Respected Judges of the Nobel Prize for Peace,

Governor George H. Ryan is among the Nobel Peace Prize Nominees this year, and that is good.  There are probably many people on this globe that are worthy of the highest Peace award. Some of them are people that the world probably have never heard of. They are neither Kings or Queens nor Presidents, but people of genuine love for humanity and tremendous actions and visions for the promotion of world peace. 

I believe Professor Ada Aharoni`s excellent work for genuine peace and mutual understanding in the Middle East and in the world, through her founding of IFLAC: The International Forum for the Culture of Peace, that has delegations in 21 countries, needs more attention now than ever.  Many people think that the conflicts in the world are either black or white, the good against the bad.  However, as we well know, major conflicts are not a football match. It is not a game where one wins or loses, it is a process of realizing and showing that in every conflict there are two stories, and that for the conflict to end, there should be a bridging through deep understanding, respect and the promotion of a peace culture on both sides. 

This is what Ada Aharoni, who was born in Cairo, Egypt, and now lives in Haifa, Israel, has been doing all her life, through her constant and admirable activities for peace, her research of the possibilities of a Global Peace, the Middle East Conflict, her many peace books, and her vast and impressive activities: peace meetings, seminars, and dialogues in IFLAC's various branches, including in the Bedouin "Tent of Peace" on Mount Carmel, near Haifa. She also dedicates her life to organizing impressive and influential yearly IFLAC PAVE PEACE International Conferences where Israelis and Palestinians, Turks and Greeks, Indians and Pakistanis, as well as peace researchers from many other nations, meet and exchange their views, projects and initiatives for the promotion of a global culture of peace. You are invited to visit her impressive accomplishments and varied peace activities and initiatives at:

 Ada Aharoni,  http://google.com  and in her website: http://ada.up.co.il

As a Norwegian, I believe it is possible to be pro-Norwegian, and at the same time anti-Quisling. If this can be real in Norway, it can be real in other places of the globe too.  Crime against humanity must never be tolerated, nor must crime against individuals be accepted.  We are all human beings, and we should not kill each other. The world needs to be healed now, more than ever. The 20th century was one of the bloodiest in the record of mankind.  Historians reckon that 180 million people have been killed in the last century, by war, civil strife, and exterminations. 

Civilizations have been inseparable from competition, which produces and implies antagonism, but it should not necessary be so.  According to Dr. Aharoni, the creation and promotion of a regional and global Culture of Peace, that can utilize and develop all the major peace contributions by the various civilizations in the past and in the present, can benefit all sides and promote the path of progress and prosperity for all. It can indeed open the door to co-operation between civilizations and nations, beyond boundaries, based on Bridges of Culture, mutual understanding and respect. One of the greatest pronouncements ever made in the field of cultural ethics and  morality is: "Hatred is ceased not by hatred, hatred is ceased but by love. This is the eternal law."

Many years ago I worked in Nazareth in the Galilee, where Israelis and Palestinians work harmoniously together to this day, despite the "Intifada".   I know from personal experience that it is possible for human beings to live in peace and harmony side by side as good neighbors, as they do in Haifa, the city of co-existence, where Ada Aharoni lives, and where she has contributed a great deal to the flourishing relations of Jews, Moslems and Christians, living, working and flourishing together in this city of brotherly love. If it is possible in Haifa, it should be possible elsewhere too.

I came to know Ada Aharoni, living in beautiful Haifa on Mount Carmel, several years ago, since she became a refugee from Egypt. Even before that, she worked strenuously for genuine peace and harmony between Arabs and Jews, and among people and nations of our global village.  She is indeed a very special woman and an innovative  grass-root peace initiator.  A person so peaceful and calm, wise and skillful. Not proud and demanding as some leaders are.

To my knowledge, Ada Aharoni is a true Peace Leader, whose major goals in life are, namely, peace among nations, the abolition of War as a means to solve conflicts, and the creation of a World Beyond War.  Her deep understanding that the barriers of Culture, which are at the root of personal identity (such as: history, language, heritage, religion, customs, and literature), between people and nations, are at the very basis of conflicts and wars, have led her to the brilliant idea of the founding of IFLAC, as an effective instrument of overcoming those barriers.

IFLAC: The International Forum for the Culture and Literature of Peace, and its wing: "LENA: THE BRIDGE: Jewish and Arab Women for Peace in the Middle East," have been very successful in overcoming those deep barriers that lead to misunderstanding, suspicion and hatred, and they have created many flourishing Bridges of Peace Culture between Israelis and Palestinians, and among people and nations. This brilliant and innovative cultural approach, as a new effective addition to the political approach, indeed deserves the support of the Nobel Prize for Peace.

With this tremendous help and support, IFLAC PAVE PEACE can develop and spread all over the world Global and Regional  Television  and Satellite programs and exposures of an influential multicultural Peace Culture, especially in conflicted areas, as in the Middle East. The development and spreading of these crucial Peace Culture Bridges among civilizations and nations, can prevent a third world war, which if it is waged, would probably be with nuclear entry, and it would unfortunately herald the disastrous end of all humankind.  For as we know, in a nuclear war there are no winners. Let us promote real winners: the nations and people of the world who yearn and clamor for a World Beyond War.  With the spreading of  IFLAC PAVE PEACE and its Peace Culture Bridges all over our global village - it can become possible.

Quoting Elie Wiesel: Mankind needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet, threatened by nuclear war, is in danger of total destruction. A destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent. Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.

Ada Aharoni, and the noble and brave Peace Institution and Organization she has founded: IFLAC PAVE PEACE (Voluntary Association No. 58-035-275-5), deserve to receive the Nobel Award for their long-time-work trying to overcome cultural barriers, misunderstandings, and hatred, by spreading love and deep concern for humanity, and showing the full richness of our dreams of peace. I indeed truly believe, that the great majority of our global village share the very same dreams as Ada has, of the true possibility of a world beyond war. In this faith, I would like to nominate Professor Ada Aharoni and IFLAC PAVE PEACE,  for the Nobel Peace Prize 2003. 

I am ending this letter with the wise words of Peace Laureate Joseph Rothblatt :

 The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn how to achieve it by love rather than by fear, by kindness rather than by compulsion; if in the process we learn to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an extra incentive to embark on this great task. Above all, remember your humanity.

Ada Aharoni indeed successfully manages to masterfully promote and accomplish all of the above. The next IFLAC PAVE PEACE International Conference she is organizing on "Conflict Resolution Through Culture",  is in a Moslem country, and she is working hard on its substantial impact for the spreading of a Peace Culture in the region and in the world, together with the IFLAC Branch in Turkey, Bursa (April 10 to 13, 2003). We would be delighted if you could possibly  join us, and send a Delegation to participate in this important and innovative conference. For more information, please visit the following websites: http://:ada.up.co.il and http://iflac.up.co.il, which includes IFLAC's Horizon  Pave Peace, online Magazine, in cooperation with IPRA: The International Peace Research Association.

I am looking forward to your positive response.

Please send it to: IFLAC World Center, POB: 9934,

Haifa 34343, Israel.

With warm Peace Wishes -

 I am,

 Sincerely yours,

Michael Holmboe Meyer