SOME SMALL PEACE ACTIONS...

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Permalink Reply by clu on November 20, 2008 at 1:04am

Peace it together is a 2 week camp for Palestinian, Israeli and Canadian youth between 15 and 17 years old. This is a slide show of this year's camp

Peace it Together
is a summer program in Vancouver BC. Peace It Together empowers youth from areas in conflict to exploit their creative potential to transform conflict, and then uses the creative outputs to educate and inspire others. As a result we foster a new breed of creative leaders and a culture of peace among people impacted by social and political conflicts.' />

Permalink Reply by Ken on November 20, 2008 at 11:32am

I watch the news from your country and can't believe the violence and fighting over what?? Land! I am from British Columbia Canada and have never been subjected to any wars or fighting and my heart goes out to your people that have to live through all this pain and suffering, rather than history repeating itself over and over again for hundreds of years you would think mankind would evolve and learn that LOVE & PEACE is the way to go! Personally I would sooner have the love of a woman, love from raising a family and the contentment of a peaceful surrounding any day rather than fight over a piece of dirt, the greed for money or oil.

Rather than live somewhere that is full of violence I would be heading for some other peaceful place on this planet.

I think the people of the countries that are at war all the time should take the leaders of the countries that want to fight and put them in a ring and let them beat each others brains out instead, I am sure they would come to some peace agreement before the end of the day, I am sure when they started to starve and die from thirst their brains might engage for peace before they died out there themselves, rather than have them sit in some plush office arguing for decades and accomplishing nothing while the people fight and die for nothing .

It is all so senseless!! It makes me sick to the stomach to think the intelligence of mankind is so shallow!

Permalink Reply by Irit Hakim-Keller on November 24, 2008 at 12:20am

I wish it was that easy. I wish we could make things better by just raising up a finger, or by moving our little nose like Semanta the Ginni. This is a sad story, too old and rooted to be solved by magic. One has to live here , to live this life, in purpose to understand something that going here. From the outside, from afar, the reaction might be- wondering/rejecting/anger/ loathing, and also - pity/compassion/fear/ -just name it!!!!
Only when living here - one can understand that there is no instant solution. WE - on both sides - must be changed.: change our point of view , be more tolerant one toward another, be less possessing, and most important - to sanctify life not mud/earth. I do not make light the need of a land for oneself, of the basic right of a state for the people, but I believe that there is wide room for bargaining - for a real peace I would give up a piece of land, even a large one.
I believe that basically, the two people - Israelis and Palestinians want to live in peace , to have happy life, to be able to to have some serenity at last, to stop for ever this fight, to make Shalom-Salaam between the children of Abraham and the children of Ytzhak -Israel.

Permalink Reply by Ken on November 24, 2008 at 11:33am

Wouldn't it be great to just take down the borders altogether and make it one big happy country, the young will make the changes but also many of the young have been taught to fight and hate and to continue the battle whether they lose their life or not....it is all so sad!
Everyone holds out for the hope of peace and settlement but when you look back at history repeating itself over and over one has to wonder what the answer will be in the end....like most nations it seems the ones with the biggest guns or bombs consider themselves the winner but there is never a winner, just more heart break, more blood shed and more young lives lost. One sees so many times where there is a innocent protest in peace and then out comes the guns and clubs from the police and army, they kill a few innocent protesters and beat a few other so it never happens again for a long time. Yes our protectors in life end up beating us to death for trying to make it a better place to live.....all politics and big government and the people are the pawns in the chess game they play in the quest for power. How sad is it in just about every country when your own police and government armies beat and shoot their own people to control them. And all they want is a better place to live in Peace and harmony. Makes you wonder who is the real enemy in life?

Permalink Reply by Irit Hakim-Keller on November 24, 2008 at 11:58pm

I agree with you completely, dear Ken. It is much sadder then you can imagine. Every day here is a day of sorrow. It hurts so much. Some times I feel all my beliefs are falling apart. I was educated for tolerance and love, and honor for the other. I was raised in a small place where Arabs (Israeli though) were part of my life, but also I knew that the Arabs abroad - those whose airplanes are flying sometimes over my head throwing illumination bombs, are the enemy. As a child I couldn't understand how it could be that Arabs are the enemy of mine and more - of our Arab neighbors. But then I grew up. And then - next to the common dreams any one may have, there was the dream for peace. It hurts so badly to watch the way opportunities had been missed, the way both people treating each other. You are very right to say it is all politics. I do believe that as much as I want peace - the Arabs people wants it too. It is all politics. That is why this place - the iPeace- is so important. (bless the internet) here people from both sides can talk freely one with the another. There is much to be done also in real life, of course, but this is a very important beginning. I believe it will take us forward ....toward Peace.

Permalink Reply by Irit Hakim-Keller on November 23, 2008 at 7:57pm

thanks for the video, Clu. well.....for the first part of it, actually. it is important to tell about connection between Israelis and Palestinians. any positive meeting is important to build a harmony and understanding which are so important to achieve longed -for peace.

Permalink Reply by clu on November 27, 2008 at 7:52pm

ISRAELIAN AND PALESTINIAN FIND PEACE ON THE PLAYGOUND

NOV 18 2008

Permalink Reply by Ken on December 2, 2008 at 12:11am

All over the world people fight and fight over senseless things, like the Protestant and Catholic fighting for so many years.
Two men were neighbors and best friends for many years, they went on camping and fishing trips together and enjoyed each others company. One was Protestant and the other was Catholic, a uprising arose again from the ashes and the fight was on, caught up in the battle of religion one man killed his best friend in the battle, he got caught up once again in a group over their belief in rights. The man sits to this day in sorrow and can not believe because of the angry group he killed his best friend in life, yes he was blinded and was protecting his beliefs in life and he was fighting, fighting and fighting.

As one most men are human but has a group they turn into savages, then there is also a group of men that stand back in disbelief and wonder how does the human mind work to make these men turn into animals where they kill and destroy and the result ends up the same each time, dozens, hundreds or thousands injured or killed. The end result is what each time??? The streets and countryside covered in blood??? We will regroup and repeat the same senseless act again and again??

Then all the terrorist groups around the world that hid among the innocent people with their bombs and guns, what did these innocent people ever do to them in life??? Absolutely Nothing!! Where does all the funding come from to support this action?? The costs are high to support these groups so there must be some way to follow the paper trail of the major money making companies on this planet, if you have a major company that produces piles of cash I am sure you won't mind having it investigated if you are a honest upstanding person in life.

Yes I hold out and believe that Peace can be cherished upon this planet and at the same time you should have the right to believe in anything you choose to as that is your right, but don't force your beliefs upon another, shake hands and become friends, who knows in the future I may join your side of life as a friend who will like your belief system in life.

When born we are all children with no beliefs in life, we all have open windows to see the souls of people, but as a adult of this child we close these windows and change them to live and believe the same as we do.

I am a people watcher in life and I am fascinated by watching children so many times, have you ever watched your son or daughter playing outside by themselves when they are really small, just after the time they learn to talk mostly. Many times when they play they start to talk away, looking upward at someone who we don't see, we ask them when they come in, who were you talking to outside, they may say to the man, lady or another child and right away we tell them there was no one else there, they may argue that yes there was but we gradually convince them that it is only their imagination and life from this day forward we now mold our children into the person we are today.........they are born with windows open to see the good souls of this earth and rather than develop the child to keep the window open we close them tightly shut. Life starts with our small children and they have the open windows to life......men and women should learn to keep these windows open in our children and change in this world will happen very quickly, you will learn from your children!! Once mankind learns how to develop your child's gift he or she was given at birth we will only then end up with a better world...........Children grow quickly and the world will change quickly for the better!!

It is no different than me being a bad driver and I now teach you to drive....more than likely you will end up being a bad driver also, but you know it all so you now teach your eldest daughter or son to drive rather than give it some common sense and send them off to drivers school.......does anyone follow me on this train of thought??

Permalink Reply by Ben-Zion Weiss on December 6, 2008 at 11:09pm

What an inspiring film! As the man in the audience says, there'd be a lot more peace in the world if the women were more involved.

But not as pseudo men, like the Maggie Thatchers of this world - just as willing to make war to save her political power - but as women setting their own agenda!

The film demonstrates how our common humanity and our willingness to listen to each other can lead to peace.

It is the same process that I use in my work in anti-racism workshops in Australia, where certain groups in the community have been discriminated against since the British came (invaded? colonised? settled? - what's in a word?) here over 200 years ago.

I've heard the same thing said in the Aboriginal community, that it's the women that have really supported the survival of Aboriginal people in the face of what some people have called their genocide.

When will we men learn? If we want peace we need to listen to the voice of women and children!

In peace, shalom, salaam, Arjuna/Ben-Zion

Permalink Reply by clu on December 11, 2008 at 9:50am

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I didn't know if posting this here or not,is this a small peace action or a big action?

I feel i really would like to travel to these schools and watch this with my eyes!!!Scott Cooper ,a beautiful friend send me

this to watch...and i have an idea!... i will propose to do this in my next " ipeace-local- meeting"This places maight be very

inspiring !!!!


THANK U SCOOT!!!

(i'll tell u this everywhere!!!! )

;]