Published on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 by the Guardian/UK

An Extreme Inspiration

A Team of Israeli and Palestinian Peace Campaigners Have Achieved Their Goal of Scaling a Previously Unclimbed Antarctic Mountain



by Simon Jeffery



The frozen wastes of the Antarctic are far removed from the conflict of the Middle East but a joint team of Israeli and Palestinian amateur explorers hopes that its pioneering mission there will have a peaceful influence back home.

The six man and two woman unit, which included an Israeli special forces veteran and two former Fatah activists, set itself the goal of overcoming its divisions to work together in one of the world's most hostile natural environments and climb a previously unclimbed mountain.



Members of Breaking the Ice, the Israeli-Palestinian expedition to Antarctica, reach the summit



At the summit, scaled with the accidental symbolism of the eight amateurs roped together in mixed groups, they unfurled the two national flags and read a declaration in support of a non-violent solution to the Middle East conflict.

"We have proven that Palestinians and Israelis can cooperate with one another with mutual respect and trust," it said. "We hereby declare that our peoples can and deserve to live together in peace and friendship."

The mission won endorsements from the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan and Zeddy al-Refai, the first Arab to climb Everest, but there were times when it looked as if it would not go ahead.

Israeli Heskel Nathaniel, the team leader, said some of the Palestinians had received threatening messages over their participation. Two of their number had been in Israeli jails while journalist Ziad Darwish's brother was killed by Israeli troops.

It was not until all eight group members were aboard the boat heading south through the Drake Passage from Chile to the icebergs of the Antarctic that Mr Nathaniel said he could feel sure there would be no "nasty surprises".

He said he set up the project to combine peacemaking with his love of extreme sports.

"I am very sad to see that in Israel and in Palestine that many people have fallen into a sort of apathy and accepted the fact that there will never be a solution - it is a horrible state of mind," he told Guardian Unlimited from the Antarctic.

"In a critical moment in the Middle East's history it is important to have flagship projects to give people hope and show the power of a joint mission."

A weblog on the group's website recorded their progress towards the mountain and in getting on with each other.

Early on Israeli lawyer and special forces veteran Avihu Shoshani was troubled by Fatah activist Suleiman al-Khatib taking a phone call from Yasser Arafat. "He says he's abandoned violence in favor of diplomacy. So why's he making a folk hero out of guy who murdered Jews?" he asked.

Otherwise the group argued about the wording of the peace declaration to be read at the mountain summit and what the unnamed and unclimbed mountain would be called.

The argument escalated as Palestinian Nasser Quass said Israel and the Jews had no right to the Temple Mount, the contested site of the historic Temple of Solomon and Islam's third holiest shrine, the al-Aqsa mosque, and Israeli Yarden Fanta called Mr Arafat a terrorist. Olfat Haider, an Israeli-Arab teacher, broke down in tears.

After several days the group settled on the Mountain of Israeli-Palestinian Friendship as a name for their destination.

Mr Nathaniel said the intensity of the disputes had surprised him.

"I thought the people would be more willing to compromise but there were some quite heated debates. It happened in the end but it took quite a lot of effort."

He said the group had got on better since reaching the summit and the participants had relaxed but there still were problems ahead. Mr Arafat - who backed the mission - has issued an official invitation for the eight explorers to visit him but Mr Nathaniel said he did not believe that all the Israelis would be willing to accept. "We will discuss it on our way home," he said.

He also conceded that one expedition would not bring peace. "With all the positive developments there is a little bit of a shadow behind it because at the end of the day and all this effort it is very difficult to measure the success.

"We do not expect to come back and find peace. It is the kind of project where you are never able to measure the success of it, and you have to live with that."

Mr Nathaniel said that while he expected the current participants to go home to carry on with their lives he would begin work on the next mission and securing funding for a series of ongoing activities with youth groups in Israel and Palestine.

"We do want to make a tradition out of it, an annual program for Jews and Arabs to different parts of the world. One project will not bring the peace. But hundreds of projects will make a difference."

The group is currently waiting in the northern Antarctic for the weather to clear to allow it make the journey back to Chile.