Sixty years of conflict in the Middle East

Lessons from the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

Can they work in Israel-Palestine?

Click to Listen to the event (MP3 format)

Speaker: General John de Chastelain, OC

A key figure in developing the blueprint for peace in Northern Ireland
Responders: Brian Rothberg and Monzer Zimmo
Representing the Jewish and Palestinian Canadian perspectives

Thursday, May 15, 2008 at the National Library and Archives,

After 30 years of what was seen as "an unwinnable religious war" of endless violence fueled by deeply rooted hatred, the conflict of Northern Ireland was resolved in a historic previously "unimaginable peace accord" signed in 1998. General John de Chastelain l shared his experience of how the "unwinnable religious war" was turned into "an unimaginable peace accord" and what we learned that can help resolve the Middle East conflict between two peoples over one land. Mr Brian Rothberg and Mr Monzer Zimmo discussed such lessons in the context of Jewish and Palestinian visions for the future.

The evening ended with the showing of the documentary Oasis of Peace, Nev Shalom, Wahat Al Salam , Nominee for the Nobel Prize Peace Award.

Speaker: General John de Chastelain, OC

Brian Rothberg is a retired high school teacher whose experience in multi-cultural classrooms has convinced him that there are far more human commonalities than differences.  It has occurred to him that if, in Canada , individuals who in a foreign context may have treated each other as enemies, now do so with dignity and respect, and perhaps this could be applied to the Middle East .  With immediate family living in Israel and having visited on six occasions he believes in the Zionist dream but is often disturbed by its reality.  Through the Canada Israel-Forum  he volunteered  in 1993 for two weeks in Tel-Aviv assisting new immigrants to Israel in the enhancement of their English language skills.

Monzer Zimmo is a Palestinian-Canadian, born in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Palestine , who advocates the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the peaceful creation of one secular constitutional democracy, rooted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, over the whole of geographic Palestine , in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others feel at home, safe, secure, and equally respected. Monzer welcomes all other attempts to achieve justice-based peace in the Land of Canaan as steps towards establishing sustainable peace for all; peace that is based on recognition of the primacy of the human values of acceptance of the other, sharing, and respect over all else.  Monzer has been an active member of the Palestinian community for more than 25 years. He is a past president of the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians, Capital Region (APAC), and a past director of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF).

Poster in PDF