DIFFERENT WORDS BUT SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE By Lydia Aisenberg Dr. Grahame Davies and Shakeel Anwar are both BBC radio journalists. Apart from that and the fact that they both visited the Givat Haviva campus within a short time of each other, the two journalists – who do not know each other – broadcast in different languages and neither in English! Shakeel Anwar works out of London for the BBC Radio World Service, broadcasting in the Bengali language and was in Israel to prepare a number of programs focusing on organizations dealing with peace education in Israel. Whilst on campus he interviewed Farhat Agbariya, director of a Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace project known as Face To Face which every year facilitates meetings between thousands of Arab and Jewish youth attending one and two day seminars on campus. A rather large and boisterous crowd of Jewish and Arab youth on a 2 day seminar at Givat Haviva told the curious BBC radio man that they were glad to have had the opportunity to participate in such a program and that at the end of the day, even though they recognized there were many differences between them, they all basically wanted the same thing, a peaceful life for all. The BBC Bengali language radio presenter also managed to have a chat with Jewish students undertaking a full academic year of Middle East and Arabic language studies and was impressed by their seriousness with regard to their studies.

Shakeel Anwar interviewing Farhat Agbariya of Face To Face

A short tour to the divided village of Barta'a (a portion of which ended up in Israel and another part in the West Bank under the Jordanians from 1949-1967), rounded off his visit to Givat Haviva and the Wadi Ara region. Upon his return to Britain, Shakeel Anwar emailed the following message to Givat Haviva's International Department staff. "Givat Haviva gave me a glimpse of hope. I was very moved when teenagers – Arabs and Jewish – came rushing to me to say they wanted peace. I suddenly thought there's still hope. Whatever modest its attempts are, I found Givat Haviva a piece of sanity amid a hugely imperfect surrounding."

All we are saying – is give peace a chance, Jewish and Arab pupils tell the BBC

Dr. Grahame Davies lives and works in Cardiff, South Wales and is a BBC Wales executive producer. A poet, editor, literary critic and author, he has been described as "one of the most independent, and as such, most interesting voices of contemporary Welsh-language poetry." His career has brought him a number of prestigious awards and nowadays he directs the BBC's Welsh language news media services. Since a previous visit to Israel and Givat Haviva 2 years ago with a small group of Welsh journalists and politicians, Dr. Davies has remained in touch with staff of the International Department and whilst on a private visit to Israel with his wife Sally and daughters Alaw (8) and Haf (12), once more came to hear about campus activities. "When I visited the first time I was deeply impressed with the difficult and essential work being carried out for mutual understanding. In watching the situation in Israel since then, I've become even more convinced that initiatives like Givat Haviva are the key to long term solutions to the conflict and would personally like to see organizations and individuals in the UK supporting the work finding the centre ground so crucial to its resolution," said Dr. Davies during his recent visit

Getting a hands on experience of the Givat Haviva Peace Pole are Alow, Grahame, Haf and Sally Davies from Wales.

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