Last night E4 aired the film ‘promises’ (Bolado and Goldberg, 2001). This is a documentary in which the filmmakers followed a number of Israeli and Palestinian children for three years. By turns it is both dismaying and heart warming. Some of these kids felt only hatred for their counterparts, no doubt having been fed such bile from teachers and religious leaders. Yet others were more accepting. Perhaps the greatest part of the film was when the two groups met and realised that most of their preconceptions were wrong.

There is no getting around the fact that the middle east situation is very complex. If you ask me, it all boils down to religion and the arbitrary divisions it makes between us. Yet if the situation is ever going to be solved, it is schemes like this, which focus on young minds not so engrained with the petty hatreds of their elders, which will do it.