VOA标准英语2014--Jews and Arabs Campaign for Peace on Facebook, Twitter

 

Jews and Arabs Campaign for Peace on Facebook, Twitter

NEW YORK —

Abraham Gutman, an Israeli Jew, and Dania Darwish, a Syrian-American Muslim, met in a global politics class at Hunter College in New York, and became friends, despite their political differences. As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalated¹ in July, they were disturbed by the fury they saw on social media.

"We felt like Facebook is becoming more and more hateful, that every comment is more polarizing, and almost all the comments on my Facebook and Twitter feed were very black and white, and strongly worded," Gutman said.

So, early in July, as the conflict in Gaza exploded, he and Darwish started a Facebook and Twitter campaign: Jews & Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies. The idea was simple: post photographs by Jews and Arabs and Muslims who happen to be friends, lovers, spouses² - or who just want to send a message of peace.

"We wanted to create a space where people had the same experience we had with each other, that you can disagree, but you can have a debate, and try to be part of a solution in a productive way," he said.

"The campaign was created really just [to] allow people to see people as people, and not the enemy, and not the 'other side,'" Darwish said.

In barely three weeks, the Facebook page has garnered³ tens of thousands of "likes" and Tweets, with the numbers doubling every few days. There is a photo sent by two girls in Gaza, and by a woman from inside a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. A group portrait of workers at a bakery in Jaffa, Israel. Like most of those in the photos, they hold hand-written placards saying: Jews & Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies.

There are photos posted by both young and long-married Muslim-Jewish couples, gay and straight, and old friends, like an Israeli bride and her best friend, a Lebanese woman. Photos of families whose children are half Jewish and half Arab, and of adults who grew up in such families. One holds a placard asking, "How can I be the enemy of myself?"

Journalist Sulome Anderson and her boyfriend Jeremy, a business consultant⁴, sent in a photograph of themselves on vacation, kissing. Jeremy was raised an Orthodox Jew and will never forget the deadly bombing of an Israeli bus he witnessed. Anderson is half-Lebanese, and has spent time in Palestinian refugee camps. They often disagree about Middle East politics, but talk it out.

"We obviously come from two very different ends of the spectrum," Jeremy said, "but we realized that we agree that the loss of human life is the key issue here. At the base of it, it's humans committing atrocities⁵ against humans, regardless of which side you're talking about."

"And they do that because they don't look at each other as humans, they don't think of this Jew or this Arab as a person that one would marry or date, no, they stop becoming people to each other," Anderson said.

Anderson's father, former Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, spent seven years as the prisoner of a pre-Hezbollah Shia militia⁶ in Lebanon.

"I grew up with a real understanding of the hatred⁷ in the Middle East, and the price it takes on just ordinary people living their lives," Anderson said. "My upbringing made me understand that no matter anything bad that might happen to you, you have to look at the people who hurt you as humans, because that's the only way you'll ever understand what they're doing, the only way you'll ever find peace."

Darwish said, "This movement really allows people to confront the deepest feelings they have about the other side. I have a friend who was telling me she saw the page, and had to ask herself, 'Why don't I like this movement, and why is this person my enemy?' This acts as a way for people to confront animosity not with other people, but within themselves."

1 escalated   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The fighting escalated into a full-scale war. 这场交战逐步扩大为全面战争。
• The demonstration escalated into a pitched battle with the police. 示威逐步升级，演变成了一场同警察的混战。

2 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

3 garnered   

v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith gradually garnered a national reputation as a financial expert. 史密斯先生逐渐赢得全国金融专家的声誉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals. 他的提议得到了广泛的支持。 来自辞典例句

4 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

5 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

7 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。