We Just Want to Live Here: A Palestinian Teenager, an Israli Teenager -- an Unlikely Friendship

Forget the negative reviews---this is a wonderful, sweet, realistic and educational view of what it's like to live in Jerusalem, as seen through the eyes of two teenage girls...one Muslim and the other Jewish. I am impressed with the intelligence of these two young women. They don't chat about rock music or Britney Spears or trendy clothing--instead, they describe the love they feel for their city and how they can each do their part to create lasting peace. The girls get into serious political debates and they disagree quite frequently, but they respect each other as human beings and the friendship is strong. It's fascinating to learn what young Israelis think of America--Odelia, for instance, believes it's far more dangerous to live in New York than in Jerusalem! This is a warm and endearing book. I recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary Jerusalem (or all of Israel) and what life is like there. I learned a lot from reading it.

In the summer of 2000, a group of Israeli and Palestinian teenagers were invited to Switzerland. Despite many misunderstandings between the Jews and Muslims on the trip, tentative friendships were formed. However, just before the students returned home to Israel, the second Intifada broke out reminding each participant of their differences. Two young women on the trip who did become friends were Palestinian Amal Rifa'i and Israeli Odelia Ainbinder. Two years later, in June of 2002, journalist Sylke Tempel began looking for a young Israeli and a young Palestinian to exchange letters and ideas in order to create a book that would tell the story of Palestine, Israel and the Intifada in their own words. She found the ideal pair in Amal and Odelia. The result is WE JUST WANT TO LIVE HERE, a series of letters and conversations between Amal and Odelia. Just 18 years old when they begin corresponding, the women are wise beyond their years and patient with each other's points of view. There is much potential for name-calling, disrespect and worse in such a dialogue, but Amal and Odelia behave with a restraint and open-mindedness often sorely lacking in regards to this difficult and delicate subject. Covering topics such as Jerusalem (where they both live, geographically close but socio-cultural worlds apart), school and the Israeli army, both women are not only quite honest and articulate about their feelings, but are also well versed in their cultural and religious history and tradition. To further illustrate certain points, each invites family members to share her story and thus we read about Odelia's parents and Amal's grandfather in their own words. Even with such an open dialogue, Amal and Odelia realize there are some things they may never see eye to eye on --- each has a different interpretation of the formation history of the State of Israel, each interprets the plight of the Palestinians in a very different way. Yet they both agree that continued violence is not the answer and hope for strong leadership for the Israelis and the Palestinians. One major problem they both identify is the lack of knowledge about each other's culture, religion and history. Knowledge, they stress, is key to a sustainable peace. As the book was being written, both Amal and Odelia faced adult life and responsibility --- Amal was engaged to be married and Odelia was preparing for her mandatory service in the Israeli army. Yet the tone of the book still reflected a youthful hopefulness and youthful frustration. Poignant, brutally honest and sometimes heartbreaking, WE JUST WANT TO LIVE HERE is written with the idealism of youth and the cynicism of those who grow up amid war and violence. This is a book that puts a human face on the violence and destruction of the Israeli-Palestinian war and invites the reader to question her beliefs and opinions. Amal and Odelia are brave and admirable, willing to open their hearts and minds to each other. WE JUST WANT TO LIVE HERE is

We Just Want to Live HereNow, finally, I am a full-fledged believer, for the youth possess the power to end the conflict in Israel through unity, friendship, and discussion. We Just Want to Live Here by Sylke Tempel is a convincing story on the future of the conflict, and how our only hope may be the future of our children. All we hear now in Israel is terror, hate, and discrimination, even after years of in-depth discussion on how to end the conflict. Yet this book may hold the key to the solution, for the friendship that these girls have found between themselves defeats the boundaries in which religion enslaves them while entrapped in the heart of this war. This book is convincing. You cannot learn to like someone without first being friends. This friendship is evident in Amal and Odelia. As a core step to understand the differences between the two faiths of Islam and Judaism, these two girls show knowledge and wisdom past their years. They hold in-depth discussions about marriage, faith, the war, school, and other topics that make this book easy to relate to for everyone. Odelia and Amal not only show how they might be able to solve the conflict, but prove that amity, eagerness for peace, and common moral beliefs can lead regular people just like these young girls to friendship, maybe even peace. This book proves that besides the terrorist bombers that we hear about in the news, there are Palestinians who only seek peace. Although this book covers the beliefs of these two children well, an improvement to this book would be to not only cover these girls, but describe more in-depth the conflict and how ordinary people on both sides may not be helping this conflict. This book is for anyone with interest in how friendship, leadership, and resoluteness may not only lead to peace in the Israeli Palestinian conflict, but may become a reference for problems around the world. I am sure of it now. Leadership and peace lie in the hands of children.

This is a unique and captivating non-fiction book, in which two eighteen-year-old girls exchange letters about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The catch is that one of the girls, Amal, is an Arab living in Jerusalem and the other, Odelia, is a Jew also living in Jerusalem. The girls meet in Switzerland for a student exchange program. When they get back, they are proposed a challenge to write letters to each other discussing political and social views, while also writing about the conflict and how it can be resolved. This book is special because it doesn't include the view of an outsider looking in on the issue, but it involves two girls who have to live with the conflict and the daily lives of Arabs and Israelis. The girls talk about a wide selection of topics including boys, the army, the intifada, school, and about the daily life of living in the middle of a conflict. The author, Sylke Tempel decided to have two girls on the different sides of the conflict because most of the public just reads the newspaper, which is filled with biases. This collection of letters is better for the public because it includes the views of both Israelis and Arabs. The voice that isn't heard is that of the Israelis that just want to kick out all of the Arabs. This voice is left out because Odelia, the Jewish girl, believes that the Arabs should be given their own state. Also another voice that is left out is the voice of Arab extremists. Amal, the Palestinian, is a little more firm and extreme than Odelia. Amal believes that the Jews invaded their land and that they do not belong. Although she believes this, she isn't one of the terrorists who bomb the Israelis and causes conflict. If Tempel really wanted to show the extremes on both the sides of the issue then she would have chosen an Israeli who wanted all of the Arabs gone and an Arab that is part of a terrorists group. This book reads fast in some parts, but others need more time to fully understand the issues. I would recommend this book for young adults who are interested in both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I think that if you were to pick up the book you could finish it in about a week. This would be a great book to use in a class because it shares both sides of the issue and also includes a lot of historical references and how one conflict could change your life. This book is a great example of how people who live in the same city can have so much of a difference in opinions and daily life.