 |
| Beautiful Bougainvilleas....representing beauty and kindness that exists in this world. |
 |
| I have seen these signs all over Israel. Although the warning is about electrical installations, to me the signs represent society's capacity for bad judgement and big mistakes. |
 |
| Goodness in this world |
 |
| Blemishes on the outside give no clue about the wonderful flavour hidden on the inside |
There are some things you can get used, and some things you can never get used to.
We have been in Israel for over a couple of weeks now and I truly love being here. I am listening to the noises I hear now, in the courtyard of St. George's cathedral guest house which is situated in East Jerusalem, the predominately Arab area. The birds are singing and workers are hammering something that sounds like concrete. I have come to love the Arabic music and frequently find myself humming along to the music. I am also listening to a loudspeaker blaring out into the streets......the call to prayer from the nearby Mosque and I love that too. I want to drink in all the sights and sounds along with the perfumed fragrance of the foliage and flowers everywhere I look. I have even got used to the garbage on the streets even though I understand this is partly a result of how tax money is allocated in the city. Residents pay taxes to the state of Israel but receive far fewer services than the neighbouring Jewish districts of Jerusalem. Palestinians account for 35% of the city residents but according to an article in Aljazeera, East Jerusalem does not receive the same percentage of funding for upkeep in their neighbourhoods for such services as waste collection. If I lived here long enough, I would get accustomed to that too.
Another thing I have gotten used to seeing is the Israeli soldiers with their machine guns. I remember the first impression I had when I saw those young men walking and texting whilst their sub machine gun was bobbing up and down their shoulders, seemed like such a contradiction to feeling safe. I have gotten used to that too.
I am also staring at the screen of my laptop, trying to word my next blog and my thoughts don't come to me. My emotion has taken over my ability to write. I am upset and my stomach is feeling tight. Here is what I do know...... I will never be able to get used to accepting with peace in my heart from what I am going to try and blog about.
YAD VASHEM
"To forget the Holocaust is to kill twice".....Elie Wiesel
Website for Yad Vashem
Our group arrived to Yad Vashem for our lunch at the cafeteria. I was wondering if anyone was having any difficulties feeling relaxed over our meal as we all knew that going to Yad Vashem wasn't something we were doing for enjoyment.
Yad Vashem is located on Mount Herzl and is quite beautifully landscaped with various statues, monuments and landscaping. We were told no cameras are permitted inside so I left my camera on the bus. No backpacks are allowed and you have to pass through a metal detector.
Immediately upon entering the museum I had a difficult time concentrating. There are banners, photos, videos and other stimuli that made me feel confused on where to begin. One of the first displays was showing how healthy the Jewish culture was before the Holocaust. A vast array of silver goblets, jewelry and books amongst piles of books are displayed. The museum is designed so that one cannot move straight through the exhibits. It designed like layers of the letter Z, which forces one to walk past each exhibit rather than distancing yourself, as you can on the perimeters of a large and open room. At one point, I remember standing at a set of railroad tracks which were a potent reminder of the freight cars that transported victims to the camps. There was an eery hush throughout each exhibit while people were trying to decipher thoughts and emotions. I remember there was a very old board game in one exhibit that had game tokens and cards. I don't remember the name of the game, but it was terribly racist with references to "chase the Jew". There were many articles that had once belonged to real people. Lunch boxes, letters and documents and more personal items like purses and articles of clothing. It heartened me to see that there was recognition of the brave people in that time who had risked their lives to try and save the Jewish people. At one point, I sat down and felt the need to weep when I saw almost as if a mass grave of black shoes that were encapsulated in glass. I sat for what seemed like ages to stare and reflect on those shoes and the victims they represented.
At the end of the museum there is the Hall of names which is a memorial for the 6 million that perished in the Holocaust. The main hall is composed of two cones. One is ten meters high with also a cone excavated into the underground rock filled with water. It felt terrifying to look down and especially for the fact it looked bottomless.....with no end. On the way out of the museum I felt like I had reached the point of saturation. Upon exiting, I found Linda and we held each other while we visited the children's memorial honouring the 1.5 million Jewish children who were murdered during the Holocaust. The names of the children, their ages and countries of origin are spoke out loud. Upon entering we commented on how alone and dark it felt. One can only imagine the fear of the small children and for that reason, we must never forget...........
Click here to watch a touching 1 min. 20 sec. video I found on youtube
Below is a link to Yad Vashem photo archive. One cannot begin to imagine how long this painstaking work must have taken. Each photo is labelled with a origin. For instance some photos are of happy times taken before the war while others are gruesome. When you click on the link, if you hover over each photo without clicking, the description will appear in a little box. One could spent a great deal of time going through this archive. I personally could only look at the happy photos......
Click here to view photo archive of 93359 photos
KIDS4PEACE...............
Our group was so very fortunate to have a lecture with the two co-directors of Kids4Peace organization. Mohammad Joulany and Rebecca Sullum are passionate about their cause to nurture a new culture of peace starting with youth.
The meeting started with each person in our group introducing themselves and asking a question that was to be answered later. The expressions of interest and questions were really well thought out. The pair each took their turn in allowing us to understand how they came to be so passionate about this very worthwhile project.
Rebecca and Mohammad related to the group how pleased they were to see the itinerary of places we had visited and speakers we had listened to because they felt Richard had exposed us to such a broad diversity in religious, ethnic, and political issues.
Details about Rebecca and Mohammad plus other staff
Kids4Peace Mission
Mohammad told us that when he was 14 years old he had passed a check point on the way to school. A soldier thought he had been throwing stones at the check point and detained him for three hours. The incident really had an impact on him. He remembers looking into the soldier's eyes and saw a man with a gun who was not secure within himself. After three hours the soldier let him go but something happened within himself after that incident:
"I started to question myself and think differently. I wanted to know who my enemy was and it was then I started to learn and write as well as go on TV. Gradually I met some Israelis and started to think much differently - in fact it was only three years after joining kids4peace that I had an Israeli as a friend. Kids4Peace helped tremendously in my life to make that important shift. I traveled and it was then that I saw people from different races living together in harmony."
Rebecca's story goes like this.....she had come from Allentown Pennsylvania when she was a child, her observant parents making "aliyah" - the return to the land of Israel as the Jewish homeland. That was July 1995, and in November of the same year the Prime MInister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Months later the bus bombings started monthly, and a bus on the same bus route she took to school was blown up 3 times in succession, near her home:
"The first four years I lived in Jerusalem in the form of fear. I took the draft into the Israeli Defence Force in the first female combat unit, although I could have chosen the religious exemption. But a few months before I was due to start, I applied to take part in the U.S. program of Kids4Peace, and I was successful. I spent two weeks with both Palestinians and Jews at the international peace camp in Vermont. It shifted my whole entire framework in two weeks. I came back and realized I couldn't simply go into the army. After a lot of thinking, I thought I could be a different type of soldier while serving on the Egyptian border. I would stand at a check point and treat people respectfully to show people I had feelings.
The program started at St. George's college - the Anglican school in Jerusalem. It was 2002 - a hard year for the Palestinian and Israeli peace process, when negotiations had collapsed. People saw no hope and there were frequently shootings and bombings. That was when Dr. Harry Ralph invited Rebecca to be part of the program.
The Kids4Peace program starts at the age of 12 to bring people together and give them inspiration and hope. They get a chance to share how their community practices their faith and to see each other as humans instead of being a certain race or religion. A very important aspect is working with parents to take that a step further, so that parents and kids together get to talk about subjects related to faith, forgiveness and love. Kids4Peace does not have a political, religious, or partisan agenda. Andy also shared with them in personal conversation how the Charter for Compassion has a similar non-partisan base and has people in Jerusalem who are involved with it, and they were very interested in knowing more on this topic.
As Mohammad puts it, you would think that the more religiously observant you are, the more you would value tolerance and compassion, but it seems to be the opposite in many cases. To address intolerance, a curriculum was developed by an interfaith team attempting to model what it stands for. The kids become leaders and counsellors with the majority of the monthly meetings in Jerusalem. They use different facilities for events and seminars. One summer camp took kids to Hebron to a conservative area of the West Bank, where they had never met an Israeli before.
It is the Canadian (Kids4Peace.ca) and U.S. International program that supports the Jerusalem Program. The message from Rebecca and Mohammad to us is:
"It is our hope that you will spread the message about Kids4Peace. We ask you to continue to do that with your colleagues, family, friends and neighbours. By making this message heard by everyone, peace is possible. We believe that the youth have the power to change things and ensure that there is a future for our kids. Please access our website. I am personally asking you to do the same. Please spread the word around to our youth so that they can be involved in a new generation of peace and understanding."
I am bringing back a few bookmarks to Canada, so if anyone would like one, please let me know.
Click here to watch the Video that our group LOVED
Shalom, Salaam, Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment