In August, 2004, the rejection
of obsolete violence replaced with the way of communication, reason and
compassion was the message of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi,
invited to address thousands of Palestinians and some Israelis publicly.
You can explore the Internet for dozens of articles,
from the Al-Jazeera to the Jerusalem Post, by searching for "Gandhi"
and "Palestinian" as well as "Israel" at:
As a result, non-violent ways toward
the "other" are now more acceptable subjects of open discussion
among Palestinians, and in the Israeli body-politic.
Palestinian
and Israeli citizens alike -- 113,00 of them -- continue responding to the call
of OneVoice to craft an unfolding public consensus statement on the most
contentious issues of creating a peace plan.
Organizers have been "astonished" by the
level of citizen response -- 58,032 Palestinians and 55,820 Israelis have
participated in the OneVoice Public Negotiations Platform to date.
See more about OneVoice and how it's creating a
culture of Dialogue and collective thinking, at:
This breakthrough of technology and
people who refuse to wait for governments is further described in print:
At the
same time, a handful of visionary adults are providing safe places for Arab
and Jewish youth to meet and learn new ways in a "camp culture."
Of course, there are the dozen North American
camps, described at http://traubman.igc.org/camps.htm
.
And they're in the Middle East as well.
"Anyone trying to tell you that coexistence between Jews and Arabs can't work
in Israel has never visited the summer camps sponsored by Givat Haviva,"
this final article tells us.
For two weeks, 165 Jewish and Arab children from the
Wadi Ara-Menashe area in northern Israel participated in camp activities in the
shadow of the Givat Haviva Peace Tree - a project that was initially hewn by
Arab and Jewish youth last summer.
The encouraging article concludes with Givat
Haviva's Mohammad Darawshe ( dovergh@inter.net.il ): "We see this as a
model by which we hope to develop between as many adjacent Jewish and Arab
communities as possible. . .to create more cooperation between the two
communities and it forged a feeling of a shared destiny and
responsibility."
More about Givat Haviva is at http://www.dialogate.org.il/
.
Published by ISRAEL21c: A focus beyond the conflict --
Sunday, 8 August 2004
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enPage=SearchResults&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enDispWho=Articles%5El752&enVersion=0&
GLOBAL DEMOCRACY
Israeli and Arab youth sit under the 'Peace
Tree'
By David Brinn and Lydia Aisenberg
Anyone trying to tell you that coexistence between
Jews and Arabs can't work in Israel has never visited the summer camps
sponsored by Givat Haviva.
Two different camp projects over the first half of the
summer - one a first time affair and the other a continuation of a established
program - brought together Jewish and Arab youth, many of whom lived almost
next door to each other but previously had minimal contact.
Givat Haviva, founded in 1949, is Israel's oldest
and largest organization working for peace, pluralism, tolerance, democracy,
and justice. Givat Haviva's Jewish-Arab Center for Peace in Israel won the
2001 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education for its "exceptional efforts in the
areas of peace education, promotion of peace and non-violence" and work
done for the resolution of conflicts through dialogue".
For two weeks, 165 Jewish and Arab children from the
Wadi Ara-Menashe area in northern Israel participated in camp activities in the
shadow of the Givat Haviva Peace Tree - a project that was initially hewn by
Arab and Jewish youth last summer.
A normally quiet corner of the Givat Haviva campus was
turned in to a pulsating day camp by the children and their Jewish and Arab
teenage councilors, some of whom participated in the Peace Tree project
exactly the same time last year.
One day was devoted to making music with thick bamboo
sticks that the campers had fashioned into musical instruments and decorated
with electric pencils. Learning to use the sticks to bang out a musical beat in
the mid-morn heat, the children were seriously in to having high volume fun -
together, or , all together now as the masters of beat, The Beatles, would have
said.
Definitely giving peace and co-existence a chance the Arab
and Jewish children are from moshavim and Arab villages in the area of
Givat Haviva near the city of Hadera that belong to the Menashe Regional
Council.
A close ongoing working relationship promoting
co-existence projects has built up between the two organizations over a long
period of time involving many hundreds of local youth and educators from both
the Jewish and Arab sectors.
Last year Shaked Ronen (18) from Moshav Sde Yitzhak,
Mazen Arda (17) and his cousin Alaa Arda (16) from the village of Meiser were
among 25 Jewish and Arab teens that sculpted the Peace Tree from a 100 year old
eucalyptus tree blown over in a heavy storm the previous winter. This year as
counselors, the three teens are continuing to pull together to build bridges
over the divide between their different communities.
While chatting with Shaked, Mazen and Alaa, a few 8
and 9 year-old boys and girls gathered around to listen in on the conversation
and were more than willing to huddle together for a photograph with their camp
leaders. Some of the children wore t-shirts they had designed themselves during
a previous days camp activities and white doves of peace were very prominently
displayed on most.
With the focus this year on environmental issues and
road safety, other children were wearing shirts designed by the local council
with luminous yellow strips around the sleeves and various logos encouraging
caring about their shared planet and its inhabitants.
The fruits of the physical labor of Shaked, Mazen and
Alaa, who all worked with the same children in camp last year before
undertaking the Peace Tree project, are now being reaped as the children relate
to each other as just that - children.
The much admired Peace Tree stands tall and proud in
the center of the green lawns of the Givat Haviva campus grounds casting a
giant and protective shadow over Arab and Jewish children, youth and adults who
embrace the messages emanating from therein.
Immediately following the two-week Peace Tree camp
began a one-week camp for 40 10-12 year-olds that was born under the most
difficult circumstances, according to Givat Haviva director of public
relations Mohammed Darawshe.
"The camp began as an idea over a year ago, and
started as a one-time encounter between the residents of Kibbutz Metzer and the
adjacent Arab village of Meiser," Darawshe told ISRAEL21c.
Metzer was the site of a horrible terror attack in
November 2002 in which Revital Ohayon and her two sons Matan, 5 and Noam, 4
were killed when a terrorist infiltrated their home at night and opened fire on
them in their sleep. According to Darawshe, the attack became a catalyst for
dialogue between the two neighboring communities.
"We engaged a number of community leaders in
discussions with leaders from Meiser following the attack. And a good number of
residents from Meiser participated in the funeral. This created a window of
dialogue between the two communities, and we capitalized on it and created some
sub-groups, one of which was children. Over the last year, six meetings were
held with children from 4th-6th graders from both communities," said
Darawshe.
He said that the modest goal was for both sides to get
to know their immediate neighbor, but the response was so positive that both
sides clamored for more.
"Thanks for support from the Swiss Embassy, we
were able to finance a summer camp for 40 kids from both communities which
focuses on arts as the language of dialogue between Arabs and Jews."
Residents of both communities participated as facilitators
for the camp, which ended last week. On the final day, the children focused on
sculpturing.
"We took them to the zoo at Metzer where they
created images of the animals there. Then the Arab and Jewish kids exchanged
their final products and will display them publicly in their respective
neighborhoods," said Darawshe.
"We see this as a model by which we hope to
develop between as many adjacent Jewish and Arab communities as possible.
We've received tremendously positive feedback, and the kids had a ball sharing
personal and cultural background with each other. In a way, the tragedy of the
Ohayon family was used to create more cooperation between the two
communities and it forged a feeling of a shared destiny and
responsibility."