awards. And even though the film was released in 2006, it continues to be shown all over the world. The film's director talked about the film's success. She said,
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"It demonstrates that there is a demand for information about peace builders, the every day heroes all around us, and not just stories about political leaders and violent extreme people."
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Encounter Point has been one powerful way that Parents' Circle has shared their message. However, in 2008, Parents' Circle began another creative media project. This project was a television program on a major television provider in Israel-Palestine.
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Unlike the film Encounter Point, the television program was not about a true story. Instead, it is a created story about two women - one Palestinian and one Israeli. The program was called Good Intentions.
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The two characters in the story are named Amal and Tami. They work together on a cooking television show. However, the show is not only about cooking. It is about the lives of the two women. And about how they both struggle on their own sides of the conflict.
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In the show, Amal's brother is a Palestinian. He was shot by an Israeli soldier and is unable to walk. Amal has to care for her brother, and her daughter, and also work on the cooking show. Her family does not like that she works with Israelis. They think it is shameful. And many people make trouble for her and her daughter.
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Tami, the Israeli character, also struggles with the conflict. Tami fears for the safety of her son. He is a soldier in the Israeli army. And he feels like his mother is betraying her country by working with the enemy. Many of Tami's friends and other family members also think the same way. They think it is not good for her to work on television with a Palestinian.
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In the beginning of the series, these women work together, but they are not friends. However, over time, they begin to share their lives and struggles. And through this process, they begin to share each other's pain. They see each other as humans. And they recognize that the separation and fighting does not solve any problems.
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Good Intentions was recorded in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Hundreds of thousands of people from both sides of the conflict watched it. And unlike most television programs in Israel-Palestine, Good Intentions questioned the way Israelis and Palestinians thought about each other. Just like the Encounter Point film, the program shared the human stories of both sides.
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Parents Circle - Family Forum continues to bring individual Israelis and Palestinians together to share their stories. However, through film and television they are also sharing the human stories of Israelis and Palestinians through all of Israel-Palestine and around the world. It is their hope that these stories will change the media's generalizations about the conflict. And they hope that a new story will be told - a story of Palestinians and Israelis respecting each other as humans and finding ways to live together in peace.
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