Peacecamptalks

1.would it make sense to have a second reunion of the Rechberg-group? if yes, where and to what aim?
2.would it make sense to continue the peacecamp-project with new groups?
3.How could the peacecamp-project be improved?

1. its it make sense we all need to reunion in israel!!! because we all need to see each other again...
2. to stay we this group.... NO NEW GROUP.
3. to make better food.

Q-1
For me it will make sense to have a second reunion of the Rechberg-group in
Israel or again in Austria or in Slovenia.
I think that we will have fun and we will make a lot of relationships there.
I think that we will learn a lot of things about the country that we will be
on it also if we will make peace camp in Israel they the participants will
see a lot of things that they cant see them outside Israel or in any country
in the world, because in Israel you will see a lot of nations in one
country, and the most exiting place in Israel is the capital city Jerusalem
because in Jerusalem you will see the three religions, you will see a lot of
holy places for the three religions, and a lot of things.
In my opinion if we will have another peace camps the relationships will be
better and better and we will learn a lot of things about the countries, how
to make peace, how to make relationships, and about the cultures.

Q-2
I was a participant in peace camp 2 in Israel and in peace camp 3 in Austria
and I had a lot of fun there, and I think that having new groups is better
than continuing with the same group because having different groups in every
peace camp will make the relationships between Arabs and Jewish children
better and better and we can make peace if we understand the meaning of
peace.

Q-3
In my opinion there are a lot of ideas to make the peace camp projects be
improved, for example every group have to show of it's ideas and every group
have to show of it's problems and all the groups have to share in making
solutions.
I think that the participants of peace camp 1, 2, 3 have to continue the
steps that they began in them they have to continue making peace camps alone
by them selves they have to say for every one they know what peace means and
how they can make peace.
Every participant has to continue, also Arabs and Jewish have to continue
the way together because they are living in the same country.
I don't think that peace camp is just for having fun and meeting new people,
I think that peace camp is the way of having new ideas and a way of opening
ways for the youngest to continue in making peace.
Every one of us have to work and to act not just to talk we have to do
something.
Reem Matani- Arabian participant- Israel

1. yes it would make sense to do a reunion, because now we already know each other so when we will meet the participant we can make a better relationship with everybody and we could be more together and to learn more about the other race because now we are not going to be shy anymore. I want it to be continued because I have a good friends there that I want to get to know them better and to see how it is to live in there country or if there is any difference bettwen us just because of the race. We also can develop our relationship because I had a great and strong relationship with a lot of people from the camp and I don’t think that a few kilometers should ruin this kind of relationship!!!

2. this is even more important, because the kids that will come to the project they will have the best expirience for there all life!!! They will learn that there is a diffrence between all the participate but atill they can have a relationship with them. I learnd that even that we have a war with the arab people, I can have a real relationship with them. They will see that there is a world out there, and in the world there is a lot of diffrence people and nice people that you can be with. I think that this project shuold go on because I learnd a lot of it and it was the best time of my life and I will take a lot from it.


3. just but just the food!!!! And that is really the only thing because the all camp was perfect!!!

I think that it would make sense to have a second reunion of the Rechberg-groups. It would be nice to see how all the peoples lives have changed because of the camp. It would be nice to talk to everybody and listen to them, how they were making the world a better place with no war. What had they done…? It would be nice if the next reunion would be in Israel, so that the Europeans would see how they live and to come to their country. I do not understand the part of the question “to what aim?”
Of course it would be also nice when a new peace camp would be started; just that all the other young people would have the opportunity to participate in such a project and the peace theme would spread out to more young people. Let them be part of it.
To answer the last question I should be a psychologist, but I think that the way it was arranged this year is a very nice way of working. I think this question I should let a group of psychologists to find an answer. I think all the things that happened were a part of live. Maybe the food should be even worse. We have to have some problems and then learn to find solutions on a peaceful way. Problems were the best thing in the Rechberg. But we had not succeeded to solve them on a peaceful way.


Have nice holidays… Und schöne Grüsse aus Slowenien…

Aleš…

1) Yes I think it would make a lot of sense to meet all the other guys
again, but this time in their country. I think it's very important to see
and live their situation... a second reason for a second meeting is to
continue our friendships...

2) Sure! There should be a lot more peacecamps! We expierienced that a
better world is possible in a lot of small steps... and more peacecamps mean
loads of little steps =)

---chris---

Nabeel to Evelyn:
hi evelyn....
i want to ask you to do a little thing for me.....
there was on the camp a GOOD MAN..i don't remember his name.....but he visited miss foger many times.....he's a lil' bit fat..and has a white little tall hair.....he keeps the church and take care of it.........remember him?
if you do.....give him DASH.......BIG DASH.....because he was good to me there.........and he gave me a newspaper and a CD....songs CD.......

ok BIG HUG.....
NABEEL


Evelyn to Nabeel
hi nabeel,
i just called mrs fugger and told her about your mail. she will pass your thoughts on to mr. zunder, who is the priest of the rechberg church. she says that they have framed your paining and it now decorates the big entrance hall in the castle. everybody admires it. she sends you her warmest regards. she says she and mr. zunder haven often thought and talked about you.
love
evelyn


Nabeel to Evelyn
hi evelyn....
thank you very much..you really made a great thing for me.......you can put my e-mail as a letter....it's ok..........
thank you mrs fogger because you still remember me aslo mr.zunder...you're really a great people...
thank you for you'r kindness...

nabeel

Evelyn to Nabeel
nabeel,
i just printed it all out and sent it to him as a fax.
BIG HUG to you, you are also a great person!
evelyn

5 feedbacks still missing:(August 26th)

1.: ORI
2.MONIKA
3.IVANKA

4.ELFI
5.CHARLOTTE


All winners so far:
number 1: Lia
number 5: Keren
number 10: Conny
number 15: Otman
number 20: Gabrielle
number 25: Shaul
number 30: Sonia
number 35:Michaela
number 40: Hannelore
number 42: Ivanka

- wäre eine 2. begegnung der rechberg-gruppe sinnvoll? wo und mit welcher
zielsetzung sollte diese stattfinden?
- ist eine weiterführung des peacecamp-projekts mit neuen gruppen
sinnvoll?
- was könnte am peacecamp-projekt verbessert werden?

-Meiner Meinung nach ist eine zweite begegnung der rechberg-gruppe sehr
sinnvoll, damit die freundschaften zwischen den verschiedenen gruppen
gefestigt werden und damit man die chance hat andere teilnehmer besser
kennenzulernen, mit denen man bei der ersten begegnung vielleicht nicht so
viel kontakt hatte.
-Ich denke, dass auch neue gruppen die tolle erfahrung machen sollten neue
kulturen kennenzulernen, fremde sprachen etwas zuerlernen und natürlich
freundschaften zuknüpfen. Darum finde ich eine weiterführung des projekts
sehr, sehr sinnvoll.
-Am projekt selbst würde ich eigentlich nicht mehr viel verbessern, weil
es einfach schon sehr gut und spannend ist und auch wirklich gut gelungen
ist.
der einzige kritikpunkt in unserem camp waren die ewig langweiligen
sessions mit ehud und auch mrs fuggers food!

Q. would it make sense to have a second reunion of the Rechberg-group? if yes, to what aim?
A. It will be very great to make another peacecamp in Israel with the same group.-Why?-Because I want to meet all my new friends again and I think that only one time of meeting each other is a bit to short to become friends for life. I want to keep in contact with them, but only e-mail isn’t that easy.. Another reason is that I want to see Israel, and in this way I can go there, otherwise I will probably never make a journey to this country. Another reason is that after the first peacecamp ( I can just talk about me so..) I started to watch the news more carefully and to read in the newspaper what happens there, because I know some people there and so it is more interesting to hear about Israel, because I have a kind of idea what the people( the young) there think. Before the first peacecamp I didn’t read in the newspaper about Israel, because I was not interested in it, you know it is far away, we are not in touch with it.After this camp, my opinion changed and I started to show interest in things that happen there. Because now I know people in the same age there and something about their situation so I think at the next meeting I will probably know more and we can talk more about it and go deeper.

Q. would it make sense to continue the peacecamp-project?
A. No question! Especially for the ones (Austrian, Slovenians) who didn’t have such a difficult problem in there country. They do not know, how lucky they could be about living without that serious problems. The youths should be confronted with such problems, otherwise they would forget that there are difficulties between races and nations. They wouldn’t see it as reality, cause they probably wouldn’t know and woudn’t care about it. For sure they should also have the possibility to get to know wonderful people, to have fun, to make new friends and to spend a great time with all of them. I think they should also see that making friends with people you haven’t known before is easy, that religions and different cultures are no reasons not to become friends and that the most important things are not the differences between us but the commonalities. So the idea is a very good one and it should be carried out again and again.

Q. How could the peacecamp-project be improved?
A.I think the camp should take place for a longer period, not just 9 days. And well sometimes we didn’t want to discuss again and again so we were bored by the discussions. I think it was good when we talked in small groups about solving our problems and not especially about the arab-israeli conflict, because we can only solve the small problems between friends and he family but we cannot really solve such a big one.So lets first of all try to find solutions for these small conflicts.(---conflict!!!! *LoL*...do you all know what I am thinking about right now?!)
for me it would have been great to learn about which holidays they have or something important in there cultures, cause I think that is a part of everybody and for me this is interessting... Or about special dinners or something like that, cause I think this would be really funny.
One last thing,I think that about 40 persons are enough cause otherwise you won’t really know everybody and it would be a bit too confusing and superficially.

Israeli and Palestinian children participate in peace camp


Amelia Thomas
Middle East Times
August 2, 2005


CHANGING CHILDREN’S LIVES

Israeli and Palestinian youth learn to live together through the joint “Children Create Peace” summer camp.




Ramat Gan, ISRAEL -- At 9.30 am on a blazing summer morning, a convoy of buses pulls up at Ramat Gan Safari Park near Tel Aviv, the largest such park in the Middle East. Out of the buses pour 115 excited children between the ages of 8 and 12, all Palestinians from villages, towns and refugee camps across the West Bank.

Most of the children have never left their hometown before, let alone crossed into 'enemy' Israeli territory. Many, too, have never seen animals as various as the park's hippos, pride of lions and family of giraffes. Only one zoo remains in the entire occupied territories, in Qalqilya, and access to it is severely restricted for Palestinians from elsewhere, so most of the children have only ever encountered farm animals and domestic pets. For them, it is a big, somewhat daunting adventure; for the organizers, it is a triumph of determination over bureaucracy and prejudice.

For four days this mixture of Muslim and Christian children from Ramallah, Jenin, Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, Tulkarem and Jericho, are participating in the "Children Create Peace" summer camp, alongside 115 Jewish Israeli children. The Israeli kids, of the same age, come mostly from violent backgrounds and situations of severe poverty.

A collaboration between the US-based Kabbalah Center and the Palestinian Abu Assukar Center for Peace and Dialogue, the camp was conceived as part of the Kabbalah Center's wider "Spirituality for Kids" program, begun in the ghettos of Los Angeles to help underprivileged children rise above their physical and practical circumstances.

The program, says joint-organizer Osnat Youdkevitch, is based on simple principles that can help profoundly change children's lives.

"Our message," she explains, "is that of dignity for all human beings. It's harder for adults to fully understand, since so much has already been built up around us, but kids have the chance to grow up thinking in a healthier way. If you play, eat and sweat for four days with a group of other kids who are supposed to be the 'enemy', it will stay in your heart forever."

Indeed, after just one hour playing together beneath the trees in a shady clearing in a quiet corner of the safari park, it is already impossible to pick out which of the children is Israeli and which is Palestinian.

Palestinian and Israeli group leaders head activities, including songs, dancing, games and crafts, in which participants work side-by-side, laughing and joking in a mixture of Arabic, Hebrew, English and elaborate sign-language. No one from the outside could guess that the kids cooperating with each other so effectively saw themselves, until this morning, as enemies.

"But what's maybe even more amazing than this," says co-organizer Suleiman Khateeb, secretary of the Abu Assukar Center, "is that it was able to happen at all. It's been a difficult process to coordinate such a big group of Palestinians coming to Israel from all over the place, when it takes such a long time even for a single Palestinian to get permission. We only finally got the permits at 11 pm last night."

While all the children will be traveling each day from their homes to the safari park, those from Jenin - a particularly difficult area to access - will sleep overnight in a hotel in Ramallah.

"They were so excited last night," confides Osnat, "that they couldn't sleep at all. So Suleiman stayed up with them the whole night, to make sure they were ok." Suleiman stifles a yawn: it has been an exhausting process for both organizers but the results are plainly visible in the groups of happy, interacting children.

This is not the Kabbalah Center's first venture involving children in Israel: last year they ran a camp for Jewish Israeli and Muslim Israeli children, the success of which spurred them on to attempt to put together this camp. The organization also aims to create centers for children throughout the occupied territories, the first of which opens officially in Ramallah this week.

"As one of our founders, Karen Berg, said, when a person is cut and bleeding, you check the blood type, not the skin type," says Osnat.

The Spirituality for Kids program, she says, can help change the lives of these many emotionally exhausted children, offering hope and a better future for them, both personally and nationally.

"The biggest thing for the children here," she continues, "is that they have peace, quiet and space to get to know each other. This park is a place without suffering, without killing. It's the best place in the world for them to get to know each other."

The director of the safari park, too, believes that there could not be a better venue for such a camp.

"The idea initially came from the Kabbalah Center," he says, "but I agreed right away. Personally, I believe that normalization of life can only come from the people, because life is stronger than any political decision. If people believe they can live together, it will happen, regardless of the political situation."

The animals of the safari park, he continues, have a lot to teach people of this region.

"Put a puppy and a kitten, or a baby wolf and a baby sheep, together," he says, "And they'll grow up as friends, not knowing they're supposed to be enemies. Besides, animals only fight over food, but after a few minutes of fighting, things are resolved and life goes on. They know the rules and they stick to them, which is why so many species can live side by side. If humans in this region took a little more notice of that, they'd know how easy it could be to do something about this situation."

Outside, the children begin to make their way to the zoo area of the safari park, for a close feeding encounter with the resident giraffes. The atmosphere is one of happiness, hope and joy. While the aims are more far-reaching, the kids today are just doing what kids do best: simply enjoying life, the moment and each other's company.

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