Breaking the Ice 2024

Once again, and despite the terrible situation which prevails in the Middle East, a mixed group came to hike in our Alps this summer. The tensions engendered by the war made the recruitment of the participants more difficult. In fact, the Kibbutzim College with whom we collaborated in 2022 and 2023, was not able to find this year enough motivated students, a failure acted belatedly (the beginning of June). The decision was taken nonetheless to bring a group this summer. To achieve this, Ulfat associated with the Mabat organisation.

Mabat (www.mabat.org) is a small NGO dedicated to the promotion of coexistence in the region of Haifa. It organises in particular visits open to all between Jewish and Arab communities, or proposing nature walks during which conversations are held alternatively, every two hours, in Arabic, Hebrew and English. Furthermore, the collaborators of Mabat facilitate dialogue groups in a dozen universities in the country.

The Director of Mabat is Lior Shorer. He has known Ulfat for a long time, has facilitated groups with her a number of times. He is affable, knowledgeable with a large experience in facilitation and community action. He will be the Jewish co-facilatator of the future group.

Using their contacts, Ulfat and Lior assemble a group composed of people living in Israel, professionally active, already involved (except for one) in the active promotion of coexistence and eager to reinforce this commitment. This group is made up of 3 Jewish women and 7 Arab participants (4 men and 3 women, Druze and Palestinian). Interestingly, their ages are very diverse ranging 20 to 64. Four of them have already participated in Breaking the Ice in the past.

The group cannot be constituted once and for all before mid-July, leaving little time for the preparation in Israel, which is therefore less in-depth than usual.

The first 7 days of the stay in Switzerland (19 – 25 August) take place in the Diablerets, with lodgings in a chalet and daily hikes led as usual by our favourite guide, Nadja Schmidt (as a reminder, Nadja has led Breaking the Ice every year since 2015). The 3 following days are led by her colleague Marie-Jeanne Hugon, in the region of Anzeindaz where the group spent two nights in the Barraud cabin, and made a long excursion towards the Chamois path on the 26th. Return to the Diablerets on the 27th for a day of activities, debriefing and preparation for the follow-up in Israel on the 28th. On the 29th, transportation to Lausanne, where the Valentin Catholic School, in the person of its Director Ahmad Abu Nijmeh, welcomes the group for the midday meal and sleeping quarters (the last night before the departure in the school’s gymnasium). The farewell evening took place in the playground with the participation of about a dozen members of Coexistences.

On several occasions, the group is exposed to our culture: visit of an alpine cheese dairy in Les Mosses, a fondue prepared by Marie-Jeanne in the Barraud cabin, a very animated discussion of the Swiss political system one evening with Massimo and François. A dash of Italian culture too, in the form of a state-of-the art risotto according to Massimo Tinghi one evening in the chalet of the Diablerets.  Last but certainly not least, a visit to the Cantonal Parliament in the afternoon of 29 August.

Massimo and François accompany the group during their entire stay. Fiuna and Valérie come to walk for a few days. Nous can guarantee the extremely positive and joyful atmosphere which prevailed during this stay, as well the maturity of each one of the participants. Followed by François, the group work appears very different from the previous years. Facilitation is led by Ulfat and Lior. According to them, the stress/trauma inflicted by the war makes it impossible to have a traditional dialogue based on the confrontation of identities and narratives. They privilege a process centred on the intensification of mutual knowledge and the constitution of a group identity. This, in the idea of reinforcing the capacity of each person to lead a similar process, in their environment back home. It is essential that they constitute a group away from the terrible tensions prevailing in Israel, giving them a breathing space, and “recharge their batteries”.