This is part of a letter written by Nurit Peled-elhanan, an Israeli peace activist. I just read about her recent study in The Guardian, soon-to-be published in the UK, about the unfortunate portrayal of Arabs in Israeli textbooks. Her brother is Miko Peled, also a well-known activist.

Today, when 'terror' is the term coined to define the murderous deeds of the poor and the weak, and 'war against terror' is the term coined to define the murderous deeds of the strong and the rich, when the greatest democracies commit the most terrible crimes against humanity using terms such as 'freedom', 'justice' and 'the clash of civilisations' to justify their crimes, we the bereaved, the victims of either terror or anti-terror terrorism, are the only ones left to tell the world that there is no civilized killing of the innocent or barbaric killing of the innocent, there is only criminal killing of the innocent. We are the ones to tell the world there is no clash of civilizations, that in the ever-growing underground kingdom of dead children there is no clash of civilisations. On the contrary: true multiculturalism prevails there, true equality and true justice. And maybe we are the ones who should remind the world that the golden age of both Islam and Judaism was when they lived side by side, nurturing each other and flourishing together.

Nurit Peled-elhanan-The Bereaved Parents for Peace (whole letter)