Product Description

Palestinian Amal Rifa'i and Israeli Odelia Ainbinder are two teenage girls who live in the same city, yet worlds apart.They met on a student exchange program to Switzerland. Weeks after they returned, the latest, violent Intifada broke out in the fall of 2000.But two years later, Middle East correspondent Sylke Tempel encouraged Amal and Odelia to develop their friendship by facilitating an exchange of their deepest feelings through letters.In their letters, Amal and Odelia discuss the Intifada, their families, traditions, suicide bombers, and military service.They write frankly of their anger, frustrations, and fear, but also of their hopes and dreams for a brighter future.Together, Amal and Odelia give us a renewed sense of hope for peace in the Middle East.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1138032 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The two authors, now 18, met in Switzerland during an exchange program in 2000, and returned to a Jerusalem soon gripped by the second intifada. After falling out of touch, they exchanged the letters collected in this book from August to November of 2002, cycling through anguish, accusation, artifice, allowance, appreciation-all of the beginnings of real friendship. The book proves to be that rarest of contexts-a place for young women of the Middle East to discuss politics with openness and mutual respect. 6 maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

From the Back Cover

Customer Reviews

Not the beginning of a beautiful friendship
I have a confession to make. For many weeks last year I attempted to maintain a regular e-mail correspondence with a Palestinian woman. I thought that what we had in common (a desire for a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict; concern for the lives of innocent civilians; and the day-to-day realities of parenthood) would be enough to bridge the cultural and political chasm between us. Unfortunately, with each incident of violence we found ourselves positioned farther and farther apart, with no ability to find common ground or total understanding for the other side.

The chance that this correspondence would succeed was unlikely, but what if it had been between two teenagers, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who not only corresponded, but also had a chance to meet, possibly on neutral ground? Could a friendship develop between them? Could such a friendship last if the Israeli was conscripted into the army and the Palestinian was held back by soldiers at an army roadblock?

"We just want to live here" (Griffin, 2003) is the story of two Jerusalem teenage girls, one Palestinian and one Israeli. Amal Rifa'i and Odelia Ainbinder met three years ago on a program initiated by an organization called "Peace Child Israel." They traveled to Switzerland together and returned to Jerusalem just before the outbreak of the Intifada in September 2000.

"It was not the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Middle East correspondent Sylke Tempel tells us, explaining the background to the book. "Misunderstandings and the Israelis' lack of knowledge about Islam angered the Muslim teenagers."

Two years after the trip, after they lost contact due to the Intifada, Tempel made an attempt to bring the two girls together. "I began searching for a young Palestinian and a young Israeli who would be willing to share their thoughts in an exchange of letters. I hoped to find two open-minded young women who, at the same time, would represent their respective societies and be tolerant enough to listen respectfully to what the 'other side' had to say."

Tempel's task was almost impossible, and the possibility of a friendship between a Palestinian teenager and an Israeli teenager was quite unlikely. As detailed in the correspondence between the girls in this book, when it came to discussing current affairs and events, the two teenagers were entrenched in polarized viewpoints. There was no possibility of reaching common ground or agreeing on why the Intifada started, who was responsible for the violence, or why Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti was arrested.

The daily routines of Amal and Odelia are worlds apart, even though the two girls live in close proximity to each other. In order to participate in the book project, Amal's name and other identifying characteristics were changed to protect her safety and the safety of her family. Amal said she grew up believing that all that Israeli soldiers wanted was to kill Palestinians; it came as a shock to her that their were teenagers like Odelia willing and nice enough to be friends with her.

Are Amal and Odelia typical teenagers of their respective communities? Probably not. Amal expressed her willingness to live in an independent Palestine alongside Israel, while Odelia grew up in a secular, left-wing household and her parents sent her to mixed Jewish-Arab schools.

Some reviews of this book describe it as "groundbreaking," and that is why the future of Israel and Palestine is so bleak. Israelis and Palestinians, and especially their youths, need help and encouragement to get past the violence. Amal and Odelia are open enough to write frankly of their anger, frustration and fear, and also of their hopes and dreams for a brighter future. But most Israelis and Palestinians don't communicate, and when there is no talk, there can be no understanding. This book offers renewed hope for, if not peace, at least a start of communication between the sides.

we just want to live here
"Boom," a bomb goes off two blocks away from your school, just as you are leaving class. This isn't that rare of occasion for the two teenage co-authors of the book, We Just Want to Live Here. In this book they are often left to decide how they feel about the suicide bombings and other occurrences in their hometown, Jerusalem. Sylke Tempel put the fascinating letters between these very different teenage girls together into this great factual book about living in Jerusalem during the second Intifada.
Sylke Tempel does a great job putting together the letters in a logical order that helps the reader to understand the conflict in Jerusalem from both opinions. By using a Palestinian girl (Odelia Ainbinder) and an Israeli girl (Amal Rifa'i) you were flushed with both aspects of such topics as the suicide bombings, the army, school and even normal girl talk such as boys. Through both girls' lives, their views of the other side were only composed of what they heard from their friends, family and media making them only see a glance of the big picture. The girls' way of expressing their feelings made you get in the shoes of both sides of the conflict. They didn't leave anything out about their beliefs on what should be done to solve the conflicts between the Palestinians and Israelis. their feelings are even supportive of the other side. For example they agree on such things as how influential their parents were to their lives, yet abruptly disagree on such issues as whether Odelia, the Israeli girl, should join the army after her year off. Sometimes all they would do through their letters was learn more about the other persons culture, which is what happened when they started talking about such things as school and getting married and moving in with boys. This book is very un-biased because it shows how real teenagers on both sides feel about the conflict. Sylke Tempel makes it very clear that she wants people to receive no bias towards either side. She does this by showing both sides of the argument and showing how neither girl is evil. Because of the way Tempel broke up the book, it reads very fast and is easy to understand. The girls' discussion was very interesting and sometimes even shocking to learn how they felt on different issues.
We Just Want to Live Here, is a great read for people of all ages. It would probably be better for girls to read because it is written by girls and sometimes would get a little into girl talk. Being the letters of real girls, this book would be great to read as a class in history or English. This is because it is very factual and a great un-biased way to learn about the conflict in Jerusalem. Before reading this book I would suggest to have previous knowledge of the conflict to better understand what girls are talking about. Overall this was a great, educational book filled with many different opinions and thoughts. I would definitely recommend this book to someone wanting to expanse his or her knowledge in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

A non- bias view on the conflict
Ashley Southard
English Book Review
April 16, 2004
The Arab/ Israeli conflict has been discussed in many books, and Americans hear of it every day in the news. But do you really know both sides to the story? We Just Want to Live Here, a story of teenagers Amal Rifa'I (a Palestinian) who is planning on studying special education in an Israeli college, and Odelia Ainbinder (an Israeli) who is part o a socialist/Zionist movement before she gets ready to join the military living in Israel, shows the opinion of both sides of the conflict. Amal and Odelia met one summer while at an exchange program in Switzerland. After, they were asked by journalist Sylke Tempel to begin writing to each other discussing the conflict in which they are living.
This non-fiction book is presented as a compilation of the letter the girls wrote to each other. In these heart-to-heart letters, Amal and Odelia discuss political, social and ethnic issues. This book was published for people who are passionate about the "bad blood" between the Palestinian and Israeli issues. These letters really dig deep into the soul of the people of Israel, Palestinian and Israeli alike, and readers begin to feel compassion for these girls. One of the only weaknesses of this book was the fact that there was really no plot or suspense to keep a person reading. Many people watch TV shows consistently because of the suspense, and many people like books that are the same way. This book lacks that appeal, and it is easy to become bored with this book if you don't wish to delve into the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

Unlike most books, these letters truly had no bias. Each teenager is from one side of the conflict, and they discuss the modern issues in such a way that the reader genuinely gains an understanding of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Readers begin to realize the stupidity of the prejudices that people hold and realize that you cannot make judgment about this dispute until you completely understand the emotions of both peoples.
I would recommend We Just Want to Live Here for readers who are interested in this dispute. People who are passionate about this ongoing war will not become bored with the lack of plot in these letters. The letters really help to achieve true understanding of this everlasting issue.