Stop the Madness

My name is Amira.  I am 13 years old girl. I will move up to the High School this fall. My classmates and I are very active volunteering in our local community. Some of these projects are as simple as reading to the elderly shut in‘s. It can be as complicated as helping young mothers and widows write formal applications for Government help to receive aid. 

Our schools mission is to support, give of our time and spread the international message of good will to all unconditionally. The only requirement is being made aware of a family or community in need of help. I am a founding member of our fund raising committee. We call it “Stars in need of light”. It is like a local community fund. The giving is anonymous. In my community people are very proud and would be too embarrassed to ask for help.

Most of us work with the younger children in Kindergarten I &II. I volunteer at a local hospital. I work in admissions with about 12 other students. We run errands and help emergency workers and new patients with the formal admissions paperwork. Everything in my town seems be very small and easy. Like a big family of 30,000 people. I think it’s because there are few families with cars and there is no extensive public transportation. There is a lot of walking between homes, school, markets and the Hospital.

My school is very hard and we have the highest academic standards. During our high school years we take advance placement classes and participate in the International Baccalaureate curriculum. We take the SATS for college admission. The one goal at the end of our twelve years at school is to demonstrate personal values and have respect for the values of all others in the world and to get a good education.

Our school is visited every year by Secretaries of state, Presidents and Prime Ministers from all around the world. We are praised for our tolerance of all.  All with the simple requirement that they are people like us and people who are not like us. A universal approval of all people.

My school is different than most schools in my city. We are a coed school of boys and girls, young and adolescent. We are taught in English and not our local language. My school is the American International School in Gaza, Palestine. Our school year is often interrupted for the celebrations of several different religious holidays. We are closed frequently due to military and terrorist attacks.  Our classmates have been killed and wounded by both sides. We are members of both the Israeli and Palestinians communities.  We do not judge and we are thankful because we have more than most. Our parents are well to do. They pay approximately 3,500 US$ for tuition. Some of us have cars and take vacations.

 I wrote this letter. So people can understand that my classmates and I lose as much as all of those involved in this armed conflict. We suffer as they do, but every day we get up and work together in our school. Every day after school we volunteer in all of our communities. And every day we do not let the madness from our leaders turn us against our fellow classmates. We live together in community and respect for our rich past. We all are determined to see the best in our classmates.

I truly believe that both sides do not understand their own discourse and their arbitrary boundaries of separation. We must all fight to live together, to share together. If not the discourse will end us all. By not understanding the discourse. It will consume us. This will be done with all Nine Million Palestinians and Jews, all being right and sending us all too an early reward with our God.

Hopefully, I will be able to go back to my non-judgmental island of learning when this current crisis ends. Pray with me, please let this be the last time me and my 400 classmates will not have to miss school. Let all nine million of us see that this is wrong and we all need to get right together.