Hearing
everyone's Story:
Step #1 of
personal change and ending wars
14 July 2012
"Story is the
shortest distance between people."
~ Pat
Speight (Irish storyteller)
"During the
many years of my career as a Hebrew teacher for Palestinians in Gaza, and
as an Arabic
teacher for the Jews and foreigners at Ulpan Akiva in Israel,
I have heard the
same kinds of questions and comments expressed by both sides,
showing how
ignorant we are about one another. We know nothing about each other,
in spite of being
the children of sister Semitic languages and having
the same cultural
roots."
~ Samira Shaa'ban Srur Fadil
(1997, Palestinian Abraham Language School, Rimal,
Gaza)
"There are
two stories here and there is a quality of transcendence - seeing
beyond the 'Jewish
Narrative' or the 'Palestinian Narrative' - to a perspective that can
humanize both
sides and hear the 'other' story. A transcender after
all has
abandoned the
exclusive quality of his or her narrative of origin."
~ Rabbi Andrea
Cohen-Kiener (1999, CT USA)
#1
An Exemplary Middle East
Adult Relationship
"Anatomy of a Peace-Building Relationship: Dan
Bar-On and Sami Adwan as PRIME Leaders" is a
new, definitive article about peace-building (bottom-up) in perspective with
peace-making (top-down).
These 18 instructive pages of personal tools,
inspiration, social science, and human experience outline how to build
relationships to begin ending wars.
CONTENTS
The Birth of a Peace-Building
Relationship
Personal Trajectories, Professional Choices
Working Together.
Peace Leaders Who Are More
Alike Than Different
From Enemies to Friends
Shared History Project --
Learning Each Others Historical Narrative
From
Constraints to Opportunities
DOWNLOAD & READ
Anatomy of a
Peace-Building Relationship (pages 22-39)
by Professor Saliba Sarsar in
International Leadership
Journal (Volume 4, Issue 2, Summer 2012)
http://www.tesc.edu/documents/ILJ_Summer_2012.pdf
SYNOPSIS: The Quaker peace activist Gene Knudsen Hoffman once stated, an
enemy is one whose story we have not heard.
The late Israeli psychologist Dan Bar-On and
Palestinian educator Sami Adwan, living on opposite
sides of the Israeli-Palestinian border, heard each others
stories.
They realized there is more than one side to every
story, reconsidered their deeply held beliefs, developed empathy toward each
other, overcame the need to always be right, and even became committed
peace-building leaders and partners.
Through their joint work, Bar-On and Adwan challenged the status quo.
Their main interest was not in playing the blame game,
but in finding solutions.
They dared to say no to war and to dream and hope for
peace.
Instead of militarizing or politicizing relationships,
they humanized them.
Israeli Jewish and Palestinian leaders and researchers
need to develop the inner strength and the practical steps, as Bar-On and Adwan did, to cross the border and find workable solutions
to the longstanding conflict between their national communities.
View 2007 VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Muslim-Palestinian pioneer
educator Prof. Sami Adwan and
Jewish-Israeli social
scientist Prof. Dan Bar-On a year before his tragic 2008 death
30-min video -- by
Prof. Saliba Sarsar,
Monmouth Univ., New Jersey, USA
Finally, in print is Adwan and Bar-on's definitive model textbook of respecting, learning, and
teaching parallel but sometimes-conflicting narratives -- many stories, all one
story, our story.
This textbook is a new educational standard for
studying and respecting two peoples equally.
SIDE BY SIDE:
Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine
by Sami Adwan,
Dan Bar-On, Eyal Naveh, and
PRIME - Peace Research Institute in the Middle East
The New Press, New York,
2012, 416 pages
http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1838
#2
Parallel Stories matter globally
including in Armenia and Azerbaijan
Citizen-driven public peace processes in Eurasia go back over 20 years
also in Eurasia, like the pioneering Armenia-Azerbaijan Initiative -- http://traubman.igc.org/aai.htm
Today in 2012, two effective women -- Azeri journalist
Shahla Sultanova, and
Armenian reporter Hayhuki Barseghyan
-- engage, learn, and publish together.
They remind us about the primary importance of
shared narratives, and the widespread ignorance of that principle and activity
among their peoples.
HISTORY LESSONS IN ARMENIA
AND AZERBAIJAN
In each country, school
textbooks teach one version of history that sustains animosity towards the
other.
By Hayhuki
Barseghyan, Shahla Sultanova - Caucasus
Institute for War & Peace
Reporting -- 27 February 2012
http://iwpr.net/report-news/history-lessons-armenia-and-azerbaijan
#3
Young Indian, Pakistani Seeds of Peace
cross borders, dignify both historical narratives
After the brave step of meeting their "enemies" at Seeds of Peace
Summer Camp in Maine, young Indian participants cut across lines of division at
home, engaging with peers in a far less supportive setting.
Crossing barriers to Pakistan that were concrete and
psychological, they were doing what few from their parents generation ever
contemplated.
Joining with their Pakistani peers in Lahore, they
began rewriting their countries' history books by drafting a joint
curriculum containing each nations historical narrative of their
relationship.
They sustain their activity and relationships online.
READ more:
INDIA SEEDS VENTURES
FACE-TO-FACE PROJECT
CONNECTS STUDENTS TO THE
"OTHER SIDE"
Cross-border Aamney-Samney initiative tackles India, Pakistan
stereotypes
http://www.seedsofpeace.org/?p=11759
#4
New Story Leadership:
A new breed of Palestinians, Israelis
Each summer New Story Leadership for the Middle East -- http://www.newstoryleadership.org
-- brings together Middle Eastern young adult citizen-leaders.
In Washington, DC, they deepen in their face-to-face
communication skills, principles of change, and understanding of the
"other" and their shared future.
They are creating a new story of their relationships,
and eventually their peoples' capacity to connect and live in community
sustainably.
They say: "If we can change the story, we can
change the world."
WATCH and LISTEN to two totally-inspiring
hours -- personal narratives of change from this new breed of Middle
Eastern citizens who will help you think more deeply, smile, cry, and have more
hope than yesterday.
Personal Narratives of Change
Israeli-Palestinian Relations
C-Span TV -- 06 July 2012 --
2 hour video
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/event/205161
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These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm