Monday, March 15, 2010

Peacemaking

This is going to be the quicket blog post ever, because I'm about to leave in (literally) 10 minutes to go on a Pardes tiyul to the Golan, and then to travel around the Galilee for 6 days with my friends Natalie and Emily.

So this weekend, I climbed a fence in the West Bank, and was helped down the other side of it by a former member of Hamas. But, that sounds way more dramatic than it was.

I went to a Peace Activists Retreat held by IPCRI in the Talithakumi school in Beit Jala. It was a weekend of firsts--first Arab bus ride, first knafe, first trip to Bethlehem. The school a German school founded 150 years ago by German nuns for Palestinian kids. It's located in an area that's relatively easily accessible to both Israelis and Palestinians from the West Bank, which is cool. And, IPCRI even managed to get visas for 7 people from Gaza to come, which is no small feat, since pretty much no one is allowed to leave Gaza (they requested 28 or so visas).

Friday, the first day of the retreat, was workshops led by participants. I went to laughter yoga, a discussion on the difficulties of dialogue under occupation (many Palestinians see dialogue as "normalization" of the Occupation), and one on a program that brings together Israelis, Palestinians, and Germans.

Friday night was an awesome concert, which you can see here, including drumming by my friend Ilan. Afterwards, I went with several other participants to a restaurant in Bethlehem, with a stop for knafe on the way. It was really nice, except when that we got back at 1am, the gate to Talithakumi was closed, and the guard was alseep. Hence the climbing the fence part, to be helped down the other side by my new friend Ahmed (who yes, was once a member of Hamas, spent 10 years in prison, decided to become a peace activist, and moved to Jericho).

And...Saturday I will have to tell you about another time, because I really must run now. I will edit/update this post after my travels to the north!

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