Ulfat Haider: Marching towards peace

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By CGTN's World Insight

Israeli explorer Ulfat Haider shared her experiences working as a swimming teacher in Israel, to highlight how difficult it is for an Arab to live in the country.

Speaking on CGTN’s World Insight, she told the story of when one of her students, after finding out she was an Arab, swam away from her while his father demanded his son be moved to another group.

“Because I am an Arab, he heard that, he independently started swimming by himself, running go away from me and shouting,” she said.

Experiences like this made her think of ways of reversing the situation and trying to bring people together.

Ulfat Haider speaks to CGTN's World Insight. /CGTN Screenshot

As the first and only Arab member of the Israeli Women’s National Volleyball team, she decided to take action. She joined the Women Wage Peace movement, taking part in the March of Hope, leading hundreds of people over two weeks to Jersualem to “demand that our leaders work with respect and courage towards a solution to the ongoing violent conflict, with the full participation of women in this process.”.

In 2015 she represented Asia in a journey to make drinking water accessible to all, participating in a 100-day march from the source of the Ganges River near the Himalayas to its estuary in the Indian Ocean. She is also an activity director of an Arab-Jewish cultural center.

“To know each other, before we say like Arab or Jewish, to know each other as human beings,” she said.

Her experience comes against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, a conflict which dates back centuries and which has arguably been made worse by intervention from other countries.

Ulfat Haider speaks to CGTN's World Insight. /CGTN Screenshot

For some, the answer to the violence is not to take up more arms, but to take to the great outdoors.

With more face-to-face cultural exchanges, people could listen to and connect with each other as human beings, leaving behind the historical baggage.

People find their own ways to try to live in peace and Ulfat Haider is one of them.

World Insight With Tian Wei is a 45-minutes global affairs and debate show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 10:15p.m. BJT(1415GMT) with rebroadcasts at 4:15a.m. BJT(20:15GMT).

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