Listen to the Children

“I don’t like to think about the war. I like to think about horses. I don’t want to hurt anybody, and I don’t want anybody to hurt me. I just want to ride horses.”
Gili, age 8, Jerusalem

“We the people of the world should restore the sacred value of life.”
Abdulai, age 13, Afghanistan


“There are many, many Israeli soldiers. They walk on the sidewalks and drive around in trucks and tanks. They fly their helicopters over my city and shoot people. They try to make us believe this is their city and not ours. I see a lot of soldiers at my school. They are always there. I can feel them watching me, and I wish they would look in another direction.”
Maryam, age 11, Bethany, West Bank

 “My brother was killed eight months ago in Baghdad. He was 17. No one knows who did it. His body was found on a rubbish pile. That’s how we know he is dead.”
Abbadar (refugee from Iraq), age 12 , Jordan


“My mother, my father, my sisters, my brothers, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, all dead. We weren’t Taliban. We weren’t fighters. We didn’t do anything wrong. Why did you (the United States) do this to us?”
Amina. Age 8, Afghanistan

Palestinian kids shout at an Israeli soldier during a demonstration against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Halamish in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh.

Majdi Mohammed/AP

Children’s quotes taken from Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice.