Age: 29
Residence: Tel-Aviv
Occupation: Lawyer (Yigal Arnon & Co. International Department).
Family & Childhood: Half of my mother’s family is from Morocco and the other half is from Iraq, however my mother was born in Israel; my father’s family is half French and half Dutch. My father’s family survived the holocaust and my father came to Israel in 1972. I also have a connection to Australia as one of my grandfathers lives there with my uncle!
At the ages of 6-9 I flew with my family to Australia (my father was sent on a posting there) and after returning, we flew back there again during my high school years (1995-1998).
Sport: I learned to love sport in Australia and have been swimming, playing basketball, tennis and trying to play footy ever since.
Politics & the “other side”: My time in Australia was during the 90′s – a very defining era for Israel with the 1st gulf war, the Oslo agreements, the Rabin assassination and the terror attacks. In a sense, there are some guilty feelings for having missed it, as if I missed a crucial period in the formation of my country’s identity. I would have liked to be here to keep the help maintain the peace-positive atmosphere that existed prior to Rabin’s assassination. For me it’s definitely strange that I never actually met Palestinians, even though I feel that I know them and their land so well. I really dislike this ironic situation and that is why I want to be involved in the Peace Team. I would do it even without a trip to Australia – just for the chance to meet the other side and break some of the barriers that our respective governments and media place between us. Although there is almost no difference anymore between left and right, I would still say that I lean to the left when it comes to matters of Middle-East politics and definitely believe that we can’t make any progress without making the effort to meet and talk to the “other side”.
