Israelis, Palestinians launch Antartica expedition
Eight Israelis and Palestinians headed south from Chile today on an expedition to climb an unnamed, unconquered Antarctic mountain, vowing to cooperate under difficult, dangerous conditions.
The two motor-powered yachts carrying the six men and two women of the Breaking the Ice expedition left Puerto Williams, a Chilean navy base 2,050 miles south of Santiago.
“I think we are setting a very good example on how different people can live and cooperate together,” expedition leader Heskel Nathanial said as the expedition departed in good weather.
“We are determined to support and help each other,” Nathanial, an Israeli who works in Germany for an estate agency, said.
He said minutes before departure that he received good-luck phone calls from former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres and from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who invited the group to visit him after their adventure.
The four Arabs and four Jews plan to climb a mountain about 6,560ft high which has never been scaled or named, near the Bruce Plateau in Antarctica.
The stated goal is to forge mutual trust by pursuing a common goal in an enterprise which will probably include highly dangerous situations, both sailing for 600 miles in one of the world’s most treacherous oceans, and trekking and climbing in Antarctica.
Extreme Peace Missions, a non-profit group which organised the expedition, said it did so “out of a belief that overcoming physical obstacles by working together as a team toward shared goals can unite the Israelis and Palestinians”.
The yachts are expected to take four days to sail from Puerto Williams to Antarctica, crossing the Drake Passage. Then they will sail for another five days along the Antarctic coast to the site of the climb. The entire expedition is to take 35 days.
Heskel said the expedition was well equipped, and had modern communications and safety equipment.
The team includes Nassr Quass, a Palestinian who was jailed for three years in Israel for attacking Israeli soldiers.
Other members are Olfat Haider, an Ethiopian-born woman who trekked across the wilderness of Sudan at the age of 14 to immigrate to Israel, and Avishu Shoshani and Doron Erel, former members of an Israeli elite commando unit.
A late addition to the group is an unidentified Palestinian who spent 10 years in prison in Israel accused of terrorism. He replaced a Palestinian doctor who resigned.
The expedition is also sponsored by Israel’s Peres Centre for Peace. Organisers say it has also received support from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
