We in Project Peace Pillars have always been very proud of the truly special Jewish-Arab partnership and collaboration that were created in our activities. Intifada, terrorist attacks, military retaliations and even a full-scale war have always tested the extent of trust and friendship between Jewish and Arab participants in our activities, yet they never succeeded to break them. The recent events in Gaza, however have a different quality.
Jewish-Arab relations all over Israel are at an all-time low, and this time it also directly affects our work. Since December 27th 2008 some of our activities in the field had to be suspended. This is either due to direct effects of the violence in the south (some of our Jewish leaders, for example have been called to arms), or the very tense relations and hard feelings between Jewish and Arab participants on the home front.
We have, by no means, stopped working entirely: There are meetings and discussion forums still being held for the facilitators and adult leaders. Also, there are already actions being considered on how to pick up the threads after the (hopefully timely) end of the war: Reconciliatory measures between Jews and Arabs will need to be facilitated after this tragedy.
However, bi-national meetings for the younger participants will have to wait until violence has ceased and the leadership-teams have come up with ways to deal with these recent events in our uni - and bi-national encounters.
We will keep in close contact with the local offices of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation about our further steps. |
