Stewart Mills's Page

My personal story:

I am a European Australian. That is my ancestors came to this land from Scotland in the 1850s. I first travelled to Israel and the Occupied Territories in 2000. I worked as a volunteer at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam. I returned there a year later after the Second Intifada. I was struck by the similarities between how Palestinians were treated by certain groups of Jewish Israelis just as Europeans had treated indigenous Australians and black South Africans. I dedicated my travels during 2000-2001 to meeting Jewish and Palestinian communities in Europe, North America and Israel to document sources of grievance and examples of reconciliation. I completed a Masters of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney in 2002. My thesis was 'Empathising with the enemy: Transformation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by overcoming social and psychological obstacles'.

http://palestineisraelsolutions.blogspot.com/.

I continue to seek out member of the Jewish, Islamic and Christian (and others who are interested) communities who are open to relook at the the origins of the conflict, and look at ways forward.

Why I want peace:

Pragmatic reason.
1. To stop the deaths, violence and suffering of the people of Israel, West Bank and Gaza.
2. Peace in the Middle East will in a significant way help bring stability to the Globe. Presently a huge amount of resources is being wasted on militarism because of selfishness, heartlessness and poor conflict resolution strategies. Peace will mean an end to needless suffering and death and we can then direct more of our global efforts towards sustaining the population whilst minimizing Climate Change.

Idealistic reason: It is only chance that I was born as an Australian. I could have been born a Jewish-Israeli or a Palestinian living under occupation. I don't like seeing people live in pain. If there are ways we can avoid this then let us do something.

Interests and activities:

Family, study, walking, writing, meeting people from different countries and experiences, and seeking to find ways that Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.

Something you didn't know about me:

If I could live a second life I would love to be an explorer and play more sport

Favorite website:

http://rabbibrant.com/

How I found mepeace.org:

Via internationalpeaceandconflict.org

What I want to achieve here:

To meet, share and discuss with others ways we can achieve peace. I spent an intense period in December and January (2008-09) researching the work of mepeace for a Dispute Resolution course I was studying. I am impressed and supportive of the concept of mepeace.

My sadness is when personal attacks are the means to confront difference on this site. My sadness is people are prejudged because of ideas that they might have that are different to another. I have not been an active member of mepeace in recent times given the inordinate time and energy that can be spent in trying to explain different points of view. I wish all those people on mepeace well.

I would hope that mepeace could develop a shared history site - that could be a place where people can agree to a common understanding of the history. So much conversation goes round in circles about key historical events (eg 1948 and 1967). It would be good if there could be a section devoted specifically to an agreed version of history (or at least having side-by-side agreed narratives.

I will continue to look at the community from time to time. I wish the community peace, patience and a prejudice free world.

Do you promise to respect others and our guidelines and not spam?

Yes