Seeds of Peace

Asel Asleh

(1983-2000)

Asel Asleh became a member of Seeds of Peace in the summer of 1997, and remained an active Seed throughout his life which tragically ended on October 2, 2000, at age 17. He was the first (and only) Seed  to be killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the days following his death, scores of Israeli and Palestinian Seeds from around the country mourned for him at the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem.

Many dozens of Israeli and Palestinian Seeds have since visited the Asleh family on the anniversary of Asel's death and condolences have been received by his family from around the world. Throughout his life, Asel was committed to Seeds of Peace and involved in numerous activities:

• Israeli delegation, Camp 1997
• Peer Support, Camp 1998
• Program Leader, Camp, Session III, 1999
• One of 75 Seeds negotiating at the Middle East Youth Summit in Switzerland, May 1998
• Winter Workshop at Kibbutz Yahel, January 1999
• Homestay in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, July 1999
• Emcee of the Jerusalem Center for Coexistence Talent Show, August 2000
• Originator of Seeds of Peace online correspondence which became SeedsNet and now SeedsBook
• Host and guest of dozens of Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian Seeds and families

Asel Asleh, from the Arab village of Arrabeh in the Galilee area of Israel, was killed on October 2, 2000, by Israeli police forces. At the time of his death, he was less than a mile from his home at the scene of a demonstration by Palestinian citizens of Israel. Asel's father, Hassan Asleh, and other witnesses, report that Asel took no part in any confrontation with police and was alone when he was killed. Asel died from a gunshot wound to the neck which appeared to be fired at close range. The Or Commission (the official Israeli inquiry) into the killing of 12 Palestinian citizens of Israel, one Jewish citizen, and one resident of the Gaza Strip, reached no conclusion about how or why Asel was killed.

In a statement to the Seeds of Peace magazine, The Olive Branch, Hassan and Jamilah Asleh said, “We welcome all of Asel’s friends from Seeds of Peace who have come to mourn with us. Asel spent many of his happiest moments with you, and you are welcome in our home as you were when Asel brought you here. We are not angry at any people or nationality, but at the police which caused the killing of our son and other innocent people.”

Message from Seeds of Peace

Asel Asleh is the first Seed graduate to have lost his life in the ongoing battle between Israelis and Palestinians. On behalf of Seeds everywhere, we mourn the tragic loss of this sensitive, caring and articulate individual. On behalf of the whole Seeds of Peace family, we extend our deepest condolences to his family and hundreds of Arab and Israeli friends.

All of us have a responsibility now to remember Asel for his courageous acts of leadership and for overcoming the legacy of hatred into which he was born. Asel was actively working for a better future not only for his friends in Seeds of Peace but for all Arabs and Israelis. He remembered that when he came to camp for the first time, it was hard for him to distinguish between the Israeli Government and their people. He said he discovered that while Israel had committed many injustices against him and the Arab people, the young man “playing baseball against me is not my enemy…and that’s what is important.” Asel wrote that “Seeds of Peace is the best thing that happened to all of us.” Why? Because he said it gave him hope. Even more important it gave him the chance to change the future so that other Israelis and Palestinians would not have to die. Asel understood that. “When we became Seeds we took in our hands a responsibility,” he said. “It is our job now to do it the right way no matter what a job we all made a commitment to, not because we have to but because we want to.” Asel did not die in vain but as a symbol of hope to future generations. He had a vision of what peace would be like. “You will be able to live in a place where an ID isn’t needed as well as passports or checkpoints,” he wrote in The Olive Branch.

Our mission is to realize his dreams despite all the obstacles against us. Asel would not want us to give up. “When your voice becomes a voice of a leader, no one will care for your ID,” he wrote. Asel was already a leader. I hope you will help everyone at Seeds of Peace. Together we can make sure that Asel’s voice is never silenced.

Tribute to Asel Asleh

This is our tribute to an extraordinary human being. It is difficult to describe Asel; in life, he defied stereotypes, labels and definitions. How many teenagers read and write poetry and philosophy, converse and correspond intensively and insightfully, and laugh and joke fluently and frequently in each of three languages? Asel did. How many Palestinian citizens of Israel have created friendships with scores of Jews and Arabs at age 17? Asel had. How many people of any origin, of any citizenship, of any age, are truly proud of themselves, their own nation and religion, and simultaneously curious, open and respectful towards everyone else’s, including their historical “enemies?” Asel was. Asel was. That is our tragedy. Words cannot capture the complexity, the curiosity, the sensitivity, the wit, the radiance of our friend. They are simply all we have left.

This is our attempt to describe the person that we knew. I hesitate to call it a tribute. It is our effort to explain what it was about Asel that inspired us to respect him, admire him, love him, seek his advice, enjoy his company and contemplate his questions. His loved ones remember here the qualities that made up this young man. He was at once talented and humble, introspective and loving, deeply serious and spontaneously funny. Asel was a strong Palestinian and a friend to dozens of Israelis. He was a proud Muslim who learned at Christian schools and visited Jewish friends on their holidays. He worked for peace and justice, and stood for his rights without hurting anyone. Asel argued vocally and powerfully, but never physically. He was never violent in his life, to the day that violence ended his life. Here you can also see Asel through his own eyes.

Here are his thoughts as he shared them with Seeds of Peace, using his fourth language and favorite mode of communication: the computer. Cyberspace was a realization of Asel’s vision: a world without checkpoints or identity cards. He spent much of his earthly life online, and left our inboxes full of jokes, holiday greetings, and everyday notes, mixed with extraordinary reflections on life and death, war and peace, and human identity. The issue of identity is perhaps the area of Asel’s deepest insight. Conflict and confusion seem inherent to being an Arab-Israeli, or a Palestinian Arab living in Israel, as Asel preferred to describe himself. Yet as a teenager, Asel had already learned to make his multi-faceted identity a blessing rather than a curse. Asel used his multiple languages and multicultural knowledge to reach the widest range of people.

Rather than letting it be a source of confusion for himself, Asel used his identity to increase understanding between the people he met on all sides. The network of friends Asel built, the pieces that he wrote, and the things he thought in the last three years of his life is a remarkable achievement. This young person was a master of negotiating the Arab-Israeli divide in his own life, on his way to becoming the kind of leader this troubled region is desperate for: Someone skilled in blurring divisions, negotiating the impasses, and translating between the clashing cultures and languages. Someone who transformed the drawbacks of conflicting identities into advantages. I hope this book will not make Asel a symbol; let it just show him as Asel. His personality is more powerful than any symbol. When you understand who he was, you understand the price of hatred and violence—the contrast between the multidimensional teenage pioneer of peace, the complexity and vivacity that was Asel, and the brutal impulse that ended his life in a matter of seconds.

Asel is gone, and we can never recover him. The most we can do is celebrate everything that we loved about him, emulate all that he did to help us enrich our own existence, and remember: Remember Asel alive in all his aspects and remember to see the spectrum of life in each other, in every human being, as he did. Let many more live like him. Let no more be killed like him. Let his memory teach us forever.

Ned Lazarus

Ned Lazarus served as Program Director at the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem from 1996-2003.

Peaceful Thoughts

The following is an e-mail sent by Asel Asleh to Seeds of Peace on March 31, 1998

30/3/1976. Nothing but anger that day brings to my people's mind. Youm El-Ard they call it in Arabic, or "The Land Day". Nothing but memories from that sad day when a group of Israeli soldiers tried to kick the local citizens out of the village. What village was that? It was my village. "Arrabeh" they call it. But back then, people knew nothing but bloodshed, and losing those who are close to them. As this day has come like any other year, I should fulfill my duty as an Arab and bring their memories to life. We should never forget, but we should forgive. Twenty-two years since it happened, and each time, people know nothing but madness, and violence in that day. If I were a cop walking by ... Hmmm I think I should take another thought about walking in the uniform. All that anger—where did it come from?

As for the years I saw, this anger came from the fathers to the fathers of those people. For somehow most of us don't know what happened that day. Like I said, it became a duty. And it's our job to be there when they bring their memories to life. We should never forget, but we should forgive. They will say they fought bravely. They protected their land. They died for a reason. But I think nothing is worth dying for. But sometimes it's the only way to save others. What can I say for a mother who lost her son, or a sister who lost a brother? I stand worthless to bring them back, but powerful enough to bring their memories back by not forgetting them.

Eight months ago I went to this camp. It was nice: Jewish people, Arabs from some countries, some Americans too. During those forty days I spent there, those people became my friends—not for what they are, but who they are. I didn't see them as Israelis, or Jordanians, but as Sa’ad, and Ned, and Tim. They became my friends and a heart is where you keep them. For forty days I learnt who were those soldiers who tried to kick us out, and I learnt who are those people that I lived with for forty days. Now I know who are my friends. In a few years from now they will become soldiers. They will go to the army to protect their families. But will they stay the same? Will they be the same Edi or Tzakhi that I knew? Will they be the same? What will happen if they become like those soldiers? And the duty will call them for what they call "protection" —what then? Will they be the same? That's an answer that only time can answer. But until then, they will be the same for me.

The same people I lived with for forty days. The same people I played with. The same people I shared with them my thoughts and feelings, and so they did too. What I learnt back in camp was priceless; we were all the same, so nothing else mattered. But what I learnt in camp only showed up here eight months later: today in Youm El-Ard. Today I will know what Seeds of Peace really gave me. I will know what to do when someone will call my friends "killers" or "murderers". No friend of mine is a killer, and I'm not a friend of one either. Today I will be asked to choose between what they call "protecting and remembering" and between what they call "forgiving". I will be asked to choose. And I will. Will my choice be the right choice, be the right thing to do, or will it be the wrong thing to do? Well a friend of mine once said: "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." And I will be there, and I will see you when you get there. For the thoughts that are around me and the feelings that guard me, I won't forget a friend's words, and I will remember his words, by making others remember mine.

I will go on. I will make this planet a better place to live and I will go on. For all the souls who only saw pain and sorrow in their eyes; for the souls who will never see a pain of another soul, I promise you I will go on. Until we meet in the field, my friend, take care. Asel Asleh SOP 1997 Bunk 17 nick name: slider

The following are additional emails sent by Asel Asleh to his Seeds friends:

29 Jul 1999 My worst dream is to wake up some day and to know that no one remembers Seeds of Peace anymore. We are not just another case walking by. Keep it alive back home- the meetings, emails, phone calls—your voice is always wanted in seven different countries ..."

28 Jan 1998 Imagine that someone trained you to hate someone so much and that someone that you call an enemy suddenly becomes a friend. There is no such thing as an enemy it's just a word that everyone uses, an excuse for hate. But like a friend of mine once said, "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." I just want to change my world so it will become a better place with no need for such a word. With Love Slider - @sel 31

December 1997 Every time I think about those moments in camp, even the sad ones, I get afraid that maybe someday we’ll lose each other. Every time I think about camp, I realize that the spirit that we always talked about in camp exists and I know that I brought it with me and now I know that it will always stay there every time I need it. I think and I know that Seeds of Peace is the best thing that happened to all of us. When we became a Seed we took to our hands a responsibility, and it is our job now to do it in the right way no matter what. A job that we all made a commitment to do. Not because we have to, but because we want to.

3 December 1997 Anyway, I send you these e-mails just because I care for you and I love you. (crossed fingers) Do you really think so?…So do I. So anyway, there are two things left to say. First, “enjoy living in this life as long as you are still breathing, after all you live only once,” and second, “be someone, and not just any one.” With Love Slider - @sel

To read more from Asel and his Seeds of Peace friends, click here.

To read a Salon article about Asel, click here.
To read a Washington Post article about Asel, click here.
To read a 2008 Jerusalem Post article about older Seeds protesting the failure to indict anyone in Asel's killing, click here.

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, There is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in the grass, The world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.
— Melvana Jalal e-Din Rumi