The Snake and the Ladder- Part 2 By Ahmed Jenin, Palestine

But excuse me, my friends, I could not stop myself from writing. This is something I feel I must express, and it does not mean that I have lost hope; hope will always be alive inside of me, somewhere. I believe that without hope there is no life.

As I mentioned before in the first part of this article, the peace process or as I call it—the snake and the ladder game, is still going after more than 65 years, and during those 65 years many things happened and many things changed. A new generation appeared who wasn’t around when the conflict began, people die and others are born. People enjoy life while others are struggling to make it to the next day. But still the game of the snake and the ladder continues. When will it end? When will the real peace come? When will we convert the past painful memories into something else then a desire to fight?

All of these questions can be answered with the hopeful reply of “someday”. Yes, just someday, without specifying the day, maybe today, tomorrow, next month and maybe it will take another 65 years.

Day after day, we feel less patience and hope.  Maybe I am over-exaggerating, but this is the reality. Some feel more hope than I do, and others feel less. In the end we are all human beings, and we all want the same things, to live in a peaceful coexistence with those around us.

Someday peace will come, the one that we all expecting. One day we will all pray in Jerusalem, together– all religions will pray for love and brotherhood. One day I will be able to go and visit my friend in Israel and we will drink coffee together. And you will be able to visit me in Palestine, and we will talk about the past with amazement and disbelief.

I am waiting for that day with all I have in me. Is this a dream? Yes, it’s a beautiful dream, one which I wish was a reality.

We must eliminate the evil snake that hinders the peace process for 65 years; we must feel the suffering of the other side. We must dream for a better tomorrow for us and for our children

We must think as one mind, we must realize that we are just guests in this life, so why don’t we try our hardest to be respectful guests?

I want to end with some words of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish—“When you fight in your wars think of others who do not forget to ask for peace, when you try to sleep by counting the planets, think of others those who could not find space for sleep, and when you think about others, think about yourself, and say: I wish to be a candle in the dark.”

These wonderful words express what is inside me. There is no word to add except to invite you to pray for love and peace in the world, just as I do.

Ahmed Jenin

YaLa Young Leaders