Summer again connects
Jewish, Palestinian youth worldwide
Tuesday,
05 August 2008
Peace is
not something you wish for;
it's something
you make, something you do,
something you are,
something you give away.
- Robert Fulghum
All things
change when we do.
- David Whyte
This Summer,
2008, Jews and Palestinians are again gathering in the camp-like programs
of their year-long relationship-building lives.
Their face-to-face heart connections expand their
worlds and produce unprecedented creativity.
Connecting as equal human beings immunizes
people and society against violence, mistrust, prejudice, and perpetuated
stereotypes -- symptoms of ignorance from lack
of personal contact.
Even today, only a tiny handful of Palestinians and
Jews have ever met in the Holy Land or around the world.
These new, brave, compelling models of human change
must be replicated in vastly greater numbers, for the public peace process to
finally show the way forward and give consent to now-arrested government
activities to proceed and succeed.
Consider supporting these groups and others like
them.
Encourage them.
Bless them.
Emulate them where you live.
-
L&L
Visit The Sulha -
http://sulha.com/ - to see their Holy Land plans to continue bringing
together thousands of Arabs and Jews, including many hundreds from Palestine,
August 26-28, 2008.
The Sulha Peace Project
is a grassroots organization inspired by the indigenous process of mediation --
Sulha.
Sulha is rebuilding trust,
restoring dignity, not waitiing for political
agendas.
Sulha prepares citizens and
society for "bottom-up" peace.
It gives courage and invents successful models, to
embolden efforts that must then be undertaken at governmental and diplomatic
level.
In Israel seven Jewish-Arab (Palestinian) coexistence tennis programs
help hundreds of youth continue growing together through sports and
relationship building.
It happens through the Freddie Krivine
Foundation - http://freddiekrivinefoundation.org/
.
"Next year Nazareth will host junior tournaments
- a tennis-first for an Arab community," e-mailed Jane Krivine
( JaneKrivine@yahoo.co.uk ), dedicated daughter of the
visionary founder who died in 2005.
"We have trained more than twenty five local
sports terachers and alumni of our coexistence programmes as professional and assistant coaches,"
writes Krivine, who is touched by the program's first
hijab-wearing tennis coach.
Their mixed Jewish-Arab team won this and last year's
northern region championships.
Match point...made.
Together, we're better.
In Japan this August is The 6th Japan-Israel-Palestine
Joint Student Conference -- http://jipsc.org/en/
.
Student-driven by Japanese youth, it creates a
safe place and opportunity for dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian
students.
The young women and men also raise public interest in
Japanese society regarding these Middle East relationships - their challenges
and change that comes from engaging.
In North America, for 15 years camp-like programs - http://traubman.igc.org/camps.htm -
have discovered, trained and helped sustain young citizen-leaders for the
Middle East public peace process.
One, Creativity for Peace - http://creativityforpeace.com/ -
began in 2003 and is a year-round program that brings adolescent girls from
Palestine and Israel out of the violence and conflict of their communities into
the safe New Mexico countryside for a three-week summer program that teaches
leadership and communication skills and promotes understanding, trust and
reconciliation.
Upon their return home, the girls continue to
strengthen coexistence through regularly organized meetings, e-mail, and
telephone conferencing.
The friendships continue to thrive and grow as they
help yet others to create new relationships that cross religious and cultural
boundaries.
The girls bring the power of their experiences and
fresh perspective into the lives of their families and friends.
Deep friendships result and lead to reconciliation and
a deep desire for social justice and peaceful coexistence throughout their
larger communities to which they return.
SEE PHOTOS from this July 2008 session:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ElizabethHarball/CFPPicturesJuly2008?authkey=lAMCgYwboMo
This
August in Vancouver, Canada, one of
the great models of deep relationship building and creativity will have its
third, powerful program.
Peace It Together - http://peaceittogether.ca - will gather
thirty Palestinian, Israeli, and Canadian young people in and around
Vancouver, British Columbia to participate in an extraordinary dialogue and
filmmaking experience.
As they live and learn together for three weeks, they
will discover their personal strengths and foster the ability to make a
difference in their diverse communities.
At Peace It Together 2008, the teenagers will work
together in small mixed-cultural groups and transform their experiences into
short documentary, drama or animated films.
The films will reach hundreds of thousands of people
in public screenings throughout the world and will serve as educational tools
in classrooms and beyond.
If you can fly, drive or crawl to Vancouver, you'll be
inspired by these young Muslims, Jews, and Christian peace builders - creators
of their films, their future.
Peace It
Together 2008 World Premiere Film Screening Evening
Sunday,
August 17th, 2008 @ 7pm
Stanley
Industrial Alliance Stage
2750
Granville St., Vancouver, BC
Youth need adult models and
exemplars, and the inspiring, dependable shepherds of this great work are
Palestinian Adri Hamael ( AdriHamael@shaw.ca ) and Melanie Hamael
( MHamael@peaceittogether.ca ), and Jewish Reena
Lazar ( RLazar@peaceittogether.ca ).
No one does these programs alone, and they would be
the first to elevate their dedicated support team and staff.
TAKE TIME TO READ these two, instructional,
inspiring articles.
Appreciate these citizens' depth, vision,
dedication, energy, and love that paints a
picture of what life can and will look like.
Published in the Globe & Mail (Canada) - Wednesday, 30
July 2008
THE MIDDLE EAST
Searching for peace through a camera lens
Young Israelis, Palestinians and Canadians gather
on a B.C. island
to make movies and, more importantly, friends
by Tom
Hawthorn
http://theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080730.BCHAWTHORN30//TPStory/Entertainment
Published in the Vancouver Sun - Friday, 01 August 2008
Achieving peace one step at a time
Teenagers from Israel, Palestine and Canada
brought together by Peace it Together
by Gerry Bellett
http://canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=52045960-180f-4738-b23d-7fe661785b84