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January 16, 2004/Tevet 22 5764, Vol. 56, No.17
Israelis, Palestinians call peace hot line
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - When fellow soldiers reached David Damelin's body, they found the Israeli army's code of ethics in his pocket.
The 29-year-old from Kibbutz Meitzar was a reserve lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces who was manning a roadblock near the Jewish West Bank town of Ofra when a Palestinian sniper killed him and nine others in March 2002.
A Tel Aviv University graduate student and peace activist, Damelin staunchly opposed Israel's presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and he was deeply concerned about how soldiers behaved.
But he reported for reserve duty because he did not want to "set a bad example" for the undergraduates he was teaching, says his mother, Robi Damelin.
After her son's death, Ms. Damelin, 60, an ex-South African, quit her public-relations job and joined 500 other Israelis and Palestinians who had lost family members to violence. In October 2002, the Forum for Bereaved Families and the Parents Circle, which promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, launched Hello Shalom-Hello Salaam, a telephone hot line for coexistence.
The idea grew out of a wrong number. An Israeli, Natalia Wieseltier, meant to call a friend's mobile phone, but instead dialed a Palestinian man named Jihad, which means holy war in Arabic.
His phone recorded her number and he called back, leading to more phone conversations and meetings. Ultimately, Wieseltier approached the peace groups with the idea of instituting the Israeli-Palestinian line.
Callers to the free service can listen to a selection of voice messages and decide whom they want to contact.
So far, 600,000 Israeli and Palestinian callers have hooked up to the free service, Damelin says, and some talks have sparked face-to-face meetings.
"Obviously, not every conversation is gentle and loving. The only rule is that you listen," she says. "Israeli leaders keep saying there is no one to talk to, and we wanted to show that's not true."
Damelin and a Palestinian counterpart visited New York this week to launch an extension of the peace line called "Hello, Peace," in the United States.
They hope the U.S. line will help defray costs of running the Israel-based service and will promote Israeli-Palestinian co-existence.
Rather than rely on media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "we want people to get real stories of joy and suffering," she says.
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