Palestinian-Jewish Public Peace Process
an article by Libby and Len Traubman

While governments alone continue to be unwilling or inept to move beyond war and taking sides -- dependable failures -- the citizen-driven "public peace process" continues encouraging breakthroughs and exemplary creativity while tradition-burdened "old thinkers" continue to resist and "object."

2003 in North America saw the first-ever Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemakers Camp --Oseh Shalom~Sanea al-Salam.

Joint youth summer camps continued: Building Bridges for Peace; Face-to-Face/Faith-to-Faith; Seeds of Peace; Seattle's Middle East Peace Camp for Children; New Mexico's Creativity for Peace Camp; the Sunday, July 20th First Day of Global Arab Jewish Dialogue initiated by a Washington, DC Arab businessman; an all-time high exceeding 60 known Dialogue groups, plus 22 more on university campuses.

2003 in the Middle East saw activity continue despite violence and severely closed borders: Givat Haviva Center for Peace; Neve Shalom~Wahat al-Salam (Oasis of Peace) model village; Hand-in-Hand Arab-Jewish schools; Peace Child Israel; Israeli Palestinian Peoples Peace Campaign; Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership; the Palestinian-based Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation; the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East, in Beit Jallah, West Bank, and many more.

Creative political solutions flowered in the Beilin-Abed Rabbo Geneva Accord, the Nusseibeh-Ayalon Statement of Principles -- both congruent with the Roadmap -- as well as the unfolding endeavor of OneVoice to involve more and more citizens in determining their destinies.

There was the first cooperative Israeli-Palestinian biology experiment aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, and the premier TV broadcasts of Sesame Stories to model cooperative inter-cultural programming between Jordanian, Israeli, and Palestinian broadcasters.

Finally, remember the first, Arab-initiated pilgrimage of 260 Israeli Palestinians and Jews, equally, to Auschwitz, demonstrating it's possible to transform from the "spoilers to each other's dreams" to co-creators of a shared future.

Beginning January 1st, 2004, look for something new between Palestinian and Israeli citizens -- "Breaking the Ice." Four Israelis and four Palestinians -- two women and six men -- will set sail from Chile on a sea and land expedition to the distant reaches of Antarctica. Their goal: to summit and name a previously unclimbed mountain. The Arabs and Jews will journey together in a spirit of adventure with a quest for understanding.

DISCUSSION

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Jewish-Palestinian dialogue
how is dialogue different from conversation, discussion or debate

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MIDEAST PEACE

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Len and Libby Traubman have sent in the following important addition to their year-end review of the public peace process for Palestiinian-Jewish dialogue.

NEW INITIATIVE OF PROMINENT AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE

    In December, 2003, a delegation of 33 of America's most prominent Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders met in Washington, DC to announce their new, unprecedented, collaborative effort -- The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East.

    These citizen-leaders of their faiths, and their plans, are described at:
                       http://www.walktheroadtopeace.org

    They will continue working within their communities and together "to mobilize broad public support for active, determined and effective U.S. leadership in pursuit of peace between Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states."

    They insist on a viable, independent, democratic Palestinian state alongside the existing state of Israel with enduring peace and security for both sides, thus amplifying the voices of increasing numbers of courageous Arabs and Jews of goodwill.

    The Washington convergence was initiated by A Different Future (http://www.adifferentfuture.org), the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East
(http://www.usicpme.org), and the United Religions Initiative (http://www.uri.org) with initial financial support from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

This report was posted on December 29, 2003. The moderator is CPNN Coordinator.

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