YouSaid · the spoken record

Oren Gian

lines on the record: 10
first: 2021-03-02
most recent: 2021-03-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I believe that if more students are given the opportunity to meet with the other side from a young age, we will be able to build a brighter, better future for us all.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“Hearing Ameer tell my family’s story and telling his story showed me that we all have our stories, we all have our problems and achievements, and we all have families and a history. I learned that only after empathizing and understanding people, the individual human beings on the other side of the conflict, can we begin to negotiate properly. I believe that it is much more effective to start to negotiate peace with people who you have learned to respect and gotten to know; people who are no longer the enemy, but human beings who you now see as neighbours; and people who you actually care about and with whom you can properly negotiate. A few years ago, I was afraid to go to an Arab school, but today I have Palestinian friends with whom I can debate politics over lunch and stay friends.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“We are tomorrow’s school principals, doctors, teachers and leaders. Instead of growing up hating each other, we must learn how we can share our different perspectives as friends, and the only way that can happen is if we meet and interact. In addition to Model United Nations, I had the opportunity to join a unique project called Empathy Storytelling, in which eight students — four Jewish and four Arab — were paired up. We learned each other’s family story and then presented our partner’s story. I met Ameer and learned that, even though he lives in a town near my city, his father was from Gaza. And Ameer learned my grandfather’s story of fleeing Iran and returning to Israel.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“But, as time went by, I started to feel more comfortable because I realized that — obvious as it may sound — we were all humans. I still disagreed with them on a political level about most subjects, but that did not stop us from discussing those and other subjects in a respectful way. I befriended one of the Palestinians in the programme and we stayed in touch even after returning to Israel. Sometimes we send each other text messages and discuss politics. Although we still disagree about most things, we stay in contact and enrich each other with our two different perspectives. Unfortunately, most Israeli and Palestinian students do not have such experiences. We live in different towns and go to different schools. Israeli and Palestinian students need opportunities to meet so they can get to know the people on the other side.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“In order for us to truly get to know one another, we handed over our cell phones for two weeks and disconnected from the world. On the flight to Texas, I remember experiencing the same feelings as before my first interaction with Arab students in Sakhnin. I thought to myself: how am I going to spend two weeks with total strangers in a foreign country without being able to use my cell phone if I do not get along with these people from completely different backgrounds? I remember feeling stressed and uncomfortable. I just wanted to be done with it so I could go back home. When I got to Texas, it took me some time to open up to the other students, especially those from different backgrounds than me, and I noticed that I disagreed with most of the political views of the Palestinian students.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“I did not feel completely comfortable in their presence and I was unable to fully communicate with them, but I certainly felt more comfortable at the end of the conference than I did at the beginning. That year, I attended five more Model United Nations conferences. All of them included Arab students. I noticed that with each successive conference and interaction, I felt more and more comfortable being around people from the Arab or Palestinian community and even talking to them. At the end of that year, in the summer of 2019, I attended a programme at an institute in Houston, Texas. The programme mainly consisted of Arab and Palestinian students, with a few Jewish students. It dealt with the topics of interfaith and citizenship and sought to have participants learn about the other side.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“I remember thinking that as our bus reached Sakhnin and I slowly entered the school to participate in my first Model United Nations conference. I felt overwhelmed because I was a 15-year-old Israeli Jew entering an Arab school in Sakhnin. I remember asking myself: What are the students going to be like? Will I even be able to communicate with them? What is the food going to be like? Is it even safe? I thought that maybe it was not worth it, maybe I should not have gone, maybe I should have stayed home and spent time with my friends in Netanya, where I felt comfortable. But I knew that leaving was not an option, so I stayed to participate in the conference. I talked to a few students from that school and I noticed that interacting with them was not so bad after all.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“Friendship is about trust and it can be given to anyone regardless of their background, but trust needs to be gradually built and earned. Allow me to take you back with me to one of my first interactions with Arab students, at a Model United Nations conference in Sakhnin, an Arab city in northern Israel. The conference took place in an Arab school and, truth be told, I was not so thrilled by the idea of attending a conference in an Arab school. I remember that I started to get stressed during the ride to the conference — and it was not just because of the speech that I had to deliver to the committee as the representative of Hungary. It was mostly because I did not know what to expect from the experience of meeting Arab students.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“My grandfather went to visit the grieving family and offer his condolences, but they accused him of being responsible for the death of his own friend. At first, my grandfather was sure that they were just angry because they were hurting, but a few days later, a good friend of my grandfather came to warn him that a death warrant was issued against him. My grandfather had been sentenced to death. My grandfather had no choice; he had to leave everything behind — his house, his company and his friends. But at least he was alive. That Muslim friend who warned him also helped my grandfather to escape Iran and he saved his life. My grandfather’s story taught me that friendship is not about religion or ethnicity.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source
“Shabbat Shalom from the British Embassy in Israel. My name is Oren Gian, and I am Jewish, Israeli and Persian. I would like to thank the United Kingdom for the honour to speak to you today in the Security Council, and I also thank Ms. Malak AbuSoud for sharing her perspective. I am only a teenager, but my story starts 40 years ago, in Iran. In 1979, during the Iranian revolution, my mother, her two brothers and my grandmother escaped Iran. But my grandfather decided to stay since he owned a big plastics company that he needed to take care of. In 1980, one year later, something happened. One of my grandfather’s closest friends visited his company. At that very moment, a machine fell from a crane and killed the man.”
2021-03-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/218 (2021) · source