"You
who do not live in the heart of the
These January, 2006, words are from an Israeli
participant in Arab-Jewish Sustained Dialogue in
They appeal for creative, perpetual help from the
outside by citizens who can be want the best for both peoples equally.
Yet citizens worldwide remain passive and sadly
dependent on inept governments -- uncreative, succumbing to fear, lionizing the
soldier.
Not realizing that ordinary people can achieve
extraordinary things.
In the early 1980s Jody Williams
was not on track to win the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
She was working for a temporary employment agency.
Yesterday -- Monday, January 9, 2006 -- Jody told us
through National Public Radio:
"For me, the difference between an 'ordinary' and an
'extraordinary' person is not the title that person might have, but what they
do to make the world a better place for us all.
"I believe in both my right and my responsibility
to work to create a world that doesn't glorify violence and war, but where we
seek different solutions to our common problems. I believe that these days,
daring to voice your opinion, daring to find out information from a variety of sources, can be an act of courage.
"I believe that worrying about
the problems plaguing our planet without taking steps to confront them is
absolutely irrelevant. The only thing that changes this world is taking
action."
Click
on "Listen" for 5 minutes and be inspired by Jody Williams in
streaming audio on the Internet by her toward activity and courage, at:
For Jody, "its
about trying to do the right thing even when nobody else is looking."
The world may not yet be looking or noticing, but citizens
in (1) Japan and (2) Hungary, seemingly far from the Middle East conflict, are
"doing the right thing" -- pouring themselves and their
creativity into healing the Palestinian-Israeli relationship.
=== Japan ===
It is Japanese student-invented,
student-driven, student-organized, and student-sustained year around. . .for others half a world away.
The 4th Japan-Israel-Palestine Joint
Student Conference -- August 9-28, 2006 in Japan -- a summer program to
create an opportunity for a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinian students
who cannot easily have close contact on daily basis, and to help them
maintain their connections year-round.
"Sustainable dialogue has meaning, I believe, so
we try to connect students of both sides not only in the days of our conference
but also before and after this," e-mailed conference coordinator Akane Hayashi ( s091071@yamata.icu.ac.jp ) from the Division
of Social Science, International Christian University, Tokyo.
As with North American residence camps -- http://traubman.igc.org/camps.htm
-- students who live in areas of conflict are invited to
They also hope people living in Japan will thus be
more conscious of their own society where they live, create more connection
between self and society, and be interested in the larger world and especially
a more whole, humane view of the Middle East and its people.
"
These socially responsible Japanese student say:
"After the conference, if participants share the experiences with people
around them, it could influence their communities. Something larger might be
born from this. A small step but a step forward."
"Creating Together" is the 2006 theme, with
Israeli, Palestinian and Japanese students communicating and consulting heavily
to create the content of their program.
They receive e-mail at
info@jipsc.org .
Photos and much more are at the students' Web
site -- http://jipsc.org/en/
This kind of action and
relationship building is grounded in excellent Japanese student research of
scholar Yuichi Ohta at the
Ohta's 1993 thesis -- BRIDGING
DIFFERENT TRUTHS: Creating Dialogue for Reconciliation and Healing
-- is found at::
===
Imagine "Romeo and Juliet in
In new, out-of-the-box, creative
There's a new twist. After drinking from the
poisoned chalice, the two lovers eventually regain consciousness.
Its a happy ending, as
its my wish that finally the conflict ought to be solved, Marko said.
Hungarian Jew Ivan Marko, a former dancer who directed
and choreographed the ballet, wants audiences to see that love and humanism
can overcome all enmities."
Performed to fulll
houses at the Hungarian National Dance Theatre -- tickets are sold out for
months -- it has been invited next year to
Take heart.
See how creative individuals from outside a war
zone can introduce unprecedented compassion and creativity for the good of
all.
Indeed, we need each another.
Every individual, every idea matters.
"Ordinary people can achieve extraordinary
things."
In Mideast
Romeo and Juliet,
love overcomes all obstacles
By: Agnes Bohm
Romeo and Juliet in Jerusalem Romeo is an Israeli Jew,
Juliet a Palestinian is being performed to full houses at the Hungarian
National Dance Theater and has been invited next year to
Ivan Marko, a former dancer who directed and
choreographed the ballet, taught and worked at
The conflict in my Romeo and Juliet ballet is not
between two feuding families, but rather a clash between traditions, religions
and cultures, he said. We deal with two religions and
cultures that are connected to each other in many ways, but still are enemies
with hatred between the two peoples.
He hopes to show the audience that love and humanism
can overcome all enmities, Marko said. As a Jew, I wanted to show how I feel
about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
One of the changes in the show is that Romeo has no
family, and a rabbi who replaces the Catholic priest of Shakespeares original play is Romeos symbolic father.
The rabbi blesses the young lovers secret marriage.
Theres also a happy twist to
what has become an iconic tragedy: After drinking from the poisoned chalice,
the two lovers eventually regain consciousness.
Its a happy ending, as its my
wish that finally the conflict ought to be solved, Marko said.
Juliets face is covered
during the show, except when she dances with Romeo. The music is Arabic when Juliets family is on stage, and
changes to Eastern European Jewish sounds when its Romeos turn.
Tickets for the performances are sold out for the next
few months, and the show will move to a bigger theater next year.
For us Israelis, its very
interesting to know how much the Jewish issue interests the Hungarian people, Aya Admon Maysels,
an artist and wife of David Admon,
In the past, it wasnt usual
in