Education Israel Project #1520

Training 80 Youth Encounter Leaders

by Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA)

Project Report | Dec 23, 2010
Historical encounter in Hebron

By Dr. yehuda Stolov | Executive Director

Together in the streets of Hebron

Dear friends,

Below you will find the story of a historical visit of a join Israeli-Palestinian interfaith encounter group to the Palestinian side of the City of Hebron, with permission from the army authorities.

With us was a reporter of ISRAEL21C and here is his story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXCBLn7YLJ0

On a personal note: I joined this so special visit and encounter and for me there were several extremely unique elements to it:

First thing that was striking, was the calm and relaxed atmosphere of the tour. Most tours include a lot of anger – either towards the Jewish side or towards the Palestinian side. This tour was different and it was for me an indication to the high level of friendship and trust that developed within the group.

Another striking element was the emptiness of the old market. I was last in it when I was briefly a settler I Hebron some 30 years ago and I remembered it as full of life – with Jews, Palestinians and tourists filling it to the degree one could hardly move in it. It was very sad to see it so quiet and empty.

Then, in the Cave of the Patriarchs I met the spokesman of the Hebron Settlers and was happy to see how happy he was to hear about our group and its special visit and how he longed with me to the return of the good old days.

I went back from this day with a lot of hope!

Yours, Yehud

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On November 4^th we had our encounter in the city of Hebron. We were around ten of the group members from Hebron, five from Qalqilia, three from East Jerusalem and seven Israelis.

We began with a visit which included a tour of the old city, the old market and the Cave of the Patriarchs. The tour was led by the Palestinian members of the group from Hebron. They explained why the market is nearly empty and showed us the division between the Palestinian side of the city and the Jewish side of the city. The explained the complexity of living in the city and its consequences. When we arrived at the Cave of the Patriarchs we split and entered from different entries: the Muslims from the Muslim side and the Jews from the Jewish side.

We then all went to sit in a café in the city center, where we talked about the sanctity of the the City of Hebron in Islam and in Judaism. Finally we reached the conclusion that the city is holy to both religions for the same reason: the fact that the Patriarchs are buried in it. We ended with Falafel, Nargila and lemonade and everyone said they enjoyed a lot this visit!

It is important to note that despite the political differences between the two peoples, the tour went in a very calm and peaceful way, in which we were privileged to get to know the city and hear about it through the people who live in it. May many such encounters happen!

Entering the Cave of the Patriarchs

Conversation during supper

Links:

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Nov 24, 2010
Hebrew U.-Bethlehem U. group meets in Bethlehem!

By Dr. yehuda Stolov | Executive Director

Nov 2, 2010
The Jerusalem-Bethlehem students group

By Dr. yehuda Stolov | Executive Director

During the last eight months, we have been planning and working on the development of a new group of the Interfaith Encounter Association. This is a group of students from Bethlehem University and from the Hebrew University.

We first had a few encounters for a core group of 6-7 people. During the months February-April 2010, this group met five times in different places: at the Everest Hotel located in Beit Jalla, in Talitha Qumi and in Jerusalem, in order to plan the first meetings of the larger group. During those meetings, we developed a close connection between the members of the core group. We became friends and meet regularly. We faced several problems while trying to create the group, but it made us feel more acutely the need for this group.

Challenges

In March we had a preparation meeting, at the Hebrew university, in order to prevent technical problems during the first group's encounter. Unfortunately, the first meeting of the whole group was canceled, after a few days of fighting and riots in the area. The students of Bethlehem were facing objection to the idea of meeting Israelis and we decided to postpone the first meeting.

A month later, we called another meeting and set everything for it to succeed. When Nour, the Bethlehem coordinator, went to bring the permits from the Civil Administration, we faced a technical problem: For some reason, we got the permits for the wrong hours of the day. The Palestinians couldn’t make it to the meeting, so the Israelis met for a short time and talked about their expectations from the encounters.

First Encounter

The coordinators met each other once more, and finally we had the first meeting of the Bethlehem-Jerusalem group on May 23^rd, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

After enjoying the refreshments, we introduced each other and had some warm-up games. Later on, the group split into two groups, and we decided about the topics we would like to discuss on the next meetings.

By the end of the encounter, we had a wonderful tour around Mount Scopus Campus. We saw the beautiful views of Jerusalem and the mounts of Jordan, and also visited the synagogue of the campus.

Second Encounter

On the second time we also met at the HU in Jerusalem, on July 4^th. Some of the Palestinian students couldn’t come, because their permissions were washed accidentally after being forgotten in the pants of the person who picked them up from the Civil Administration…

The topic was "our roots". Yif’at and Rahhal introduced a short presentation about the Palestinian history and about the Jewish history.

Afterwards, every person shared his or her family story.

The meeting was very moving and we were excited to share our stories and to listen to others’ stories.

After a few days the coordinators met again and had a nice walk along the road of Ein Lavan Spring (near Walaje)

Our third encounter took place in Bethlehem! This was the first time since the formation of IEA that we were able to obtain permits for Israelis to go into a Palestinian city and we were very excited about it! The report from this encounter will be circulated soon.

This new group was created thank to the work ofYael, Henri, Nour, Noy and Ward from the IEA.

Links:

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