narrative of the 'other'

This article is about a prominent Palestinian lawyer, Elias Khoury, who has incurred significant losses from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His family lost 750 acres of land when the Israeli government confiscated it for "security reasons" and he lost members of his family in two different Palestinian terrorist attacks.

The Palestinian terrorists who "accidentally" killed his son apologized saying that they assumed he was a Jew. That is such a completely meaningless apology to hear in response to such loss. I suspect this is what shook Mr Khoury's identity so much that he began to see the Palestine/Israel conflict as a deep-seated misunderstanding of "the narrative of the other" as he calls it.

Amazingly, he is able to work with an Israeli author to publish in Arabic an autobiography that has emotional ties to the founding of the nation of Israel. He hopes this story will increase awareness and openness in communication between the two groups. I'd go so far as to say that his story can inspire openness and understanding between any opposing groups.

Here is a much more inspired and insightful article about Mr Khoury:

http://orientdaily.blogspot.com/2010/03/tale-of-love-and-darkness-from-other.html