Dear colleagues in Jewish-Palestinian Sustained Dialogue and relationship building, 

Listen to this.
     ALL FOR PEACE grassroots, citizen-run Israeli-Palestinian radio is on the air and on the Web 24 all day, every day.
     You can hear it in the Holy Land at 107.2 FM, and on the Web at http://www.allforpeace.org .
     RAINBOW, its English language, one-hour interview program brings the world today's personalities in the Middle East public peace process.
     The interviews by Michael Brand, with musical interludes, airs every Sunday and repeat on Tuesdays:

21:00 / 9:00 p.m. --  Jerusalem
20:00 / 8:00 p.m. -- Europe
19:00 / 7:00 p.m. -- UK
14:00 / 2:00 p.m. -- Eastern USA
13:00 / 1:00 p.m. -- Central USA
12:00 /  Noon       --  Mountain USA
11:00 / 11:00 a.m. -- Pacific USA

     This Tuesday (June 6) hear interviews with:

Aida Touma-Suliman

Aida works with WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE (W.A.V.), an Israeli organisation which deals with violence against women in Arab communities.

Lucy Nusseibeh

Lucy is chairperson MIDDLE EAST NON-VIOLENCE AND DEMOCRACY (M.E.N.D)

http://www.mend-pal.org/vision.htm

     Then next Sunday and Tuesday (June 12 & 14) RAINBOW'S guests will be:

Marianne Albina

Marianne is the Communications Manager for  RIGHT TO PLAY (Middle East Regional Office ). RIGHT TO PLAY is a world wide organisation that champions the importance of sport and play in a schools curriculum , and the influence of play on children's behaviour. Marianne, who works in the Palestinian Authority.

http://www.righttoplay.com/media/news_200505.asp

Yael Samuel

 In December 2004, Israeli artist Adi Yekutieli and Palestinian artist George Nustas presented to the North American community their idea to launch the most ambitious and imaginative art for peace project ever to take place in the Middle East: to get 10,000 Israelis and Palestinians to make, paint, and fly kites with messages of peace to each other and fly them at the same time on both sides of the 670 kilometer long barrier separating them.  Citizens are still flying their kites, a bit differently than first expected.  Yael Samuel is the Executive Director of  10,000 KITES~TALKING KITES.

http://www.talkingkites.org.il/ and http://10000Kites.org

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Today, Tues., June 6, 2005 in USA Today, the editorial article of Palestinian Professor Saliba Sarsar ( Sarsar@mondec.monmouth.edu ) strengthens the importance of (Palestinian) Marianne Albina and (Jewish) Yael Samuel's work. He writes:   

"Whenever in Jerusalem, I intentionally visit Liberty Bell Garden. . .a five-minute walk from my parents' home near the old war zone.  Arab and Jewish children feel free to play and interact in the Garden.  It is what neighborhoods on opposing sides of the conflict ought to become." 

Saliba's thoughtful writing -- Six-Day War gave child a lifelong yearning for peace -- is on the Web at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-06-06-sarsar-edit_x.htm?POE=click-refer

     Take heart.  Do something creative, no matter how small.  Every person, every story matters.

-- L&L

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Published in the Philadelphia Inquirer -- Sunday, 5 June 2005
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/11816018.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

'Underground radio' comes to Israel
In Hebrew, Arabic and English, warring citizens are
starting to listen to each other.

By Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writer

JERUSALEM - Trotting downstairs to his basement studio, Shimon Malka makes a joke.
     "Now entering the world of 'underground' radio," he says.
     But All for Peace, the new Israeli-Palestinian joint venture broadcasting in Hebrew, Arabic and English from an apartment in East Jerusalem with a licensed transmitter in Ramallah, is no pirate station.
     What makes it subversive in today's atmosphere, Malka says, is its commitment to a radical ideal: Despite a history of recriminations, Israeli-Palestinian coexistence works only in an environment of mutual respect.
     "Media in conflictual societies are very nationalistic, sometimes too nationalistic," says Malka, 38, the station's Israeli co-director. "What we are trying to say to our audience is, 'Before you are a nation, you are a person.' "
     Funded primarily by donations from the European Union, the Japanese Embassy in Tel Aviv, and Biladi, the Palestinian company that publishes the weekly Jerusalem Times, Radio All for Peace employs 16 people on an annual budget of $300,000.
     The idea for the station arose three years ago at the height of Palestinian-Israeli fighting, when it became difficult - because of roadblocks and closed military zones - to distribute Crossing Borders, a bimonthly magazine aimed at school-age readers inside Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan.
     "The fighting got so bad that the magazine could not be distributed in West Bank areas," said Maysa Baransi-Siniora, the station's Palestinian co-director. "That's why we thought of having a radio station, because with radio, no borders can stop it."
     All for Peace began broadcasting a mix of world music and public-affairs programming about a month ago at 107.2 on the local FM dial. A year earlier, it had started transmitting online at http://www.allforpeace.org . At its peak, it had a daily audience of 11,000 Internet listeners. Its broadcast audience has yet to be measured.
     For now, much of the feedback comes through e-mail to its Web site.
     "We get people who say, 'We love what you are doing; carry on,' and people who call us betrayers, and say, 'Go home,' " Baransi-Siniora said.
     And in the beginning, they got occasional threats.
     Although the violence in Israel and the territories has largely abated, "facts on the ground," including Israel's security barrier and continuing closures prompted by sporadic Palestinian attacks, have not improved access between the two sides.
     So the idea, Malka said, is "to create a place where Palestinians and Israelis can hold a dialogue without actually being in the same place physically."
     The primary vehicles for that dialogue are two daily public-affairs programs, one in Hebrew, one in Arabic, in which hosts conduct telephone interviews that try to present points of view not often heard in the mainstream media of either side.
     The Hebrew program, Equator, for example, tries to present Israeli listeners with a broad perspective on Palestinian life, including segments on education, culture and gender, said Orly Noy, the show's Israeli producer.
     "What they hear about Palestinians is that they are victims of the occupation or terrorists," said Noy, so Equator gives them "the in-between."
     The Arabic show Attempts also has run counter to stereotype, said Baransi-Siniora, citing the time its Palestinian host, Adele Zumot, interviewed a Palestinian gunman living in exile in Ireland.
     The man was among several dozen who took over Bethlehem's Nativity Church in a month-long standoff in 2002. He was sent into exile as part of the deal brokered between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to end the impasse.
     "Two years after the exile, they were supposed to come back," said Baransi-Siniora, but that has not happened.
     And instead of criticizing Israel in the interview about his continued banishment, said Baransi-Siniora, "he basically put the whole blame on the Palestinian Authority" for not protecting him. "Everybody was shocked. Everybody talked about it."
     It was not a point of view you would hear on the official Voice of Palestine radio or the Palestinian Authority-controlled news service, she said.
     In addition to current events, the station presents an eclectic mix of music programs, alternating songs in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
     As Radio All for Peace awaits a more powerful transmitter, it uses a one-kilowatt transmitter that allows its signal to reach central Israel's coastal plain as well as the Palestinian Authority areas between Nablus and Bethlehem.
     Like the listeners they hope to reach, All for Peace staffers feel the constant pressures of the conflict in their everyday lives.
     Their studios are near the French Hill section of Jerusalem, which during the intifadah has been struck by numerous suicide bombings. They have heard the explosions and gone outside to see smoke rising.
     "We were working together when every Sunday there was a bus bombing here or there," Baransi-Siniora said.
     At the same time, she said, "Israeli troops were entering and destroying Jabaliya or Nablus or God knows what other cities. Every person is a human being. Every person feels, 'My God, look what your people have done to my people.' "
     In group meetings facilitated by a trained leader, they have aired their feelings in an effort to keep emotions in check and their eyes on the prize: Two states for two peoples, living in harmony, side by side.
And if the content of their programming stirs listeners, all the better, Baransi-Siniora said.
     "That's our agenda," she said. "Keep listening to us. One day you will understand what we are trying to do."

Radio All for Peace is available on the station's Web site via http://www.allforpeace.org