MEPEACE.org Chat 28 Feb - After-event discussion - The Role of Educational Institutions in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Education

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on March 2, 2010 at 1:17pm

Many thanks Oliver and everyone for sharing your discussion with the community. Is there any chance a mepeace event could include visiting either the bilingual elementary school at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (or the School of Peace there) or visit Mar Elias College at Ibillin?

Permalink Reply by Oliver Haack on March 2, 2010 at 8:10pm

Thanks, Stewart, for your very interesting contributions. It's a pity you missed the actual discussion though :) Hope we see you next time.

Here, you showed us concrete examples of peace education. Visiting Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, or Mar Elias College, respectively, would, in my view, indeed be a great idea for a MEPEACE on-the-ground event.

In any case, it would be an honour if you kept us updated on these institutions in case you're actively involved in them.

Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on March 5, 2010 at 7:26pm

Thanks Oliver, I hope a mepeace group is able to organise a visit to Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam and/or to Ibillin. I am not actively involved in these communities although I know people within these communities. But it is easy for anyone wanting to visit to just contact the schools and try and organise a trip.

Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on March 2, 2010 at 1:43pm

An example of an important peace educator

Abuna Elias Chacour, Mar Elias College, Ibillin

Archbishop Elias Chacour Unity Within Diversity: Myth or Reality? from Calvin College on Vimeo.

UNITY WITHIN DIVERSITY: MYTH OR REALITY?
Presented by Rev Abuna Elias Chacour, Archbishop of the Melkite Catholic Church in Israel at Calvin College, Michigan, USA on 26 January 2010

Elias Chacour was born November 29, 1939 in the village of Biram in Upper Galilee in Arab Palestine to a Palestinian Christian family, members of the Melkite Catholic Church, an Eastern Byzantine Church in communion with Rome.
At the age of eight years, he experienced the tragedy of his people. He was evicted, along with his whole village, by the Israeli authorities and became a deportee and a refugee in his own country, the Palestine of his birth. Because he remained in the country of his forefathers, he was granted citizenship of Israel when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Abuna Elias Chacour came to Ibillin as a young priest in 1965. He quickly saw the lack of educational opportunities for Palestinian youth beyond the 8th grade. A vision of a school for all the children of Israel began to take shape in his mind. Today, this vision has become a reality in the village of Ibillin, Galilee.
In the early 1980’s, on an empty hillside now known as the Mount of Light, a classroom building was begun. The newly formed high school moved from temporary quarters in the community center to the new building as soon as it was ready. The original High School has expended considerably, and the history and background speaks of the expansion on the Mount of Light.

Today, the Mar Elias Education Institutions is open to all Israelis regardless of religious background and serves as a site for developing mutual understanding between youths of different religions and ethnic backgrounds. Many gifted students have graduated from the institutions imbued with a love of peace and justice.

Abuna Chacour’s educational undertaking to realize peace in society has drawn the attention of other religionists. He is a person who is able to shine a guiding light on the difficult problem of Israel’s relations with the Palestinians. The successful route to peaceful reconciliation has yet to be found. That is why Abuna Chacour has said: “International agreements, the signing of peace treaties between governments and heads of states, have proved to be shaky, superficial, and easily damaged. At heart, they lack roots. They are only signatures on pieces of paper. Through the Mar Elias Educational Institutions we want to reach agreement in the hearts of the younger generation, the leaders of tomorrow. These roots planted in the hearts of young Jews, Palestinian Christians, and Muslims cannot be easily destroyed.”

Abuna Chacour has become an ambassador for non-violence and someone, who not only preaches, but lives the Sermon on the Mount. He travels very often between the Middle East and other countries around the world. In addition, hundreds of groups of visitors, fact-finding missions, and pilgrims have visited and continue to visit with him in Ibillin. He has received many International peace awards and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions. On March 10th, 1994 , Father Elias Chacour received the prestigious World Methodist Peace Award that has been presented in the past to such pilgrims for peace as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the late Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat.On Feb 19th, 2001, Abuna was announced to be the recipient of the Niwano Peace Prize.

http://australiansforpalestine.com/audio-inspiring-talk-by-palestin...

Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on March 2, 2010 at 2:08pm

Here is a book on Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (An Oasis of Peace)

Grace Feuerverger, Oasis of dreams: teaching and learning peace in a Jewish-Palestinian village, 2001.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=1Y1Zc9JoRTcC&lpg=PR12&o...

"Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam (the Hebrew and Arabic words for Oasis of Peace) is a community founded by Jews and Palestinians that is aimed at demonstrating the possibilities for living in peace while maintaining their respective cultural heritages and languages. The village schools represent a unique educational experience: an opportunity for Jewish and Palestinian children to learn together in a Hebrew-Arabic bilingual, bicultural, binational setting. This book, a result of the author's nine year study of the schools in the village, explores the psychological and social dimensions of this important educational endeavor."

Permalink Reply by Waleed Hammad on March 2, 2010 at 5:06pm

Educational institutions can be a real mirror that reflects the community feelings and reactions. Let's have universities as an example, University students can be fighters in the time of conflict depending on national or religious reasons. I remember when I was a student, my colleagues were protesting every week against the Israeli occupation went out to streets and threw stones.
Peace makers community can start a campaign to visit schools and talk about peace to change people views and create hope. We can form groups or small teams that work according to the region or place of living. Majority of the palestinian and Israeli communities need to know about peace and the opportunity of better living conditions and freedom in everything.

Permalink Reply by Oliver Haack on March 2, 2010 at 8:02pm

I hope that MEPEACE can/will one day become part of such a "campaign". If you're a student, a teacher or a parent, help spread the word! In the workshop (see our summary which is a part of this discussion), Eyal said that we should be involved in educational institutions close to us - I think that's a real chance to build a 'grassroots' peace. The more youngsters know about the feasibility of peace the less will be prone to violence and prolonged conflict.

Permalink Reply by MEPEACE on March 2, 2010 at 6:48pm

Awesome.

Permalink Reply by aura Hammer on March 5, 2010 at 2:03pm

i've been involved in teaching dialog - listening and speaking from the heart - to the teaching staff of the Yad be Yad school in Misgav - part the Bilingual school chain. firstly i really honor all those teachers and the two principals, they are up against so much difficulty in this country, and they do amazing work! i also want to say that even in a school where kids grow up together, study and celebrate each others holidays, use both languages, still the influences of their communities, the newspapers etc do have an impact in the classroom, and the teacher find themselves always having to work on peace in the classroom and within themselves - even within this island of peace. the biggest part of their work, the best part, is that they work in co- and Arab and a Jewish teacher in each classroom, constant examples, role models.
also want to say that i noticed in the discussion people asked about text books - probably they would know a lot about that, look them up and ask them!
i also want to say that teaching peace first begins with teaching how to be peaceful in the classroom, neighborhood, home - teaching the ethics of peace and the tools and ways of peace, giving kids the possibility of doing and being peace according to their age, and then they can grow up and let others see the way. that's why i do what i do, teaching kids and teachers nonviolence and connection through listening and speaking heartfully.

Permalink Reply by Stewart Mills on March 5, 2010 at 7:21pm

Thanks Aura for this.

I have added some links to Yad be Yad ("Hand in Hand") schools. You might have some other links to add.

Jerusalem school

http://www.handinhandk12.org/index.cfm?content.display&pageID=72

Galilee School

http://www.handinhandk12.org/index.cfm?content.display&pageID=71

Founded in the same year as Hand in Hand's Jerusalem school, but in a distinctively different setting - a rural region in northern Israel - the Galilee school has seven years' experience in bilingual multicultural education in Israel. In 2004, the Galilee School pioneered the first Hand in Hand junior high, an experimental modular program that that includes integrated studies with both the regional Jewish and Arab high schools.

Wadi Ara School

http://www.handinhandk12.org/index.cfm?content.display&pageID=73

On a small hill at the edge of the Muslim town of Kfar Kara, a modest one-story building hums with activity; the stammering of first-graders reading Hebrew and Arabic, children at play, and young voices learning a Palestinian folk song in music class spill into the air.

Beersheva

http://www.handinhandk12.org/index.cfm?content.display&pageID=222

On September 2, 2007 hundreds of thousands of children flocked to their local schools to begin the new school year. For the children and their parents walking into the two preschool classes of the Hand in Hand School in Beersheva, the excitement could be felt in the air. A dream had become reality. History was being made with the opening of the first bilingual, multi-cultural school in the southern part of Israel. As in the other three Hand in Hand schools, half of the 49 children were Arab and half were Jewish; in each class there was a Jewish and an Arab co-teacher.

Permalink Reply by Oliver Haack on March 5, 2010 at 9:14pm

Excellent contributions, Aura and Stewart! Thanks a lot of this. Hope others will join in as well and share their experiences..