Mideast teens practice dialogue instead of destruction
The psalmist this Sunday praises kindness and compassion as central to fulfilling God’s law. These qualities are central to programs sponsored by Hands of Peace (HOP), an interfaith organization . . .
The psalmist this Sunday praises kindness and compassion as central to fulfilling God’s law. These qualities are central to programs sponsored by Hands of Peace (HOP), an interfaith organization headquartered in Chicago that holds summer camps to develop peace-building and leadership skills in Israeli, Palestinian, and American teens through the power of dialogue.
The structured dialogue process used in the encounters, in which the Middle Eastern participants, along with American teens of various religious backgrounds, present and defend their people's narrative before learning to listen to their peers and eventually, in most cases, coming to develop empathy and understanding for them is always a difficult one, HOP administrators say. But with deadly violence raging in the Gaza Strip and incoming rockets sending Israelis running for shelter, this year the tension has been made far more acute.
When HOP's programs began on July 6, it was just a few days after Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s burned body was discovered in Jerusalem, and a week after the bodies of three murdered Israeli youths were found near Hebron.
“Everybody did come with a level of intensity that we haven’t seen for a long time,” says Julie Kanak, the program’s executive director. “I really thought that we might get some Middle Eastern parents calling and thinking about pulling their kids out,” she adds, but that didn’t happen. “All of the participants are worried about what’s going on at home," and they are checking "more often” with their families.
“There are Palestinian kids who have relatives in Gaza, Israeli kids who have brothers who are soldiers. So far, our kids’ relatives and friends are safe, to the best of our knowledge,” says Scott Silk, the program’s site director at the Pacific Ridge School in the San Diego suburb of Carlsbad, where he is also a teacher. Last Friday, the group attended services at both a local mosque and a Reform synagogue.
Homily hint: Looking at the world’s conflict zones we find scant evidence for the saying that “cooler heads will prevail.” But far from the conflict zone, teens involved in the Hands of Peace program hold the promise of a better tomorrow for today’s war-torn Mideast. May they grow to lead their peoples to peace.
The structured dialogue process used in the encounters, in which the Middle Eastern participants, along with American teens of various religious backgrounds, present and defend their people's narrative before learning to listen to their peers and eventually, in most cases, coming to develop empathy and understanding for them is always a difficult one, HOP administrators say. But with deadly violence raging in the Gaza Strip and incoming rockets sending Israelis running for shelter, this year the tension has been made far more acute.
When HOP's programs began on July 6, it was just a few days after Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s burned body was discovered in Jerusalem, and a week after the bodies of three murdered Israeli youths were found near Hebron.
“Everybody did come with a level of intensity that we haven’t seen for a long time,” says Julie Kanak, the program’s executive director. “I really thought that we might get some Middle Eastern parents calling and thinking about pulling their kids out,” she adds, but that didn’t happen. “All of the participants are worried about what’s going on at home," and they are checking "more often” with their families.
“There are Palestinian kids who have relatives in Gaza, Israeli kids who have brothers who are soldiers. So far, our kids’ relatives and friends are safe, to the best of our knowledge,” says Scott Silk, the program’s site director at the Pacific Ridge School in the San Diego suburb of Carlsbad, where he is also a teacher. Last Friday, the group attended services at both a local mosque and a Reform synagogue.
Homily hint: Looking at the world’s conflict zones we find scant evidence for the saying that “cooler heads will prevail.” But far from the conflict zone, teens involved in the Hands of Peace program hold the promise of a better tomorrow for today’s war-torn Mideast. May they grow to lead their peoples to peace.
Source: An article by Debra Nussbaum Cohen for Haaretz
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