Room for Peace
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3-minute taste

Hearing both sides

Two stories, one standard. In three minutes: what each side tells, and what it tends to skip.

For anyone who knows one story well and is willing to read the other.

First, a minute of archive

The joint Israeli–Palestinian memorial ceremony, 2024

· ThePCFF

The Parents Circle shows that even out of loss people can choose dialogue rather than revenge.

  1. Stop 1 of 5 on the full path

    The Israeli story

    A Jewish bond with the land thousands of years old;1 persecution, the Holocaust, terror and 7 October, which explain why security matters so much to Israelis.23 And chapters it tells less often: the refugees of 1948, military rule and the occupation.45

    Go to this stop: Israel and the Jewish people: roots, memory and choosing life

  2. Stop 2 of 5 on the full path

    The Palestinian story

    Homes, villages and culture long before the loss;6 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes;7 and since 1967, life in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza under Israeli occupation.5 And what this story tells less often: the "armed struggle" also targeted civilians, and the site calls that terror.8

    Go to this stop: The Palestinian story: belonging, loss and the hope for freedom

  3. Stop 3 of 5 on the full path

    The other side's questions first

    Ten questions from Israelis and ten from Palestinians and Arabs, in all three languages. Our suggestion: read the other side's first.

    Go to this stop: Hard questions, honest answers

  4. Stop 4 of 5 on the full path

    One standard

    The site condemns terror and harm to civilians equally, whoever the perpetrators and the victims. Violence breeds fear, revenge and suspicion, and it has killed leaders who made peace.910

    Go to this stop: Violence, terror and the damage to peace

  5. Stop 5 of 5 on the full path

    And what is proposed

    As of October 2026 there are no talks on a permanent settlement,11 but there are documented proposals. Each is a proposal, with supporters and critics on both sides.

    Go to this stop: Israelis and Palestinians: options for the future

What was said

Yitzhak Rabin

…we say to you today in a loud and a clear voice: enough of blood and tears. Enough.

Signing ceremony of the Israel–PLO Declaration of Principles, South Lawn of the White House, 13 September 1993

Source and status of the wording

Official White House transcript, in English. This is the end of a long sentence in which Rabin addresses the Palestinians, and the word that follows it; the opening of the sentence is omitted and marked with an ellipsis.

Quote source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary (Clinton White House archive, US National Archives)

Yasser Arafat

Ladies and gentlemen, the battle for peace is the most difficult battle of our lives.

Signing ceremony of the Israel–PLO Declaration of Principles, South Lawn of the White House, 13 September 1993

Source and status of the wording

Arafat spoke in Arabic. The source is the English in the official White House transcript.

Quote source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary (Clinton White House archive, US National Archives)

The full path

About 40 minutes · 5 stops

Start at the first stop
  1. Israel and the Jewish people: roots, memory and choosing life
  2. The Palestinian story: belonging, loss and the hope for freedom
  3. Hard questions, honest answers
  4. Violence, terror and the damage to peace
  5. Israelis and Palestinians: options for the future

Sources

You do not have to agree with us. That is what the sources are for: open them, compare and check for yourself.

Show all sources (11)Hide the sources

Cited on this page

  1. A Researcher’s Guide to the Lachish CollectionResearch British Museum
  2. Introduction to the HolocaustResearch United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  3. Report A/HRC/56/26 (advance unedited version), 27 May 2024Primary UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel27 May 2024
  4. 1948 Refugees: Proceedings of an International Workshop, Session 1 (summary of Benny Morris, “The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947⁠–⁠49”)Research Israel Law Review 51(1), Cambridge University PressMarch 2018
  5. Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024Primary International Court of Justice19 July 2024
  6. Palestinian Museum and Digital ArchiveOfficial archive The Palestinian Museum
  7. Maher Charif, The NakbaResearch Institute for Palestine Studies / Palestinian Museum — Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (PalQuest)
  8. Munich massacreReference Encyclopaedia Britannica
  9. Al-Jihad al-Islami (organisation profile)Research James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS)
  10. Rabin's Assassination (1995)Research Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF)
  11. The Middle East, including the Palestinian Question — October 2026 Monthly ForecastResearch Security Council ReportOctober 2026