255 Palestinian, Jewish youth, adults
engage at
Family Peacemakers Camp
Friday, 08 September 2006
Today, Friday 8 September 2006, exemplary American
reporters gave voice to Jews and Palestinians who are creating a new
world that benefits all.
Oseh Shalom ~ Sanea al-Salam Family Peacemakers Camp was near Yosemite
National Park, in California's Sierra-Nevada Mountains.
Personal narratives of all were heard and broadcast in
the same breath, in the same newspaper columns, a sign of an authentic,
trustworthy public peace process.
Making history, 255
Palestinians and Jews of all ages -- Muslims, Christians and Jews -- lived
together for four days in the
Fifty citizens came from 29 towns in the
There were Canadians and Japanese students who bring
Israeli and Palestinian youth to
Arabs and Jews flew from 10
It was not all easy. There were moments of
struggle and doubt.
Yet, in a world where the quality of listening is poor,
here the stories of diverse youth and adults were
heard well.
These Arabs and Jews realized more than
ever that "an enemy is one whose story we have not heard."
And good food, nature,
music, hookahs and art in a safe place with supportive friends help a lot,
too.
Returning down from the mountain, Camp
participants were greeted by a Tuesday night
standing-room-only audience of local citizens and reporters at St. Mary's
Cathedral in San Francisco.
Their public report-out, "
See this evening in art
form at http://traubman.igc.org/camptuesdayart.htm .
"People become the
stories they hear and the stories they tell," said Elie Wiesel.
This week Jews, Palestinians and their supporters
became more.
More engaged.
More human.
It's possible, and closer at hand than most people
believe.
Pass on stories like these.
They matter.
You matter.
Published in the San Francisco Chronicle -- Friday, 08
September 2006
On the Web at https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/TUOLUMNE-COUNTY-Peaceful-setting-intense-2470022.php&hw=traubman&sn=001&sc=1000
Peaceful setting, intense dialogue
Israelis, Palestinians gather in effort to understand each other
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Camp Tawonga, Tuolumne
County -- It was an unusual setting, light-years away from the carnage of the
Middle East.
Standing before a campfire near
"I am here because your kids and mine deserve a
better present and a better future," Jamil Tarayra of
A few minutes later, Ella Carmela
Margalit, an Israeli Jew who lives near Galilee with
her husband and three children, trembled when she described how a friend's
grandson, serving as an Israeli soldier, was killed in 2003 in a skirmish with
Palestinians on the West Bank.
She spoke of how her hopes for peace were shattered by
this summer's war in
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More than 250 Jews, Muslims and Christians gathered
over the Labor Day weekend at the Oseh Shalom-Sanea al-Salam Palestinian-Jewish
Family Peacemakers Camp -- with the aim of actually listening to each other.
They included about 50 men, women and teenagers from
the Middle East as well as scores of American Jews and Arab Americans from the
Bay Area and beyond, ordinary citizens ranging in age from 1 to 77, many of
whom have ties to
"Once people meet and engage in a safe place,
change begins," said Len Traubman, who with his
wife, Libby, started a dialogue group for local Palestinians and Jews in
For four days over the holiday weekend, the campers
shared a sylvan retreat with rustic cabins next to the Tuolumne River --
engaging in a grueling, 17-hour daily schedule that included intensive dialogue
sessions, eating meals together, hiking, swimming, dancing, singing in Hebrew
and Arabic and trusting each other on a perilous ropes course. At night, they
suffered each other's snores in close quarters.
The Palestinians brought a sense of urgency, calling
not only for peace, but justice. They spoke of the poverty and hardships of
life in the occupied territories -- the Israeli checkpoints, armored tanks,
house searches and arrests -- calling the conditions a form of ethnic
cleansing. They complained of a pro-Israeli bias in media coverage, and the
need for a change in the region's balance of power.
Israeli Jews attending the conference appeared wary
but eager to explore ways to break the
There was tension from the start, as two men squared
off within seconds of meeting each other.
"You don't speak Arabic? You're kidding me! You
look freakin' Arab," Anis Said, a 21-year-old
Palestinian Christian from the West Bank city of Jeneen,
said in a teasing tone to a startled man.
"Maybe it's my hat," said Ofer Margalit, 32, a Jew from
A 10-minute debate ensued about volatile points in the
history of the
"I need the contact with you," Said, who is
now a premed student in
The Jew responded with caution: "We're here not
to agree but to hear each other."
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Group leader Ken Kramarz
told the campers a story from the Coast Miwok, whose
tribal ancestors once inhabited the Sierra. A boy tells his grandfather:
"I feel that I have two wolves fighting inside of me. One is angry and violent.
The other is loving and compassionate. Who will win?"
The grandfather responds: "The one you feed."
Some campers said they were drawn to the weekend
retreat because they dread another war in the
"It's hard to be Arab in
"Through the languages, I know both cultures. I
have two identities. It was tearing me apart," said Azriek,
who moved to
It was a time to shed feelings of prejudice.
Dina Helweh of
In the mornings, the participants met in a shady grove
of pines and incense cedar trees. They were divided into groups of four, and
later into couples. They were asked to address questions such as: How do you
describe the root cause of the conflict? What does the term "suicide
bomber" mean to you?
"With the increasing violence, I have developed
more prejudice, more bigotry," said Debbie Rakotomala,
52, of
"I see ourselves as two
sides of the same coin, but it's a volatile situation," Rakotomala said. "I think
Adel Nazzal, 57, an Arab
American chemist from
Nazzal, who lived the first
18 years of his life in Ramallah on the
Across the glen, pairs were engaged in similar
conversations. At the end of their dialogue, a young Jewish woman and a
Palestinian man hugged in a long, tear-streamed embrace.
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Only 45 people attended the first Peacemakers Camp in
2003. This year, there were more applicants than could be accepted at
This year's campers included veteran peace activists as well as a former
Israeli soldier and Palestinian fighters who have put down their weapons to
form a group called Combatants for Peace.
A peacemaker from the
Many campers voiced frustration with the powers that
be.
"For me, the Hezbollah are not terrorists; they
are freedom fighters," Iman Bodarna,
an Arab Muslim who lives in Sakneen in northern
Bodarna, the mother of five
children, added: "I can't rely on the politicians to do anything. For me,
a simple woman with kids, it is a struggle to survive. We have been fighting
for a long time. We have no more strength."
It was not always easy to listen.
"That wasn't a dialogue. That was a
monologue," said Ann Rubin, a middle-aged Jew from
Some of the most intense conversations occurred late
in the evenings on a lazy wooden deck where a dozen young adults -- most of
them Palestinians -- gathered on sofas to sip Arabic coffee and share hookah
pipes.
"I came here just to talk, not to play,"
said Muhannad Braik, a
young Palestinian man who lives in Ramallah.
"This is our problem: The world doesn't know about us. You've heard about
bin Laden, but I would like to tell the story of the good things about
Islam."
It was a time to share cultures.
Saheer
There was also time for fun.
A talent show featured everything from the dabke dance to a rabbi joke, as well as two young Americans
who performed a hilarious song, a send-up of the camp's serious tone: "We
want to Di-a-logue/We're going to Save-the-world, Ba-by."
* * * * *
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The camp's 43 teens seemed eager to mingle and make
new friends.
"You are the future," a group leader told
them.
Rami, a 15-year-old boy from
"I never thought I'd be in a place where I could
listen to both sides and be exposed to the fears of both sides," said Amar Taha, 16, of
The day before leaving camp, several women met by the
river and talked about how to move forward.
"We need to find ways to support each other as
peace organizations rather than compete with each other for scarce funds,"
said Devorah Brous, a young American Jew who lives in
Brous is the founder of a
nonprofit group called Bustan, whose projects include
building a medical clinic for Bedouins, who once roamed the desert with
livestock but have been confined by the Israeli government to urban ghettos and
"unrecognized villages" that do not appear on official maps.
Before leaving, the campers pledged to stay in touch
via e-mail and collaborate on new projects.
Gail Weinstein, an instructor at
Bodarna, the Muslim woman
who had spoken of her powerlessness, summed up her feelings: "There's been
lots of talk. Now there's need for action. I feel like a battery that's been
recharged. ... We need to send a message to our governments for more peace and
compassion. We need to build an infrastructure for peace."
Said and Ofer Margalit, who had confronted each other on the first day of
camp, ended up eating meals together and laughing.
"We've become good friends," Margalit
said. "I don't know if we'll be friends for life, but the bad feelings
have disappeared. I think we've built some trust."
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For more information on the Oseh Shalom-Sanea al-Salam Palestinian-Jewish
Family Peacemakers Camp, go to
http://www.tawonga.org/wf_nature.html
and Google "Palestinian Jewish Camp 2006"
E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com .