Beilin-Husseini Dialogue: Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

Photo by Jane Scherr

Page 5 of 5

Lessons of the Peace Process

One final question to both of you, requiring brief answers. Thirty years down the road, what would you like students to understand about this process that you both started and have been so actively engaged in?

[Beilin]

Never say, "I won't meet with the other side." Never say, "The other side has nothing to tell me." Never say, "The other side has no justice." Say, "It is a must to talk with the other side." If that is the lesson, for me it is enough.

[Husseini]

I believe maybe that there is no "impossible," and if there is a will there is a solution. And I would like to say something, and I hope I can say it after thirty years, that the Oslo agreement was the beginning of a new era here in the world, in the Middle East. You can have a new form of coordination between the peoples of the Middle East. I don't know if after thirty years [it will be] an Israeli state, a Palestinian state, and Egyptian state, or it will be another kind of combination -- all are states but will have free borders and access between all of these areas. I hope that I will be proud to say that this was the beginning.

Mr. Husseini, Mr. Beilin, thank you very much for joining us today for this very informative conversation. And thank YOU very much for joining us for this Conversation with History.

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