Our common humanity is more important than all the things that divide us.

One great hope lies in the fact that there is a new consciousness in our World, particularly among young people.

As a person committed to human rights and international law and the right of self-determination, I would like to see the occupation end. And then it is up to the Palestinians themselves to decide what they want.

To enable consensus politics to develop we need to empower people where they live. This means devolving financial resources and political power down to the community level. One of the greatest blocks to movement is fear. This fear can only be removed when people feel their voices are being heard by government and when they have a say in their own lives and communities.

I witnessed a lot of violence, and I found myself asking the question: Do you ever use violence to try to bring about political change?

We need political leadership that will move the world away from war into solving its problems through dialogue and negotiation, to build friendship with people, which is not what we've had with this war on terror.

Setting aside human rights and international law to have an agenda of war and killing and occupation to me is totally unacceptable.