Palestinian and Israeli children make effort for peace

Twelve-year-old Omer Senech decided to challenge his notion of Palestinians as nothing but terrorists who blow themselves up in Israeli streets.

On a September day he traveled with other Israeli children to Khan Younis in the self-rule areas for an art exhibition.

It came with the deepest crisis plaguing the PLO-Israel peace process since 1993. The voyage was organized by Tel Aviv-based "Windows" magazine, published by Arabs and Israelis to promote the peace process.

The magazine's correspondents are Palestinian and Israeli children. Sponsoring the exhibition on the Palestinian side was Fathi Arafat, the chief of the Palestinian Red Crescent society and the youngest brother of the Palestinian leader.

Some of the children could address each other directly in spite of the language barrier, and their drawings expressed a common feeling, which rejects the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and hopes to settle on peace in the Middle East region.