A Lesson for Children
My name is Steve and I live at Kibbutz Gezer, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I’m 44 years old and have been living in Israel about 12 years with my wife, Varda; two children, Micah & Gabi (Micah is 7 and Gabi is 6), and Kitty-the-Dog.
I have a friend who lives next door named Nadav (he’s 5 years old). He and I have a game we’ve been playing for years. Whenever we see each other I tell him he’s a “nut” and he tells me to “get out of his yard” Then I tell him that this is my yard too and I’m not going anywhere. He tells me I’m a nut and that it’s his neighborhood – and that I’ve got to go. I calmly tell him he’s a nut – and that this is my neighborhood and my kibbutz – and he has to go! We continue like this for a bit – the conversation lasting about 3 minutes each time we see each other.
Nadav and I are only playing and being silly. We actually like each other and like living together in the same community.
But what if we were serious? What if we really didn’t like each other? What if I really believed that it was “my town” and that I really wanted Nadav to leave? And what if Nadav really believed that it was his town and really wanted me to leave? What would we do?
This is a true story. I used it with discussion questions and other activites recently as a lesson for young children on conflict. It’s part of a resource packet I created at IsraelExperts for addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.. The packet is called “Resources in Response” and is available here: http://www.israelexperts.com/education/jewish-educator-tools/
