Combatants
for Peace &
Hand in
Hand Arabs, Jews show Jerusalem's best face(s)
30 May 2014
"In all peace
building, political deals struck at the elite levels of society will last
only with wide
civic engagement and buy-in among citizens of each community."
~
Ivor Jenkins
Director, In Transformation (Pretoria, South Africa)
http://www.intransformation.org.za
"We were
together. I forget the rest."
-- Walt Whitman,
poet
This
Memorial Day 2014
recalled the conclusion of our decades-old guest editorial:
"I cannot put out of my
mind a line from Herman Wouk's War and Rembrance:
'Either war is finished or we are.'
The greatest memorial to war
is to end it."
READ all the words from 1987's
published appeal:
Mankind
needs to end the wars
that
have ended so many lives
http://traubman.igc.org/memorialday.pdf
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MEMORIALIZING WAR BY ENDING IT:
Palestinian and Israeli combatants shift
from guns and knives to friendship
Sulaiman Khatib,
Ramallah,
spent 10 years from age 14 in an Israeli prison for stabbing an Israeli
soldier.
Avner Wishnitzer,
Jerusalem, served in the IDF's Sayeret Matkal unit which conducts deep reconnaissance and
counter-terrorism across borders.
Today both are members of Combatants for Peace -- http://cfpeace.org
These former armed adversaries create alternative ceremonies to
memorialize one another's people killed in violence.
Avner and Sulaiman
have useful insights about their life experiences of going to the other
side and sharing life.
Q: How have you overcome prejudices or fears to reach dialogue?
SULAIMAN: There are lots of things that can help -- language,
cultural exchange, personal experience, and friendships. But the best way is
meetings.
AVNER: I slept in Palestinian houses or with Palestinian room-mates
in different workshops. We were as afraid of them as they were afraid
of us in the initial meetings.
Q: How is the alternative memorial event part of that dialogue?
AVNER: Official ceremonies talk about casualties, war, the sense of
loss, sacrifice. . .and we don't want to replace them, but we want to offer an
alternative that makes us think harder and feel harder. . . feel for
somebody out there on the other side. . .move on from Memorial Day to the rest
of the year.
SULAIMAN: Even if they're soldiers or they killed people as well,
they're still victims. . There are some people who don't think the ones
from the other side deserve life. They don't see the other side's victims as
human, with normal feelings and family and mum and kids and everything. In
general, everyone thinks of their own victims. We also to tell the
stories of people's transformation. It's not just victims. The message is
that dying and fighting is not destiny. The idea of Combatants for Peace is
that we take destiny into our own hands. Our destiny. We are not waiting for
governments, or talks, or outside power, or God to make change here. Its about taking actions so that next year we won't be
standing in the same place mourning more casualties.
Q: What gives you hope to keep moving forwards?
AVNER: I'm not sure it's hope that keeps me going. It's that feeling
of duty. I can tell you what gives me power to do it: first of all, the
people that are doing it. So to interact with Sulaiman
and to be able to understand each other. . . I know Palestinians now.
It's a never ending process. I go on learning and learning and learning.
SULAIMAN: There is no one way, but you, by yourself, can be a
model of change. And this gives hope for many other people. They see a
human in front of them. Basically, when you hear the stories of other
people, other narratives. . .your system changes. . .I do something, and I
see people change. . .and I don't see any other option. The other option is
just frustration and pain.
See their PHOTO and MUCH MORE:
From
guns and knives to friendship
by Rosa Lia
Palestine-Israel Journal --
22 May 2014
http://www.pij.org/details.php?blog=1&id=280
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Jerusalem's Best Face(s), Best Story:
Arab and Jewish Youth of
Hand In Hand Schools
Neither technology
giants nor military brigades were first to welcome and impress Pope Francis entering
Jerusalem.
Rather 30 Palestinian and Jewish youth -- Muslims, Christians, and Jews
-- joined Mayor Nir Barakat
on Mt. Scopus as the first welcoming faces of Jerusalem.
The multi-faith girls and boys were from the Jerusalem Hand in Hand school
-- http://www.handinhandk12.org/events/hand-hand-students-greet-pope-jerusalem
They learn and grow closer at one of five campuses where students study
together, including each another's languages and traditions, with a Jewish and
Arab teacher at the head of each class.
Families also participate heavily to create strong, exemplary communities
to illustrate education and life in the coming epoch of coexistence -- humankind's
new story.
See their PHOTO and FULL STORY:
Pope
greeted on Mt. Scopus by
Jerusalem
Mayor Barakat, schoolchildren of many faiths
The Jerusalem Post -- 26 May
2014
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ARTS REACHING HEARTS:
2014 Jerusalem Youth
Cross Border Arts Festival
March 04, 2014,
the 2nd Annual Cross Border Youth Arts Festival came alive at the Tantur Ecumenical Center, on a hill in Jerusalem near
Bethlehem.
The Seeds of Peace Women of Action -- visionary adult guides -- helped the
Jewish and Palestinian youth exhibit visual and performing arts that were
"simply amazing."
"They were so amazing, in fact, we couldn't given them back,"
wrote coordinator Karen AbuZant, from Tulkarem, West Bank, Palestine.
"We have decided to curate the collection, and have showings in the West
Bank and Israel."
Music in Arabic, Hebrew, and English was offered by the youth of Ukuleles
For Peace -- http://www.ukulelesforpeace.com
That day, the adults and youth of excellence were answering
life's persisting questions:
1. How can we diminish
distrust between the societies?
2. How can we--as simple
citizens--create more opportunities for Jews and Arabs to meet and be involved
with one another in our daily lives?
SEE FILM of the experiential festival and some of the artwork:
The
2nd Annual WOMEN OF ACTION CROSS-BORDER YOUTH ARTS FESTIVAL
04 April 2014 -- Jerusalem
6-min video by Victor Carpentier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1nFpK_f-Fk
Palestinian
and Jewish youth showed what life can be like together -- Muslims, Christians, Jews
engaging and painting their own original artwork in vibrant colors, powerful
symbols, being together in real life experience that day.
Palestinian Coordinator Karen AbuZant receives e-mail
at PalKaren@hotmail.com
See PHOTOS and the full STORY:
Finding
a Different Way to Seek Peace:
The
Second Annual Cross-Border Youth Art Festival
Palestine-Israel Journal --
19 May 2014
http://www.pij.org/details.php?blog=1&id=279
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USEFUL GRAPHICS for Change, Communication,
and Relationships for Peacebuilding
Usual
Communication vs. Dialogue's Listening-to-Learn
(in Arabic,
Hebrew, French Russian, and English)
http://traubman.igc.org/dialoguecommunication.htm
Ressources de dialogue en fran硩s ~ Dialogue Resources in French
http://traubman.igc.org/dialogueresourcesfrench.htm
Human Relationship-deficiency Virus - HRV
(a killer worse than HIV/AIDS)
English -- http://traubman.igc.org/nigeriahrv.pdf
French -- http://traubman.igc.org/nigeriahrvfrench.pdf
Russian -- http://traubman.igc.org/nigeriahrvrussian.pdf
The Public Peace Process ~ Graphics on Communication, Relationships, and
Change
(Arabic, Hebrew, English)
http://traubman.igc.org/changechartsall.pdf
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These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm