For the past year in our icnext seminars, we have explored reasons for tension between Jews and Muslims in Israel. For the last 9 days we have heard mostly Jewish speakers, had Jewish tour guides, and spoken the language of the Jews. But personally I was excited for our visit to Jisar Az-Zarka, a small Arab village on the coast of the Mediterranean, and the place my sister who was in icnext cohort 1 visited and still talks about today. What an experience it would be to finally interact in person with a people we have only heard about from others. As we drove through the neighborhood of Jisar Az-Zarka , I’ll admit I was a little scared. Unsure of what would happen, I sat apprehensively in my seat, while snapping pictures of the colorful, crowded village that surrounded the bus. We were greeted by Mohammed who welcomed us. We sat outside between several buildings, in a circle, listening to him speak about his village and his people, interrupted frequently by loose roosters and little children running around shooting at each other with fake guns. we took a walk through the neighborhood looking sat the rundown houses, We finally made our way to their equivalent of a “JCC” where we were met with a room of about a dozen Arab Muslims teens. They sat eagerly with smiles on their faces, some wearing the traditional hijabs, while others wearing clothes similar to ours. I was surprised by the fact that they all spoke Hebrew and English very well. Soon, we were broken up into tables where questions awaited us on the table. The questions ranged from what we do in our free time to what happens in romantic relationships in our religion and culture. It was fascinating for me to see the similarities between us even if Jisar Az-Zarka looks nothing’s like beachwood, oh. Following the questions we created mandelas. The art that was created by each group was honestly so amazing to see. Each group took the assignment in different ways-ranging from putting the symbol of our religions together in a peace sign along side the words shalom and Salam, to a superman sign. Regardless of what comprised the mandelas, they were simply a statement that said “we have are differences but more importantly it’s our similarities that can unite us and create peace”. After finishing at the community center, we took a long walk through a park in Jisar Az-Zarka to enjoy dinner or a break fast for the Muslims for Ramadan, alongside the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. What an evening it was to be along side Muslim teens, enjoying homemade pita and other Israeli foods, sitting on the most beautiful ocean in the world, in the country that we both love the most!