hi you’re supposed to say hi back you
know it’s polite hi first of all I find
it a miracle that all of you are here
two days after Kings day I must say this
is incredible I barely made it but there
you go
I had a spiritual experience
well the LSD definitely helped but I was
sitting in front of a girl that I really
liked that girl a bit of a hippie you
know like kind of feathers on her ears
bracelets one feather coming from the
top of her head and I was looking at her
and suddenly I heard my intuition speak
and it said something like my god you
are not from here you’re not Dutch she
said what do you mean I was born in
Amsterdam yes yes yes but you are Native
American I can feel it I can look at you
pretending to be Native American where
you already are you just try to remind
yourself who you are with this exterior
stuff that you put on yourself
and I kept looking at her and then I can
only describe the experience as this
what I have seen was infinite it did not
have a beginning nor an end and it was
horizontal it spread into the horizon
and her eyes suddenly changing what to
what I call a combination of two things
sorrow and longing and it was so deep
that I knew immediately with my LSD mind
it did not belong to a human this one
belonged to a tribe and I told her my
god you are carrying pain of such an
ancient tribe inside of you and she said
what the hell are you talking about
at that moment I realized I have to go
to the toilet so I went to the toilet I
closed the door and I was stuck my
friends I was stuck because I realized
it wasn’t here I was speaking about it
was me I was seeing the pain of my tribe
in her eyes the Jewish tribe growing up
in Israel and I started to think my god
is this identity is formed how is it
created well I’m a storyteller I should
know know yeah
stories my god one story after each
other that trout transformed from a
father to a son and slowly slowly start
to form our sense of our identity and I
started to see in front of my eyes the
stories I grew up with like I don’t know
if you know but Abraham has two sons
Isaac the father of my tribe and Ishmael
is the father of the other tribe that we
are meant not to identify with and there
I saw the problem you see because the
moment you identify with runn tribe you
immediately not identified with another
and I remember the story of Samson the
hero with the long hair and the broad
shoulders the man that we were taught
his story as a symbol of a man that
sacrifices himself for for his tribe
making sure that the image of the enemy
the other is well portrayed but you
might say to yourself well perhaps it’s
difficult for the Hebrew culture to be
excluded well it’s not actually even if
you take the other side of the conflict
and you go to the core and you will find
the same story of Abraham with two sons
again but this time Ishmael is the
father of the tribe while Isaac is the
other but then you might say yeah but
here in the Netherlands we don’t read
the Bible anymore right right it’s
ancient stories c’mon we through them
from all the stairs long time ago well I
would be careful because you know these
images they are transforming all the
time the translating themselves into new
modern contemporary images let me give
you an example so when I was seven I
went on a school trip to the Golan
Heights and my teacher she was leading
us and if suddenly we found ourselves
next to a trench I don’t know if you
ever seen a trench in your life it’s a
kind of a ditch in the ground covered
with concrete and a lot of barbed wires
above it all around and what did we do
children seven years old standing in
front of a trench
we jumped inside and we started to play
after a while the teacher she kind of
gathered us and she told us the story of
why she had brought us there and she
said look here where you stand not so
long ago war our brave soldiers and they
were fighting against the enemy that was
on the top of the hill but it wasn’t
easy
because in order to protect this valley
one by one they had to stand above the
trench and shoot anyone that would come
near because if they managed to get come
near they would throw a grenade in the
trench and then the whole story is over
but it wasn’t easy because this soldier
as they stood up immediately they were
shut down in their head back to the
ditch so no one wanted to do that
anymore and then she said the commander
he told him look if you are not gonna
volunteer I’m gonna have to volunteer
one of you myself and I don’t want to do
that so please at that moment stood le a
young soldier he said I’ll do it
he stood up above the trench and he
fought one our bullets were whistling
next to his ears to ours like a lie and
for three hours she said until the army
was almost there to release them and
then he died but I tell you something
children his memory didn’t and in a few
years from now you will go to the army
and you will hold a gun and I want you
to remember this story and I looked at
the children around me and I saw their
back straighten I saw themselves
imagining themselves becoming heroes
warriors and perhaps somewhere deep in
their subconscious with long hair and
broad shoulders and old testament hero
and is it possible that just on top of
that hill there was another group of
children
with their teacher this time telling
them stories in Arabic telling them the
stories about the Warriors that stood
there and had to storm down and battle
against a well defended trench and how
they had to sacrifice their life one by
one in order to retrieve the land that
was taken away from them and is it
possible that the children over there
also straighten their backs imagined
themselves to be warriors one day so I’m
standing in front of the mirror and in
my hair my god and suddenly I see the
letters in Hebrew I have tattooed on my
arm you don’t see it now but it’s under
the sleeve and then it hates me my god
what is this persona that I have created
it’s created by stories but is this Who
I am
is there a place in me that is free from
that story and if there is what does it
say about the other or maybe the other
just doesn’t exist
so I wash my hands and I hear the girl
from the outside what are you doing
there you’re stuck there for an hour
already come on come come outside and as
I hear these water dripping on my hands
I see a final image in front of my eyes
and there I’m in Norway boom next to a
waterfall beautiful I’m sitting on a
bench
the birds are whistling it’s paradise
and there are people passing by suddenly
there is this man coming this old man
brown skin dark eyes he’s wearing this
t-shirt saying Oklahoma University and
he comes to me and he says where are you
from son and I say well I’m from Israel
and then I see his face change in a
second and he says what
well I’m from Palestine and he sits on
the bench and he starts to tell me the
entire story how he was a refugee and
after the war had to live and never
could come back and he tells me another
story and another story and we talked
for a lot of time and he told me about
his pain and after a while when I was
safe enough I told him about my pain and
my history and we argued about who was
right and who was more right and after a
lot of talking
suddenly silences started to creep in
and the story started to dissolve and at
there was one moment that there was
telling me silence like kind of out of
nowhere we hugged I tell you at that
moment there was no an Israeli and a
Palestinian
there was no bridge needed to be built
actually because there was no story
dividing us
it was just warmth of a man meeting
another warmth of another man simple as
that
atoms meeting atoms thank you [Applause]
know it’s polite hi first of all I find
it a miracle that all of you are here
two days after Kings day I must say this
is incredible I barely made it but there
you go
I had a spiritual experience
well the LSD definitely helped but I was
sitting in front of a girl that I really
liked that girl a bit of a hippie you
know like kind of feathers on her ears
bracelets one feather coming from the
top of her head and I was looking at her
and suddenly I heard my intuition speak
and it said something like my god you
are not from here you’re not Dutch she
said what do you mean I was born in
Amsterdam yes yes yes but you are Native
American I can feel it I can look at you
pretending to be Native American where
you already are you just try to remind
yourself who you are with this exterior
stuff that you put on yourself
and I kept looking at her and then I can
only describe the experience as this
what I have seen was infinite it did not
have a beginning nor an end and it was
horizontal it spread into the horizon
and her eyes suddenly changing what to
what I call a combination of two things
sorrow and longing and it was so deep
that I knew immediately with my LSD mind
it did not belong to a human this one
belonged to a tribe and I told her my
god you are carrying pain of such an
ancient tribe inside of you and she said
what the hell are you talking about
at that moment I realized I have to go
to the toilet so I went to the toilet I
closed the door and I was stuck my
friends I was stuck because I realized
it wasn’t here I was speaking about it
was me I was seeing the pain of my tribe
in her eyes the Jewish tribe growing up
in Israel and I started to think my god
is this identity is formed how is it
created well I’m a storyteller I should
know know yeah
stories my god one story after each
other that trout transformed from a
father to a son and slowly slowly start
to form our sense of our identity and I
started to see in front of my eyes the
stories I grew up with like I don’t know
if you know but Abraham has two sons
Isaac the father of my tribe and Ishmael
is the father of the other tribe that we
are meant not to identify with and there
I saw the problem you see because the
moment you identify with runn tribe you
immediately not identified with another
and I remember the story of Samson the
hero with the long hair and the broad
shoulders the man that we were taught
his story as a symbol of a man that
sacrifices himself for for his tribe
making sure that the image of the enemy
the other is well portrayed but you
might say to yourself well perhaps it’s
difficult for the Hebrew culture to be
excluded well it’s not actually even if
you take the other side of the conflict
and you go to the core and you will find
the same story of Abraham with two sons
again but this time Ishmael is the
father of the tribe while Isaac is the
other but then you might say yeah but
here in the Netherlands we don’t read
the Bible anymore right right it’s
ancient stories c’mon we through them
from all the stairs long time ago well I
would be careful because you know these
images they are transforming all the
time the translating themselves into new
modern contemporary images let me give
you an example so when I was seven I
went on a school trip to the Golan
Heights and my teacher she was leading
us and if suddenly we found ourselves
next to a trench I don’t know if you
ever seen a trench in your life it’s a
kind of a ditch in the ground covered
with concrete and a lot of barbed wires
above it all around and what did we do
children seven years old standing in
front of a trench
we jumped inside and we started to play
after a while the teacher she kind of
gathered us and she told us the story of
why she had brought us there and she
said look here where you stand not so
long ago war our brave soldiers and they
were fighting against the enemy that was
on the top of the hill but it wasn’t
easy
because in order to protect this valley
one by one they had to stand above the
trench and shoot anyone that would come
near because if they managed to get come
near they would throw a grenade in the
trench and then the whole story is over
but it wasn’t easy because this soldier
as they stood up immediately they were
shut down in their head back to the
ditch so no one wanted to do that
anymore and then she said the commander
he told him look if you are not gonna
volunteer I’m gonna have to volunteer
one of you myself and I don’t want to do
that so please at that moment stood le a
young soldier he said I’ll do it
he stood up above the trench and he
fought one our bullets were whistling
next to his ears to ours like a lie and
for three hours she said until the army
was almost there to release them and
then he died but I tell you something
children his memory didn’t and in a few
years from now you will go to the army
and you will hold a gun and I want you
to remember this story and I looked at
the children around me and I saw their
back straighten I saw themselves
imagining themselves becoming heroes
warriors and perhaps somewhere deep in
their subconscious with long hair and
broad shoulders and old testament hero
and is it possible that just on top of
that hill there was another group of
children
with their teacher this time telling
them stories in Arabic telling them the
stories about the Warriors that stood
there and had to storm down and battle
against a well defended trench and how
they had to sacrifice their life one by
one in order to retrieve the land that
was taken away from them and is it
possible that the children over there
also straighten their backs imagined
themselves to be warriors one day so I’m
standing in front of the mirror and in
my hair my god and suddenly I see the
letters in Hebrew I have tattooed on my
arm you don’t see it now but it’s under
the sleeve and then it hates me my god
what is this persona that I have created
it’s created by stories but is this Who
I am
is there a place in me that is free from
that story and if there is what does it
say about the other or maybe the other
just doesn’t exist
so I wash my hands and I hear the girl
from the outside what are you doing
there you’re stuck there for an hour
already come on come come outside and as
I hear these water dripping on my hands
I see a final image in front of my eyes
and there I’m in Norway boom next to a
waterfall beautiful I’m sitting on a
bench
the birds are whistling it’s paradise
and there are people passing by suddenly
there is this man coming this old man
brown skin dark eyes he’s wearing this
t-shirt saying Oklahoma University and
he comes to me and he says where are you
from son and I say well I’m from Israel
and then I see his face change in a
second and he says what
well I’m from Palestine and he sits on
the bench and he starts to tell me the
entire story how he was a refugee and
after the war had to live and never
could come back and he tells me another
story and another story and we talked
for a lot of time and he told me about
his pain and after a while when I was
safe enough I told him about my pain and
my history and we argued about who was
right and who was more right and after a
lot of talking
suddenly silences started to creep in
and the story started to dissolve and at
there was one moment that there was
telling me silence like kind of out of
nowhere we hugged I tell you at that
moment there was no an Israeli and a
Palestinian
there was no bridge needed to be built
actually because there was no story
dividing us
it was just warmth of a man meeting
another warmth of another man simple as
that
atoms meeting atoms thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: