Dear colleagues in Palestinian-Jewish dialogue,
"Where are the adults?" we ask ourselves.
Amidst heart-breaking cruelty to each other by both
Jews and Palestinians -- we mirror one another -- in the midst of the
"season of light," we grieve our killing of increasing proportions of
youth.
Forgetting who we are, we succumb to justifying cruel
acts that harden our hearts and distance ourselves from conscience and
soul. We both do it -- Palestinians and Jews. We are equally human,
and can be equally inhuman. Listen! It's time to stop!
Where are the adults? Sometimes they are the
youth.
Two examples are (1) PEACE CHILD ISRAEL and (2)
CROSSING BORDERS.
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1. PEACE CHILD ISRAEL doing small miracles
Listen to Melisse Lewine-Boskovich
(mlbpfpi@trendline.co.il), determined shepherd of
this sustained, relationship-building endeavor in Israel that brings Arab and
Jewish teens together to learn each other's cultures in creative workshops and
drama presentations that help lift up their lives together:
People don't believe much in miracles anymore, but
they can happen.
And a cluster of such miracles are happening right
here and now.
Despite the horrendous news of the past weeks, Arab
and Jewish teenagers are organizing their fears, anger, and frustration in such
a way as to find the justification to come together and learn about each other,
to hear the other's stories, to reduce the typical stereotypes and to MOVE
FORWARD.
Even just an inch.
Is this not a miracle?
Due to the commitment of educators, family members,
school principals, and community support, as well as the steadfast support of
friends at foundations and a committed staff of Arab and Jewish professionals,
Peace Child
The "grads" will perform excerpts from their
shows from last year and run a brief inter-active workshop with the audiences
of underclassman in 4 schools (2 Arab and 2 Jewish). The "beginners"
meet every week for two hours in a process which culminates in sharing an
original play in Hebrew and Arabic, which they write, rehearse and perform for
underclassman and the community at-large in May and June.
Who would have believed? Isn't that a miracle
worth knowing about?
More is on the Web at http://www.mideastweb.org/peacechild
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2. CROSSING BORDERS encouraging dialogue among
Palestinian-Israeli Mohammad Darawshe
(dovergh@inter.net.il), a director at Givat Haviva's Peace Education
Institute, is a true adult model for all of us.
Mohammad assures that CROSSING BORDERS continues to
bring Jewish, Palestinian, and Jordanian high school and university students
together to determine content and editorial policy for the joint,
Hebrew-Arabic, color publication, "Crossing Borders." Subject
matter crosses and challenges idealogical and
political boundaries. There are 30,000 copies for each issue.
Dialogue and "normalisation,"
Darawashe says, "did not make us less
Palestinian. Our identity and affiliation to our language, culture and
(Arab) heritage became even stronger."
The editorial meetings themselves are the essence of
the project. The youth-journalists have to present their arguments and
try to convince their peers why they want a certain topic to be covered or not
a learning process often leading to heated debates then eventual
agreement.
Not being directly involved in the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, and feeling less political pressure, the
Jordanian group often plays the significant role of moderator and mediator
between their Palestinian and Israeli peers.
Givat Haviva,
the oldest Israeli institution advocating Jewish-Arab understanding, was
founded in 1949 and works towards the improvement of relations between
Last week Mohammad Darawshe
and others were in
The resulting publication, CROSSING BORDERS, can be read online at http://www.crossingborder.org
Sometimes the youth are the adults. They teach
us, if we will learn.