Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam

Conference: Before it's too late: moving from protest to persistent activity

2010-07-23T15:35:00Z

WAS-NS organized a conference, “Before its too late: Moving from protest to persistent activity”, which brought together some 90 activists from a broad spectrum of Arab and Jewish organizations dealing with human rights and peace activities.

The first part of the conference included presentations that highlighted both the continuing siege on Gaza following the Flotilla incident, and the severe erosion of human rights and democratic freedom in the country and the Occupied Territories. The second part gave the participants the opportunity to propose ideas for a joint Jewish – Arab struggle for change. A series of proposals emerged and further activities are being coordinated.


Press Release


Program

Annual Summer Camp for Palestinian Children

2010-07-23T07:46:00Z

Today the Palestinian summer camp in Wahat al-Salam ended successfully. It was a significant event, with 40 children, mostly from al-Duheisheh refugee camp (and a few from 'Ayda Camp). They spent a week in the Waha, except for day trips when they visited Jaffa and sites in our area: It was a very touching moment when the children spoke about their original villages and begged to be taken to see them. The parents of many of these children came from villages not far from here, in the Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem areas, such as 'Ajjur, al-Mughallis, Zakariyya, Bayt Jibrin, Bayt 'Itab, al-Jirashah, Ras abu 'Ammar, 'Ayn Karim and also Yaffa.

Mr. Hussein al-Huroub, the managing director of the Shiraa' Association For Development in Bethlehem, who was our partner in the summer camp and brought these wonderful children from al-Duheisheh, gave positive feedback and his personal thanks.

One of the highlights of the week came on Wednesday evening, when some families from the village got together and organized a barbeque for the whole group. It was a very happy event, both for the children and their hosts.

This summer camp was a great example of positive corporation between various departments in the village: not only the Primary school, which directly organized the camp (under the management of Ms. Reem Nashef), but also the School for Peace, the Guest House, the Communications and Development Office and the municipality of WAS-NS. Both staff members and many young and adult members of the village contributed their time and energy.

Finally, our heartfelt thanks to the Bruno Hussar Foundation in Germany, who made the Camp possible.

Umar Ighbariyeh, Chair of the Educational Association.

Thanks to Nadeen Nashef for the photos

End of the Year celebration at the Youth Club

Veronica Sartore — 2010-06-21T10:08:29Z

On Friday, 18th June, the Youth Club (the "Nadi") celebrated the end of another year of activities. A slide-show offered the opportunity for a retrospective on this year's activities, while the speeches of the adults expressed enthusiasm for the new projects and hopes for the future. The young guides received an award for their volunteer work with the children throughout the year.

Protesting the attack on the Freedom Flotilla

2010-05-31T10:01:00Z

Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom cries out in protest at the attack on the Freedom Flotilla and the killing of international human rights activists. We call for the immediate lifting of the siege on Gaza.

Note:

Our protest message appeared on May 31, the day of the incident. Insufficient attention was given to consistency between the various languages of the protest and it was later decided by our political committee (which is appointed by the community administration) to use the word “killing” in place of “murder” across all languages. There is greater consensus in the village over the use of this term since “murder” has a legal definition, and it is still unclear whether the case meets such definition. Additionally, in the minds of readers, the use of the term murder tends to place the emphasis on the action of the soldiers. Our intention is not to blame the soldiers, but to protest the policy of the use of brutal force.

It is important to mention, following various media reports to the contrary, that the initiative for our protest and the support for it came from both Jewish and Palestinian members of Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam. The action was conducted democratically by our political committee, which was authorized to act and respond on behalf of the village.

Nava Sonnenschein is awarded "Women of Courage" certificate

2010-04-26T11:02:00Z

From the US Embassy, Tel Aviv Flickr photo-stream:

The Department of State's Senior Policy Advisor on Global Women's Affairs Diane Kelly presented the “Women of Courage” certificate to Deputy Director of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam's School for Peace Nava Sonnenschein in a moving ceremony in the mixed Arab-Jewish village. The certificate recognizes Dr. Sonnenschein's courage and tireless work in advocating for social change and coexistence. Ms. Kelly described Secretary of State Clinton's commitment to women's empowerment and paid tribute to the way women have overcome physical and psychological barriers to improve the status of women worldwide. Photo Credit: Matty Stern/ U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv.

On YouTube (US Embassy)

On Flickr (US Embassy)

Story at Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Inauguration of the Fred Segal Friendship Library

2010-04-21T23:44:00Z

After many years of planning and building, the Fred Segal Friendship Library was inaugurated today in Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom. The 750 Sq. meter (8,000 sq. ft.) building will provide books and manuscripts on peace and conflict, education for peace, health and proper nutrition, and fine literature in Arabic and Hebrew serving the village and area residents.

In addition, it will be a venue for meetings of academics and field workers dealing with peace and human rights issues.

At the opening, words of introduction were made by Village functionaries Dorit Shippin, Umar Ighbariyeh and Eyas Shbeta. Speeches were delivered by guests, among them MK Avishay Braverman, Minister of Minorities, MK Chaim Oron, Head of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council Moshe Dadon, author Ruth Almog, poet Nida Houry, Prof. Ariela Friedman. Dr. Nava Sonnenschein, who originally approached Mr. Segal and established with him the conception for the library, described the history of the project and plans to activate it. Deanna Armbruster spoke on behalf of the American Friends of NSWAS. Daoud Boulos served as master of ceremonies.

Each speaker brought fresh thinking on the unique value of this important project in Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom, and the enhancement that it could bring to the important mission of education for peace. In almost every speech there was both an undercurrent of despair at the widening gap between Arabs and Jews, and a shy yearning that Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom, as a cogent manifestation of rapprochement, could help to reverse this process. Some of the speakers were not afraid to go beyond such general statements, and ventured their analysis of the causes and prognosis of the dangers, unless Israeli society takes concrete steps to become more integrative and democratic.

A video film was shown with a special message from Mr. Segal for the library opening. In simple words of universal appeal, Mr. Segal spoke of the tremendous need to promote love and friendship between peoples, and of the necessity for proper nutrition as a building block to healthy living. On prominent display in the hall - and on the library entrance sign - was the emblem of Mr. Segal's heartfelt philosophy, symbolizing, as we were told, hugs, love and kisses.

The meeting was attended by a large number of guests, including representatives of the associations of friends of Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom around the world, for whom translation from Hebrew and Arabic was provided.

One part of the program that needed no translation was the language of music. The speeches were interspersed by heartwarming performances of live Palestinian and Jewish music played by the band MeKan ("from here"), featuring Efrat Feldman (vocals and percussion), George Samaan (vocals, oud and percussion) and Yair Boksbaum (viola).

The evening concluded with a healthy meal for the guests, composed of a rich variety of Middle Eastern salads and cooked dishes. Healthy, nutritional food is one of the major areas covered by the library. Its kitchen will prepare organic vegetables and herbs grown just outside in the library garden.

At the opening it was announced that one of the first donations towards the building, after its completion, has been made by the family of Dr. Abdullah Haj Yihya, a renowned physician and resident of the village, who died tragically a year ago.

As was noted by Dr. Nava Sonnenschein, the wonderful new empty building now beckons to be filled with books, materials, journals, and audio visual materials. The vision of the library as a lively resource to support efforts towards the attainment of peace is now tantalizingly close.

Slideshow from the Opening:

Speeches:

Opening of the Fred Segal Friendship Library

Pre-school fieldtrip to Ein Rafa

Irit Halperin — 2010-04-08T08:15:20Z

In early March, the mid-level kindergarten (age 4 to 6) visited Ein Rafa, a village where one of the children, Aman lives. Aman's mother Lily Barhum, was very helpful in arranging the visit. We began the day in the Ein Rafa kindergarten. The children were waiting excitedly with the teachers and they invited us to eat with them a delicious breakfast. Then their creativity teacher guided some joint activities with water and soap, including sensory acquaintance with soap and water and preparation of towers of colored soap bubbles.

Later we held a joint meeting in which the teachers told the children about each other's kindergarten and the children sang songs together. We presented a gift to the kindergarten – a drawing that the children had made together, as well as a box game they had prepared.

We visited the mosque and heard a short explanation of the Imam, and then we were hosted at the home of Aman and met his grandmother and aunt. We finished by eating ice cream.

The children were happy – they had thoroughly enjoyed the day.

We thank very much Lily Barhum, her family and the children of the Ein Rafa Kindergarten for their hospitality. Soon they will make a reciprocal visit to us and we will see together a play about peace.

Slide Show

Environmental activities at the school

Veronica Sartore — 2010-03-01T15:07:00Z

Since February 2010 the pupils of all grades have been involved in a series of environmental activities conducted by operators of the “Karev Program for Educational Involvement”. This program is an initiative of the Keren Karev Foundation, which identifies education as the key to overcoming socio-economic disparity and the path to equal opportunity in Israel.

Keren Karev provides mainly enrichment programs for schools: subjects such as music, theatre, electronics, environment, photography, yoga, chess and many others are introduced to children who would otherwise have no access to them. An important role in the project involvement is played by the parents, and in Wahat al Salam/Neve Shalom this proves a constant collective commitment to that extra, different, unique something that will make school a place for which it is worthwhile to get up in the morning.

For example, on February 8th the children of the 1st grade created coloured notebooks out of used cornflakes packages and waste paper. A few days after the students of the 5th and 6th grade used bottle tops to make key-rings, which also serve as tools to collect plastic bottles and throw them into the recycling bin. A week later the 1st and 2nd grade collected flowers and leaves in the forest in order to create colourful bookmarks with them. At the beginning of march, the pupils of the 5th grade were involved in an interactive ecology lesson in the park nearby the school; then they collected wood sticks and built ecological notice boards with them.

Every activity was preceded by a story, a game, an explanation supported by visual material or a short film, which helped the children to realize the urgency but also the advantages and the joy of preserving and respecting nature.

http://picasaweb.google.com/info.nswas/Recycling_activity_1st_grade_201028#

http://picasaweb.google.com/info.nswas/Recycling_activity_2112010#

http://picasaweb.google.com/info.nswas/Recycling_activity_2222010#

http://picasaweb.google.com/info.nswas/Recycling_activity_332010?authkey=Gv1sRgCL7Llf6Rt6jpCQ#

Meeting with musicians

Veronica Sartore — 2010-02-14T13:02:00Z

On sunday 14th february, Yael and Michael Melzer, professors at the Jerusalem Academy of Dance and Music, came to Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salam to meet the children at school. All the pupils, divided into three 45-minute-sessions by age, had the opportunity to participate in a fascinating musical and educational activity.
The couple presented its collection of wind instruments, 13 historical flutes of different ages, shapes and sizes, most of them natural, made entirely of wood. The two musicians played a selection of short musical pieces from the Middle Ages to our age and let the language of music express the joy of being together, as well as the advantages of being on your own: “music gives you the possibility to experience both: when you play together you have to adapt to certain obligations and rules in order to enjoy an harmonic polyphony; when you play alone you feel the freedom of expressing yourself as you wish”, explains Michael Melzer.
But the aim of the professors is not to incline the pupils toward the world of music, or to teach them the distinction between Bach and Beethoven. This time music plays an unexpected and highly important social role, beyond its cultural and aesthetic value: “we want the children to learn to listen, because we believe that the source of violence, especially nowadays, lies precisely in our inability to listen”, says Prof. Melzer. “In hebrew the word 'ilem' (dumb) and the word 'alimut' (violence) are semantically connected: if you are 'ilem', then you become 'alim'. On the contrary, if you are able to listen, you also become able to express yourself, and there is no need for you to become 'alim'”.

Update from the School for Peace

Veronica Sartore — 2010-02-07T15:09:00Z

El Ein Course 2008-2009

This program is a product of the cooperation between the Gender department at BGU (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and the SFP at Wahat al Salam/ Neve Shalom. It is the third year that the SFP is cooperating with BGU.

Facilitators: Ma'ayan Hillel, Rina Al Ukbi Educational advisors: Wafaa Zriek Srour and Michal Zak of the SFP

The goals of the program are to focus on the world of women, and to empower the participants in the different circles of life. A special aim is to deepen the dialogue between Jewish and Palestinian women. The partecipants were eight Arab women from Tel A Sabba and ten Jewish women from Beer Sheva (all Mizrachiot: of North African origins).

There were 14 study- days planned; the program took place at the university once a week for 14 weeks. On most of the days there was a lecture followed by a discussion. All the lectures were given by experts in the field, and each lecturer gave her lecture in her mother language. The lectures were translated by the staff into either Arabic or Hebrew. We think the dual-language format is not only necessary, but it is also an important process for both Jews and Palestinians. Most of the discussions were held in separate, national forums, each with a facilitator from the same nationality as the group. The discussions on Jewish-Palestinian relations were held in bi-national forums.

The themes concerned the Jewish-Palestinian conflict and women's issues in its context, which were easier to deal with, the women tended to find thing in common, sometimes the Jews wanted to "learn" about the Arab society, as if they were anthropologists, and not partners of similar circumstances. Sometimes the Palestinian themselves thought that they are the only ones who had problems. The women were able to learn together under very hard circumstances, since the program took place during the attack on Gaza.

This time the staff of the program included, in addition to Dr. Dahan- Kalev, two facilitators from the south. In addition the Jewish facilitator was a Mizrachi woman and the Palestinian facilitator was a Bedouin woman. This composition of the staff proved to be crucial to the success of the program. We have a lot of experience in working with groups on similar topics in different parts of the country and we can compare and say that the participants from the south bring up for discussion topics that are unique to them. They also suffer from being a marginalized group, from many aspects, one is the geographical aspect. Having a staff that includes facilitators from the south is an empowering experience, it enables the participants to be better understood, and better represented.

Facilitators Training Course 2009

Course trainers: Ahmad Hijazi (SFP Director) and Dr. Nava Sonnenschein (SFP).

This year the participants were twenty one professionals, fourteen Jews and seven Palestinians of different identities and political and religious views, both women and men. They came from different disciplines and professions and shared the desire to gain knowledge from the SFP experience of working with groups in conflict and wanted to learn how to integrate this knowledge into their professional work.

The course was conducted over four weekends. The participants took part in an experiential dialogue; where they themselves had an open dialogue between Arabs and Jews discussing various sensitive and emotive issues. In order for the participants to become effective facilitators they needed to go through the process of experiencing a dialogue as participants.

In each of the four weekends one unit was a uni-national meeting, used to reflect upon issues that arose from the bi-national dialogue. At the end of each weekend one session was devoted to Q&A from the participants to the trainers.

The second part of the course consisted of analysis of the first section by the participants; learning facilitation skills through peer facilitation and lectures by different experts in the field. Each participant prepared a personal analysis of the process they had experienced and presented it to the group; then they had an opportunity to prepare a session and facilitate a dialogue with their peer group. Participants facilitated in pairs, one Jew and one Arab for forty five minutes. After each session the trainers and the other facilitators in training would give feedback lasting approximately forty five minutes.

The last part of the course was dedicated to observing a three day intensive youth encounter facilitated by two senior facilitators of SFP staff. The students came from a high school in Nazareth (Arab) and from Hakfar Hayarok, a high school in Ramat Hasharon (Jewish). The observation took place via one way glass and was guided by the course trainers. Through this observation trainees were able to learn about the SFP youth encounters model and also to learn from seeing two senior facilitators in action. During and after each session the trainees discussed what they saw with the trainers to try to understand the group dynamics and the facilitator's involvement.

Palestinian – Palestinian Students encounter, Nablus 2-3/10/09

The project was held in cooperation between the School for Peace (SFP) - WASNS, and Future Generation Hands Association (FGHA) - Nablus.

10 Palestinian students of Israeli citizenship met 10 Palestinian students from the West Bank. The activity took place at the center of FGHA in Rafedia – Nablus.

The first day the dialogue concerned the future vision of the area. Among other things the participants discussed what would be best for the Palestinian population, whether a religious Islamic, a National Democratic state, or one secular state for Jews and Palestinians. Another meaningful discussion took place between religious and non religious participants. A third discussion developed around army service in Israel, and the Palestinians from the West Bank asked many questions about army service for Palestinians citizens of Israel. After the discussion the partecipants had a social evening at a local restaurant and café.

The second day of the encounter opened with a lecture about the social and political status and life of the Palestinian minority in Israel. The lecturer was Muhammad Zeidan, Director of the Arab Association for Human Rights. After the lecture a discussion about the subject in details took place, as the students from the West Bank did not have much information about the subject and were very interested to know more.

Then all participants went to a field trip in the old city of Nablus where they visited among other things a traditional factory of olive oil Soup and a two century old Turkish Hamam.

"Negotiating our future"

A joint project of the SFP and The Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation (CCRR)

The direct participants included 30 Israelis (17 men and 13 women) and 30 Palestinians (15 women and 15 men). The activities took place in the Palestinian Territories, in Israel, Turkey and Jordan.

This project started in January 2007 and ended in September 2009. There were three rounds of negotiations prepared by uni-national consultations. A team of researchers, together with the project coordinators from both the Israelis and the Palestinian side, mointored the project through all its phases.

A detailed report from the “Negotiating our Future” program in PDF format can be found here: http://nswas.org/IMG/pdf/Negotiating_our_future.pdf