Training 80 Youth Encounter Leaders

Subject: Pain and Suffering in the 3 Abrahamic faiths.

The group met in Tantur with 11 people and started by introducing the attendees to each other.

Then Fransis presented the subject from the Jewish perspective. He said that the pain and the suffering that man bears will be compensated in the day after by a reward from God.

Sari followed and spoke about the Christian point of view and said there are nature-induced pains and human-induced pains. Jesus Christ had suffered in spite of he had not done any harm to others.

Taleb spoke about the subject saying that God is always fair, compassionate and loves his creatures all the same, and if something painful happens to the human being God wants us to be patient and always praise God in all cases; he will never leave his believers suffering.

All attendees participated in the talk and all were happy to hear others opinions.

Our encounter took place in Tantur Ecumenical Center in South Jerusalem.

The topic this time was one that I don’t think we have ever looked into: Work. What rights do workers have? How do employers have to treat workers, and what obligations do workers have towards their employers? Is there a right to work? Is there a minimum amount that workers should be paid, and what defines that amount? How much rest/vacation time is due to workers? A participant from each faith shortly presented the subject from their religions’ perspective and then attendees participated in a friendly exchange.

Links:

• IEA website
• IEA activity & annual reports
• Get involved

September 9th, 2019

In our last encounter in Gush Etzion Junction, 6 Palestinians and 8 Jews met together in to talk about peace and future.We have known each other for more than a year now, and we meet twice a month, building a great bridge between us. Today we talk about the Yeshiva student Dvir, who was killed around a month ago next to Efrat southern entrance. As young men, we agreed that we are against violence and we want both of us to live as any other people in this world . We raised a lot of questions that we will continue to discuss in the next encounters.

28.7.19

 In this encounter for the Jewish and Palestinian youth, we had an interesting discussion.

The predefined topic of Judaism and Zionism found an interesting twist after Mousa asked a question about the use of "Judea and Samaria" vs "West Bank". And so a discussion about identity and the names we give to places in the Holy Land started... How names define our connection but may seem to deny the others. How does one solve this? Are there ways of "being sensitive" without giving up on the language and names which are our stories. Thanks to Mousa and Andye who both raised important questions and challenges and showed that, as Andye noted when he introduced himself, we have a good basis of personal relationship that will allow us to deal with the issues of identity.

Links:

• IEA website
• IEA activity & annual reports
• Get involved