My Peace Simulation | by: Shana Hazboun, CRC Ambassador

As a young first year student at the Eastern Mediterranean International School, I quickly began to be introduced to all the complexities that surround the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. I began to hear opinions that were completely new to my ears, I began to learn facts that have never occurred to me, and I interacted with Israelis for the first time. This was all mind-boggling to me. My brain only knew what Israel was from either the news, checkpoints, or shopping malls. One of the more significant moments of my pathway to exploring the conflict from both perspectives, firsthand, was the Peace Simulation initiated and carried out by the Leon Charney Resolution Center.

All EMIS students, Palestinian, Israeli, and International were expected to show up, be assigned to either track one, or track two. In track one, the students would be assigned to a delegation, either Israeli, or Palestinian, and start negotiating a possibility of peace. I was one of them, a young first year student who was taken back with everything both politically and socially. I realized what we had to do, it was simple. Sit around a table with your friends, and negotiate a possibility of peace. All it took was fifteen minutes for me to realize that we were going in loops, everything that was negotiated, I found an objection for. I wanted something realistic, something possible, something I knew my people would get by, understand, and work hard towards, and vice versa.

My negativity but realism put my group down. It made me cry. I barged out of the room, I just needed a breath of fresh air in the EMIS’ bubble. It was not too long before I saw EMIS’ mission coordinator sitting next to me on the bench, asking me if I was okay. I told him simply that I did not want to go back there, because nothing made sense to me, and nothing that I was saying made sense to others. He felt my frustration, and asked me to take an hour-long break to reflect, and if then I was ready to go back, I would join ‘Track 2’.

I managed to wipe my tears, calm down, have a sip or two of water, and slowly began to make my way towards the second floor of the Charney building where the second track took place. I sat down in a smaller room, with less people, in a more intimate environment. I found myself with the same dilemma. I waited for the break, apologized to the mediator that I will not be coming back, and left to find the coordinator again, to tell him that it was I needed to come to peace with myself first before finding a solution for a peace process that was a lot older than my parents even.

That was a moment of realization for me. I realized the complexity of the conflict. The endless wants and needs of both people groups were too much for my brain to comprehend. I also envied those who saw a much brighter future due to the simplicity they had embedded within them and their emotions, it was something that I just could not grasp back then, and I still am not able to grasp it fully, now.