Sulhita
2009 - Ninety Israelis and Palestinians
live
beyond war four days in the desert
Sunday,
11 October 2009
LIVING BEYOND WAR
Person
by person, a new breed of human being is choosing to build a world beyond war.
You may be one of them.
Their newness is a DNA-like change of attitude and
understanding of daily life on Earth.
The foundational knowledge and personal
implications of life beyond war are described at http://www.beyondwar.org/about/dna.htm
.
KNOWLEDGE
1. War is obsolete.
2. We are one on this planet.
3. The
means are the ends in the making
DAILY PRACTICE
1 . I will resolve conflict. I will not use violence.
2. I will maintain an attitude of good will. I will
not preoccupy myself with an enemy
3. I will work together with others to build a world beyond
war.
In recent
weeks, there was no better example on Earth than 90 Israeli and Palestinian
youth and adults who successfully lived, listened, and grew together.
Their Sulhita is
described below.
You can do this wherever on Earth you live.
-
L&L
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SULHITA
Painting a picture of
life beyond war
The Sulha Peace Project - http://www.sulha.com
- in the Holy Land is citizen peace-builders inspired by the indigenous
"sulha" process of face-to-face engagement
then mediation to rebuild trust and restore dignity beyond political
agendas.
September 24-27, /2009 was their powerful Sixth
Youth Sulhita in the Holy Land desert.
"At first I was very angry that there were
Jews and Arabs together. Its impossible to describe
how the Sulhita has changed me...its infinite. I want
to keep in touch with my Sulhita friends because they
symbolise love and friendship and they are so
special."
Palestinian
girl, 16, Hebron
"The uniqueness and power of the Sulhita
lies in the hominess, the beating heart and the connection of the two sides
through simple, human dialogue. When Im in the army Ill treat Arabs with
humanity and Ill make listening circles with them. I accept Arabs more as
people I can live with. You are doing holy work!"
Jewish
boy, 18, Kfar Aaron
Living side-by-side were 90
participants and staff -- Bedouins, Druze, Arab and Jewish Israelis,
including from Sderot, with 40 Palestinians
from across the border and for whom there was 100% success in getting permits.
The 60 youth and 30 volunteers -- facilitators,
kitchen and film staff, and more -- from Israel and Palestine cooperated and
learned during four days of sharing life stories, pain, and hopes.
Envisioning their shared future, they further became
leaders for authentic, peaceful relationships and unprecedented creativity
together.
The powerful days of courageous, successful
trust-building surprised many participants, especially in the shadow of recent,
traumatizing death in Gaza and southern Israel that increased stress and
mistrust.
Sulhita 2009 was
the fruit of a four-month process of confidence-building between two
citizen-teams from Palestine and Israel who chose to cooperate and work as
equals in planning,
facilitating, and funding.
The exciting results filled everyone with hope and the
promise of doing more together for lasting peace.
For more information, contact Elad Vazana ( Elad@havayati.co.il
).
SEE PHOTOS and VIDEO, and READ more about these
inspiring days and youth responses:
Palestinian-Israel Planning Team Story (3.3 MB)
http://www.sulha.com/UserFiles/File/the_sulhita_story2009c.doc
Illustrated 9-page Sulhita 2009
story, with youth responses (1.6 MB)
http://www.sulha.com/UserFiles/File/Sulhita%20September%202009d.doc
Beautiful 15-page PowerPoint description (1.7 MB)
http://www.sulha.com/UserFiles/File/sulhita2009_small1.ppt
More Sulhita 2009 photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/tonibaum/Sulhita200902?feat=email#
and
perhaps most inspiring of all, be sure to watch
the
Powerful 9-minute youth-created VIDEO with music
by 18-year-old Ala Salman, a
Palestinian participant from Beit Safafa,
East Jerusalem
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1228696430216
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This message will reside on the Web at http://traubman.igc.org/messages/587.htm