PIECE OF PEACE
Hand in Hand
Five dialogue groups were working that year at the Jerusalem YMCA: two mixed youth groups (girls and boys), a parents' group, a group of all Palestinian boys, and the Summer 2010 Peacebomb group. We hosted one of the two mixed groups of girls and boys for ten days according to the usual formula: three days in the mountains and one week in host families, as a Jewish and Arab pair together.
So they were: a mixed group of 14 teenagers – 6 Jews and 8 Palestinian, 8 boys and 6 gIrls – who had started at the begInnIng of the year weekly 2 hours dialog sessions at the YMCA). They stayed wIth us between July 1 and July 10.
There was something quite remarkable about this group, a fluidity which we believe stemmed from a carefully man- aged dialog process whereby as soon as a tension emerged it was dealt with so as to preserve the friendship ties. This warm and earnest group, unified and curious of everything, was hosted in pairs, among others by 4 new families. Ranin, Amiel, Tarek, Eyal, Emilie, Maya, Sala’h, Omer, Raphael, Tamar, Ibrahim, Hadass, Amir and Karem chose to call themselves “
Piece of Peace”, mixing in the typo some letters from the YMCA. The host families were able to get to know them for 2 days before the group left for the Marécottes where they dis- covered the Alps, canoe-kayaking and practiced intensely coexistence for 4 days.
Upon their return, they discovered Lausanne during a walk- ing tour that was supposed to take them from Sauvabelin to Ouchy. However the walk had to be ended at the Cathedral and the Riponne weekly open air market so curious and enthusiast were they of everything. On the Geneva day they visited the Mosque, the United Nations and then had to find their way from the lake shore to the Cathedral. The day ended in Evelyne Benzakein’s garden where they met the rabbi Guedj (Foundation Racines et Sources), Hafid Ouardiri (former spokesman of the Geneva Mosque and founder of the Foundation de l’Entre-Connaissance) and the abbot Arbez (involved in the relations between Judaism and Christianity). They also visited Lutry municipality’s water clean- ing and the garbage sorting facilities to witness how environment protection and ecology is practiced in Switzerland. On the morning of the last day, Michal organized for the interested members of the association a demonstration of the kind of dialog the group takes part to. Those who attended were impressed positively by the high professional quality of the facilitation work and took stock of the depth of the dialog work undergone: « Michal left nothing unaddressed and was very thorough ». The farewell evening was very joyous and certainly unforgettable as young Finnish gymnasts joined the party and shared music and dance.
an outstanding accompaniment
We would like to salute the accompanying team: the two wonderful facilitators Shira and Asma. Shira has founded an association to improve the visibility and awareness of the Sefarad culture in Israel and Asma is a remarkable sum of gifts, on one side mathematics and statistics which she studied and practiced as a professional, and on the other hand theater and song (she is a truly wonderful singer), Raed who translated for those not fully fluent in English, and exercised a calm yet respected authority, while Michal managed with passion the pedagogical and educational aspect of the stay.
This year’s stay was successful thanks to the combined efforts of the Travel and Family work groups. Our warm gratitude also to Evelyne Benzakein who opened her house to us, to the Protection Civile Vaudoise which lend us minibuses and their drivers ; and to the ten host families of this summer, the Poffet, Abravanel, Musard, Cereghetti, Lazega-Kuelling, Bloch, Elkaim, Annaheim, Conne and Halina Sandri, for their generous and warm welcome.
We are also very encouraged by the fact that one of the new families got into the enterprise through their teenage son who had heard of the program from a school friend. We fancy seeing in that event the first signs of a new generation ready to engage itself in this beautiful project. The stay in Switzerland has been a very important element in the «
Piece of Peace »’s dialog process. They have decided to continue their dialog work another year and will also work on a joint project on ecology and sustainable development.
